Murumbi’s Legacy Part
Three: The Later Years
By KAREN ROTHMYER @thestarkenya
The third and last of a series drawn from Joseph Murumbi: A
Legacy of Integrity, to be launched today.
BACKGROUND
Murumbi’s departure from Government at the end of 1966 passed
without much comment. There were other, bigger political stories at the time,
most particularly what was happening to Oginga Odinga and his new party, KPU.
The Kenyatta Government had already reinstated detention without trial in
mid-1966, and several KPU leaders were soon thereafter arrested and detained.
Murumbi remained a nominal Member of Parliament until the end of
the session in 1969, but stayed completely out of active politics for the rest
of his life. After serving as chairman of the Kenya subsidiary of Rothmans
until it was sold, he became a director of a number of other corporations, and
also a co-founder of African Heritage, whose Nairobi gallery became a must-see
for visitors.
According to Alan Donovan, Murumbi’s partner in African
Heritage, ‘It was his dream to have a Pan-African centre in Nairobi where
artists from all over the world could come and have their works shown. And I
was sort of the one to implement his dream.’
Perhaps, as some suggest, Murumbi’s interest in collecting
African art and books can be seen as a manifestation of his search for
identity. ‘Murumbi was like a convert: converts are always the most passionate
about proving their allegiance,’ says Donovan. ‘When he “converted” to being
Maasai he was extremely eager to prove the worth of being an African.
Everything African was valuable to him.’
Dr. Joyce Nyairo, a Kenyan academic and writer on cultural
issues, shares this perception. ‘He didn’t ever fit into an Indian identify
because he was not an Indian; he was seen as black in India,’ Nyairo says. ‘He
wasn’t Maasai either; he didn’t know Maasai culture because he grew up in
India.’ Given these facts, she says, ‘Culture became for him a way of exploring
identity, of pursuing the unseen, the unacknowledged.’
What Murumbi did through his support of African Heritage was to
help make traditional art legitimate, Nyairo says. ‘I think African Heritage
spoke to ordinary Kenyans mainly through fashion and music,’ she says. ‘The
rest may have been chic among the elite but not ordinary people. But what they
did at African Heritage was to make people feel they could do art.’ She adds,
‘You could argue that the Maasai Market is in a direct line from that. And
young people go to Maasai Market.’
In the late 1970s, Murumbi decided it was time to dispose of his
papers and most of his library and art collection. He held discussions with
several institutions and in the end struck a deal with the Kenya National
Archives, which he himself had been instrumental in setting up while he was
Vice-President.
Professor Godfrey Muriuki was a member of the Kenya National
Archives advisory committee that negotiated with Murumbi for much of his
collection of books, art and papers. ‘When we were discussing the sale he said,
“If I sold this overseas I would make more money,”’ Muriuki recalls. ‘But —and
this is where I say he was very patriotic—he said, “No, I don’t want to sell it
to America or Britain because it belongs to Kenya and I would like it to remain
in Kenya, so long as you give me a little bit of money to cover the costs of
collecting this material”.
Murumbi sold his Muthaiga house and plot to the Government in
late 1977 on the understanding that a research centre would be established
there. He also sold his library and much of his art collection to the
Government. The total price for the house and the book and art collections
would be equal to about Ksh 468 million in today’s terms.
In 1977, thanks to his Maasai heritage, Murumbi obtained about
2,000 acres for a farm and ranch in Trans Mara and built a 35-room mansion that
was to be his and Sheila’s retirement home. His intention was to raise
high-quality cattle and inspire the Maasai to do the same.
IN MURUMBI'S WORD
My father read a lot, but I don’t think he was a collector of
books. After I read the two books he gave me about Kenya and India, I began to
read other books and try to find other books. And when I went to England I
started collecting more books.
One day Sheila was talking to a book dealer in London about
books, and this book dealer was looking for a book called Through Maasailand by
Joseph Thompson. Sheila said, ‘If I can get you the second edition, how much
will you offer me?’ He said, ‘I’ll give you £2.10’. She knew that I had two
copies of the second edition so she came home and said, ‘Look here, would you
like to sell a copy of Through Maasailand?’ So I looked at my copies, and the
copy without a map I had paid three shillings for, and the perfect copy with
the map I had paid two shillings for, and the thought struck me that there was
some money in this business.
We used to spend our weekends combing the south of England for
books, and we were able to put out a catalogue every two months. And we found
we were making some money on it and this helped me a great deal to buy more
books for my own library.
My art collecting started toward the end of my stay in England.
I happened to go to a junk shop near Camden Town where I found a small carved
tusk which I liked very much, and the man sold it to me for about £2.10. Well,
today I think it’s worth at least over a hundred pounds. He told me, ‘I’d
rather sell it to you because you’re from Africa and it should go back to
Africa.’ And from that one piece I began.
