Harry Thuku

Harry Thuku (* 1895, † 1970) was a Kenyan politician who actively co-determined political opposition to British colonial rule in the 1920s. After his arrest in 1922 he became a symbol and hero of the early anti-colonial resistance movements. Later, he moved away from colonial critical viewpoints, as a successful farmer, he said he was very against the Mau Mau movement.

Childhood and youth

Harry Thuku was born the son of a wealthy Kikuyu family. He was among the first students at a mission school in Kenya. He attended the mission school in Kambui and was supervised by a missionary in the hope that he would later occur even in the church service. At age 16, he left the Mission and worked in Nairobi for the Standard Bank of South Africa. In the same year he was convicted of embezzlement and imprisoned for two years.

After his release Thuku was started in 1914 in the newspaper, The Leader of British East Africa to work. This activity not only broadened his political horizons considerably, but he also improved his English skills greatly.

First political activities

1918 Thuku began working as a telephone operator in financial management. During this time he met a number of Indian politicians who fought during this time for the rights of Indians in the Protectorate. He also learned in Nairobi a number of educated Africans know who shared his concerns about the exclusion of Africans from colonial society. Together with them founded Thuku 1921, the Young Kikuyu Association, which was shortly afterwards renamed East African Association.

The organization turned against the high taxation of Africans and entered against the Kipande system. 1921 Thuku sent over the phone at his workplace a complaint about the treatment of Africans in the colony to the British Prime Minister. In March 1922 Thuku was arrested and sentenced to exile.

Thuku as a figurehead of the anti-colonial movement

During the period of his exile, which he spent in northern Kenya, Thuku became a hero to the following founding political organizations. The Kikuyu Central Association, which pursued similar goals as Thuku in the East African Association, stylized Thuku a martyr figure, in whose name the struggle for a decent life of Africans in the colony was continued. A kikuyusprachige magazine recalled in each issue of the fight, their tradition must be continued.