Facing Mount Kenya

Rating:
Summary: Reliable source of information on Kikuyu culture.
Review: A most detailed and reliable account on Kikuyu heritage, customs and way of life.

Rating:
Summary: Amazing - Must Read For All Young Kikuyus
Review: I got interested in learning more about my culture after listening to incredible stories from the past from a 70 year old Kikuyu woman. I bought the book and it was an intense understanding of my own culture. Its a great shame that not many young Kikuyus know as much about their own rich, beautiful culture. My son has to read it. I wish Kikuyus could recapture some of those traditions.

Rating:
Summary: Kenyatta gives the reader a fascinating look at gikuyu life
Review: Jomo Kenyatta provides a detailed insider description of the Gikuyu peoples of Kenya. THe book takes a structural functionalist approach to anthropology, providing a very detailed description covering virtually all aspects of tribal life. A native Gikuyu,son of a medicine man, Kenyatta reveals his wonderful anthropological ability in a storybook fashion. A must read for anyone interested in learning about African culture.

Rating:
Summary: Dated, but invaluable
Review: Jomo Kenyatta, the first president of independent Kenya, wrote this book as a graduate anthropology student in London. As a primary source, this book is invaluable. It gives detailed analysis of many aspects of pre-Mau Mau Gikuyu cultural ceremonies. However, as it is a product of the structuralist school of anthropology, many of its conclusions and findings are problematic, most notably in its opinion of culture as a fixed entity which determines human behavior. For students of colonial Africa, this piece will inevitably be of use. Personally, for a more nuanced view of colonial and post-colonial Kenya, I recommend the fiction of Ngugi wa Thiong'o, who tends to be more sympathetic to the lower ranks of Gikuyu societies, and who also happens to be one of the most important critics of Kenyatta's post-colonial politics. *Facing Mt. Kenya* is necessary, but at times, troublesome.

Rating:
Summary: it was horrible
Review: sorry but i had to read it for english/world history clss and it was ba

Rating:
Summary: Excellent book on Kikuyu culture!
Review: This book is a must read for anyone interested in Kikuyu culture