Harambee

Harambee- The coming together of people to accomplish a common goal. It is the official motto of Kenya because it comes from a Kenyan/African tradition of community self help. A great example of this would be the library that we worked on everyday in Taita with the men and women of the community who’s children will benefit from it’s existence. This is an old African ideology that togetherness on a common goal is not just efficient but good for community moral. In Taita the community puts fundraisers together or just collect a little money from each family to buy the cement and other materials necessary to build. Harambee literally means, “All pull together” in Kiswahili, which happens in many ways. The Taita community pulled together many resources as well as provided the labor as a form of mortar to bring all the parts together into a whole. First prime minister and president of Kenya, Jomo Kenyatta, implemented the word after Kenya’s independence as a metaphor for how he saw the nation being build. It was perhaps done to try to move away from tribalism and encourage unity and solidarity.

       Some Kenyan Christians that are aware that the origins of the word may come from the Hindu deity, Ambee, seem to have a problem with the use of the word though they participate in methodology of harambee.

     Others believe that it is from the Swahili/Bantu word Hala Ambele “This word was originally used by porters at the coastal parts of Kenya like Mombasa, Lamu, Malindi and later throughout the county (Ombudo, 1986).” The reason that it was transformed to harambee is because some tribes like the Kikuyu mix up the sound of  the letters “L” and “R” and since Kenyatta was the one to use it as the motto and because he was Kikuyu he pronounced it harambee. This was during a time in which no one would have dared correct him so the name stuck. This ideology was excepted when introduced to the masses because it resonated with the societies and their educational systems which thought communalism. Different names were given to this term in different communities: “Kikuyu-Ngwatio; Luo - Konyir; Luhya - Obwasio; Kamba - Mwethia; Maasai - Ematonyok etc.”