A Path Not Taken: The
Story of Joseph Murumbi, Africa’s greatest private cultural collector and
Kenya’s second Vice President (2015) is a biography of the man who did not
choose the path of a politician in Kenya. Instead, he chose the path of
preserving Kenya’s cultural heritage.
The book consists of
interviews (most by Anne Thurston), newspaper clippings, and photographs.
The biography does not
take the linear path of cradle to grave. Instead, through interviews, and
commencing in 1952 when Joseph Anthony Zurtarte Murumbi (1911-1990) returns to Kenya
looking for work, and again in 1962, it tells of his rise to high ranks in the
government, as Minister of Foreign Affairs (1964-1966) and as Vice-President
(1966) to President Jomo Kenyatta after Kenya’s independence in 1963.
Murumbi tells Thurston
of his fight for an independent Kenya, mostly from London, where he worked as
as part of the Kenyan African Union – and where he began his collection of
African books.
The interesting
sections are his accounts of race relations (European, Asian, and African), the
politics of independence, and his and the country’s political and foreign aid relations
with Britain, America, Russia, and China. There are many valuable insights,
relevant to today’s political affairs.
So it is about
half-way through the book that Murumbi approaches President Kenyatta to resign
his post after the assassination of his friend Pio Gama Pinto. He then
dedicates his life, along with his wife Sheila, to the preservation of African
culture. It began with the collection of stamps, books, textiles, jewellry, and
art. He co-founded, with Alan Donovan, the largest Pan-African art gallery on
the continent. Despite the devastating fire of 1976, he continued to run his
business, African Heritage, trading in arts and crafts. African Heritage is
still operating.
Murumbi had hoped that
his vast collection and legacy would remain in his Muthaiga home, but they are
now housed, along with furniture from his house, in the Nairobi Gallery.
This dense book has a
wealth of photographs. This biography is more than a story about a man as a
collector. It is a fascinating account of Kenyan independence and international
relations, in-depth and with more insight and understanding than any text book.
Every word could still apply today in this time of global political turmoil.
But through his own
words, during the multitude of interviews, Murumbi reveals his deep connection
to culture, and his passion to present Africa to the world in a far different
perspective than the violence and corruption of political life. I found it a
fascinating read.
MARTINA NICOLLS is an international
aid and development consultant, and the author of:- Similar But Different
in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament
(2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a
Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).
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