Misconceptions about Anthropology as a Discipline and Ethics of Student Care in Kenya

Short Takes

Abstract

Anthropology as a discipline in public universities in Kenya has a unique relationship with the first two presidents of Kenya. Jomo Kenyatta, the first president, was an anthropologist who had his training under none other than Bronislaw Malinowski at the prestigious London School of Economics. Kenyatta went ahead and wrote an ethnography of his people, the Kikuyu -Facing Mount Kenya 1938 — with an introduction by Malinowski. Ironically Kenyatta did not make attempts to introduce anthropology as a discipline of study at the university level in Kenya. It was Daniel Arap Moi, the second president of Kenya, with no background in anthropology who in 1986 asked the local university to develop a course that would take into consideration different cultures in Kenya. Moi was interested in university graduates taking up employment in public and private sectors being able to understand and appreciate national cultures. The Institute of African Studies of the University of Nairobi, which was hitherto a cultural research institute, naturally became the home of anthropology.