Harambee is a Kenyan tradition of community self-help events, e.g.

fundraising Fundraising or fund-raising is the process of seeking and gathering voluntary financial contributions by engaging individuals, businesses, charitable foundations, or governmental agencies. Although fundraising typically refers to efforts to gathe ...

or development activities. The word means "all pull together" in Swahili, and is the official

motto A motto (derived from the Latin , 'mutter', by way of Italian , 'word' or 'sentence') is a sentence or phrase expressing a belief or purpose, or the general motivation or intention of an individual, family, social group, or organisation. Mot ...

of Kenya, appearing on its

coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldry, heraldic communication design, visual design on an escutcheon (heraldry), escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central ele ...

. Harambee events may range from informal affairs lasting a few hours, in which invitations are spread by word of mouth, to formal, multi-day events advertised in newspapers. These events have long been important in parts of

East Africa East Africa, Eastern Africa, or East of Africa, is the eastern subregion of the African continent. In the United Nations Statistics Division scheme of geographic regions, 10-11-(16*) territories make up Eastern Africa: Due to the historical ...

, as ways to build and maintain communities.

History

Following

Kenya ) , national_anthem = "Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi , ...

's independence in 1963, the first Prime Minister, and later first

President of Kenya The president of the Republic of Kenya () is the head of state and head of government of the Republic of Kenya. The President is also the head of the executive branch of the Government of Kenya and is the commander-in-chief of the Kenya Defe ...

Jomo Kenyatta Jomo Kenyatta (22 August 1978) was a Kenyan anti-colonial activist and politician who governed Kenya as its Prime Minister from 1963 to 1964 and then as its first President from 1964 to his death in 1978. He was the country's first indigenous ...

adopted "Harambee" as a concept of pulling the country together to build a new nation. He encouraged communities to work together to raise funds for all sorts of local projects, pledging that the government would provide their startup costs. Under this system, wealthy individuals wishing to get into politics could donate large amounts of money to local harambee drives, thereby gaining legitimacy; however, such practices were never institutionalised during Kenyatta's presidency.

Etymology

The etymology of the term is unclear, but has been cited as genuinely

Bantu Bantu may refer to: *Bantu languages, constitute the largest sub-branch of the Niger–Congo languages *Bantu peoples, over 400 peoples of Africa speaking a Bantu language * Bantu knots, a type of African hairstyle *Black Association for National ...

. It is thought to have been first used by Swahili porters when lifting heavy loads and was originally spelt ''Halambee''. However, according to a

folk etymology Folk etymology (also known as popular etymology, analogical reformation, reanalysis, morphological reanalysis or etymological reinterpretation) is a change in a word or phrase resulting from the replacement of an unfamiliar form by a more famili ...

, the word is said to have originated from Indian labourers responsible for building the

Uganda Railway The Uganda Railway was a metre-gauge railway system and former British state-owned railway company. The line linked the interiors of Uganda and Kenya with the Indian Ocean port of Mombasa in Kenya. After a series of mergers and splits, the lin ...

. According to this account, the labourers would invoke Hare, the divine energy of God, and Ambe, a Hindu goddess, during the construction.

Criticism

Religious criticism

Kenyan Christians have criticised the use of the word ''harambee'' as an official term due to its alleged Hindu origin. This objection has been dismissed as being offensive to the country's Hindu community, and also on the basis that even if the supposed derivation from ''hare Ambeh'' (hail Ambeh) were true, it has become irrelevant to the term's modern usage and meaning.

Attempted replacement

In January 2002, the Risk Advisory Group Ltd commissioned by President Moi's administration as part of the anti-corruption efforts recommended the abolition of harambee, or the spirit of pulling together. In 2003 when the National Rainbow Coalition NARC took over from the Kenya African National Union KANU, President

Mwai Kibaki Emilio Stanley Mwai Kibaki (15 November 1931 – 21 April 2022) was a Kenyan politician who served as the third President of Kenya from December 2002 until April 2013 and is regarded as one of Kenya's founding fathers. He had previously ser ...

enacted the Public Officers Ethics Act which prohibited members of parliament and cabinet secretaries from presiding over harambee events. In February 2018, a petition was presented to the Kenyan parliament and

senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

, seeking to have the word "harambee" removed from the coat of arms on the claim that it represents a Hindu goddess. The petition was rejected on the grounds that it would be discriminatory towards Hindus and the

Hindi language Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...

, that the word ''Harambee'' is internationally recognised, and that the cost incurred in changing the coat of arms would be significant.

References

External links

The "Harambee Movement" in Kenya
African philosophy Community building Cooperative economics Fundraising Jomo Kenyatta Kenyan culture National mottos Politics of Kenya Swahili words and phrases