Tom Mboya was one of the most important global political figures of the age of decolonisation. Widely acknowledged to be a member of the top tier of African nationalist leaders, he was also one of Kenya's founding fathers. Using Mboya's papers in addition to several other archives, Daniel Branch demonstrates how much of his political success at home and abroad was derived from his cultivation and adept use of an extensive international network of supporters, particularly in the United States. A Man of the World explores how Mboya built this network among civil rights activists, labour leaders and political figures. Branch explores in detail the great controversies that Mboya's global network created within Kenyan politics up until his assassination in July 1969, particularly the funding he received from sources connected to the CIA. In doing so, this study sets Kenya's decolonisation in its global context and demonstrates how the Cold War influenced its outcome.
Muu info
Focusing on Tom Mboya, this book reveals how the Cold War profoundly shaped the outcome of decolonisation in Kenya.
Acknowledgements; Abbreviations; Introduction: the intertwined cold war
and decolonization;
1. Breaking out: labour and the emergency, 195256;
2.
The quiet Americans: ACOA and the AFL-CIO, 195658;
3. The great dream of
their lives: students in the United States, 195863;
4. The insects: labour
and the global politics of decolonization, 195965;
5. Political traffic:
students in eastern and central Europe, 196069;
6. The cultural cold war:
development and intellectual politics, 196368;
7. The end, 196769;
Conclusion: the realities of the modern world: a cold war political culture;
Bibliography.
Daniel Branch is Professor of African History at the University of Warwick. His publications include Defeating Mau Mau, Creating Kenya (Cambridge, 2009) and Kenya: Between Hope and Despair (2011). Branch has also written for Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, The London Review of Books, The Financial Times and The Daily Nation.
