‘They were revolutionaries!’ Malcolm X and Jomo Kenyatta’s Pan-Africanism, 1960–1965

Revolutions occur because of the bravery and conviction of individuals who decide to stand up to oppressors and battle systems of injustice. Revolutionaries are the agents for change in their societies, and their collective efforts, when successful, result in varied forms of social and political transformations. During the 1960s, two leaders – Malcolm X and Jomo Kenyatta –emerged and connected their revolutionary ideas. Malcolm X acknowledged the leadership of Jomo Kenyatta and the recent Mau Mau revolution, describing the fighters using three words: “They were revolutionaries.” ¹ Kenyatta’s liberation movement and independence was symbolic and meaningful for Pan-African mobilization of Africans worldwide. Pan-Africanism reflects the ongoing discussion as African people in Africa and in the African Diaspora to connect and analyze the notions and issues of freedom and justice. It is often unclear when one movement ends and when another begins as the flows, intensities, and exchanges swirl together. This chapter explores revolutionary flows by analyzing Malcolm X and Jomo Kenyatta’s Pan-Africanism from 1960 to 1965, emphasizing how their movements changed from the local, national, and global consciousness and were reinterpreted over time. It also aims to show that the willing or unwilling association with the Mau Mau movement shaped the leadership and the characterization of the two leaders. This work argues that Malcolm X and Jomo Kenyatta’s Pan-African ideologies and interactions continue to occupy the world stage based on revolutionary exchanges of the 1960s, reminding us of the deep roots and entanglements of African unity and freedom. Interestingly, the dialogue continues and is heard not from church podiums in Harlem, but now in hip hop beats and expressions in African urban hoods, as artists use music to contest, call to action, and foster change. ² Pan-African thinking and contact in the 1960s has planted seeds that continue to bear fruit with the new generations of revolutionaries in Kenya. Although much has been written on both Malcolm X and Jomo Kenyatta, there is more needed on the relationship, ideological exchanges, influences, and impacts on black liberation. This study is only one treatment of this important relationship. It aims to start the dialogue of what happens when revolutionary leaders with different backgrounds, who reside on different continents, and live under different oppressed conditions lock heads, compare situations, and interrogate justice and freedom of Africans and African descendants worldwide.