We used to go to Portobello Market in London, not that I had any money, but
even looking at things gave me a lot of pleasure. And then when I had some
money from dealing in books, I used to spend a little bit of this on buying
pieces of African art.
Then later on, when I left Government and was in business, I had
more money and I was able to spend on things which I found or when I went
abroad. And then finally, of course, we opened African Heritage. And that gave
me the opportunity to get some good pieces, because I had first choice when
these things came to the shop.
The idea of African Heritage was to open a shop selling African
art, good African art and crafts, in the hope that the people of Kenya would
begin to realize the beauty of African art, and also collect it as an
investment. We tried to encourage African artists as much as possible: we held
exhibitions for them, bought items from them, and we imported a considerable
amount of goods from many parts of Africa.
Why there are not more Africans interested in art, I don’t know.
But I think it will come in the course of time. It’s rather an expensive hobby
today if you want to start collecting really genuine pieces, which are
extremely rare and very highly priced.
I prefer to spend my money on art, stamps, and things which give
one pleasure. And besides that, it’s an investment which is appreciating much
faster than money in a bank. I’ve never had money stashed away in a bank. If I
have any money I spend it on buying art or books or stamps.
Culture is the life of a people, the habits of the people, the
art of a people, the folklore of people. We were under colonial rule for many
years. And during that time all our African values were denounced and we were
told to accept whatever the European had to offer us.
We now live in the modern world and therefore we need to use the
cultures, knowledge, and education of the Western world in order to keep up
with the Western world, but we must not lose the sense that we are Africans,
that we have our own identity, our own values, and some of those are very good.
You’ll find that although the West Africans are educated, they
still believe in their local traditions: the dancing, the folklore, the art.
The Japanese are a highly industrialised country today but they still maintain
in their homes their own Japanese tradition and custom. That is what I’m saying
is important: not to lose our African background, our African culture and the
cultural values behind it.
I don’t say that in any sense to condemn European or other
art—in my collection I have art from all over the world—but I’m talking about
African culture and cultural values which we must not lose sight of. There is a
contribution which we can make, as Africans, to the common pool of the world’s
culture. But in the first place we must be proud of ourselves.
When I was thinking of going back to Maasailand a friend of mine
told me, ‘Why don’t you go above the escarpment between Lolgorian and Kilgoris,
you will find some beautiful land there.’ I was fascinated with the land, which
was so beautiful—it was virgin land, unspoilt, with forests and rivers and open
glades—that I fell in love with it immediately. And so did Sheila.
The next day the committee of the Olalui Group Ranch was
meeting, and they invited me. Some of the members of the committee were elderly
people who knew me when I was young and knew my mother, and my mother’s people,
the Uasin Gishu Maasai. My cousin who was the Member of Parliament for the
area, Mr. John Konchella, introduced me.
We eventually got our land. This area is called Intona. It’s
rather peculiar because Intona is a Maasai word and it means ‘roots’ which is
really the case; I have gone back to settle among my mother’s people.
POSTSCRIPT
By Alan Donovan’s account, the Murumbis were very happy at
Intona. But within a few years Murumbi’s failing health—he suffered a stroke
and later a fall at Intona in 1982 that left him in almost constant pain—forced
the couple to return to Nairobi. In the years that followed, the Intona
property, on which Murumbi had a substantial loan, became the source of endless
fights between local residents, descendants on his mother’s side, and the
lending institution. The house itself is now a ruin.
Meanwhile, back in Nairobi, the Murumbis’ Muthaiga house, after
being sold to the Government, was first renovated and then, several years
later, demolished. The Muthaiga property was then subdivided and sold for a
suspiciously low price to well-connected individuals. ‘Halfway through the
demolition,’ according to an article in the Daily Nation, ‘an unbelieving,
ailing Murumbi went to see for himself what he was hearing. As he went around
the plot in a wheel-chair, he could hardly believe what he was witnessing.’
In Donovan’s opinion, it was the shock of seeing what had
happened that killed Murumbi. He died on 21 June, 1990, at the age of 79.
Murumbi, along with his wife, who lived another ten years, is buried just
outside the City Park Cemetery in Nairobi. In 2009, thanks to the efforts of
Donovan and the Murumbi Trust, the graves became part of the Murumbi Peace
Memorial, a garden containing sculptures by some of the artists Murumbi
championed.
In his eulogy for Murumbi, William Ole Ntimama, at the time
Minister for Local Government, praised Murumbi as ‘an outstanding figure who
was fired by neither political power nor personal ambition’. Murumbi, he said,
‘always stood up for what he knew to be right. In this he never changed.’
Joseph Murumbi: A Legacy of Integrity will be launched as part
of the Samosa Festival today at the Alchemist, beginning at 4pm. It will retail
at Sh1,000 during the festival and at Sh1,200 after July 11. It will be
available at Bookstop at Yaya Centre and other locations.
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