vn

The Story of Parmenas Mockerie

of the Kikuyu Tribe, Kenya
written by himself

The Life of an African Teacher

was in 1900 or 1901 that I was born at Chui in Njum-
bi, in Fort Hall, Kenya. My father, Mockerie, and
Itmother, Wagithatu, never attended school. I do not
know the exact date of my birthday as they did not keep
it.
They brought me up in the country, and I always
thank them for the way they wished me to live. When I
was eight days old my mother took' me to our farm and
dug up some sweet potatoes and plucked some first fruits
of the fields so as to find good luck for my future career.
This is Kikuyu tradition. She realized that my
satisfaction
in could be a reality if she thus started
life my career in
farming. I cannot remember any occasion in my life when
my parents threatenedme by beating, as they loved me
extremely well. When I was ten years old they gave me a
and on which to plant crops which I could
plot to cultivate
call my own property.I grew potatoes and bananas on my

plot and exchanged them for knives and spears, thinking

that I would join the young Kikuyu police force one day.
My father had been a captain of this police force during
his youth before the advent of the white man, and his ad-

ventures, which he used to relate to me and my mother,

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 The Story of Parmenas Mockerie
stimulated desire to join a police force to defend
my my
country. During this time I could not realize that the
Kikuyu Young Men's Defence Force had been superseded
by the police force which has been created by the Euro-
pean Government. He, too, could not understand the
machinery of European power. To make me fit for my
future career he had to take me to men's camps which
were held every year. I had to sleep away from home for
eight days. At these camps I had to learn the discipline
imposed upon young men by the old people. Every day I
had to go to the river to draw water for camp purposes.
After meals in the mornings I had to run about a mile
and practise a war dance in order to learn the custom of
the young men's police force.
Kikuyu society is based on nine clans, and every clan
has a special item to contribute towards the welfare of the
society. My clan is Mwithaga. Its occupation was to manu-
facture medicine for curing coughs, and to produce the
rain-metiers. My grandfather, Githendu, had six wives
who had a large family. My grandmother, Nyamugoiri,
had two sons, my father and Mutuambui. Both of them
married one wife, only, and did not follow in the footsteps
of my grandfather. Mutuambui lost his wife and refused
to marry again, preferring a life of celibacy. His trade is to
manufacture medicine for healing coughs and to produce
'salt-licks' for domestic animals from his own mine. When

Paramount Chief Karuri of Fort Hall was in power, my

uncle was his chief agent in supplying him with 'salt-
My father interested himself in the
licks' for his livestock.

leadership of our clan and in village life. My uncle wanted

to trainme in organizing his salt mine. But going hunting
in the wild places distracted me from following his advice.
When I was thirteen years of age, I started to lay traps
for leopards and lions which had eaten cattle, goats and
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 The Story of Parmenas Mockerie
sheep in our village. While I was setting traps a hyena
came towards me. He is the most
cowardly animal that I
have ever seen. I frightened him to death with a handful
of soil by throwing it in the air and in the leaves of trees.
I did this make the leaves rattle whilst the soil
in order to
was falling down. The rattle caused the hyena to run away
as he thought I was with a number of
people. When he
ran away I climbed a tree which was near by. At once a
leopardess and her young one came under the tree. I
aimed at the young one and killed it with my poisoned
arrows. This made the leopardess furious, so she roared at
the foot of the tree with an awful noise. She gave me a
good opportunity to shoot her through one of her eyes
with my poisoned arrows while she was moving round
the tree wishing to attack me. She fell dead. I went home
and told the villagers how I had killed their enemies. A
group of people rushed to the spot to view the dead ani-
mal. One of the villagers looked up where I had been

sitting in the fork of the tree and saw a big snake resting
upon a broad branch. This startled the people. They won-
dered whether I had noticed it. Fortunately, the snake
did not do any harm to me, neither did I notice it when I

was on the tree. When father heard this adventure he

sharpened my spear still more, but I realized that the

spear was too heavy for me to carry and preferred to carry

arrows as they were light. I was anxious to kill a lion
as this animal was a nuisance to our village. I continued
of boys who were
my setting of traps. I joined a group
setting for fowls like partridges
and doves. While we
were pursuing antelopes we came across a big lion
who was very hungry and was seeking antelopes to
devour. My desire to kill a lion was achieved when I
shot him with two arrows and brought him to the end
of his life. My companions were terribly frightened as

P.T.A. 161 L
 The Story of Parmenas Mockerie
they had no intention in their lives to kill the king of
animals.
I began to eat partridges which I caught. My father be-
came very angry with me because I ate wild animals. It is
the tradition of our clan that no member of Mwithaga
should eat wild animals. We had the right to eat only
meat from cows, sheep and goats and no other animals.
The reason is this: our clan was supposed to make rain and
heal coughs among the Kikuyu people, and if some mem-
bers of our clan were to eat wild animals they were liable
to lose their powers. This I thought was merely super-
stition based on groundless propositions. I became almost
an outcast and then began to go to school. I started to read
and write my own language probably when I was thir-
teen or fifteen years of age; I first attended a missionary-
school at Gitugi and then at Kahuhia in Fort Hall, where
later I became a head teacher. family loved me after-
My
wards when they found that a great number of young
people of my age in the village had eaten wild animals
and when they found that superstition was no longer
binding the young people. My parents objected to my
go-
ing to a missionary school, as by so doing I had to abs-
tain from associating with them in the social life of the

village. Things such as communal dances, drinking par-

ties, and several social items performed by the village

community were considered incompatible with Christian-

ity, and my parents were opposed to any mode of life
different from that of the tribe. As I am their firstborn I
should have to undergo three stages of initiation and at-
tend big feasts in which my parents would make them-
selves well known among the people in the neighbour-
hood. They were afraid that if I did not undertake the
initiation ceremony they would lose the right of
giving
advice to other people who would like to perform these
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 The Story of Parmenas Mockerie
ceremonies. Despite their discouragement I continued
my schooling until I went to Nairobi and attended night-
school; there I worked
at a garage and then as a clerk for

hiring bicycles. Previous to this I was employed by a

European as a house-servant. I walked barefoot on grass

land in the city and a broken piece of bottle cut sharply
across my sole, and I had to attend hospital for a month
and a half before it got better. Afterwards I decided to
wear shoes, but my European master prevented me from
entering his house wearing shoes in the same manner as
Europeans. I gave up the position as house-servant be-
cause I was not allowed to wear shoes. I was afraid to walk
any longer barefoot as I did not like pieces of bottles or
thorns to pierce my feet.
In 1921 I went to study at the Church of Scotland
Mission at Kikuyu. I became a pupil-teacher and was ap-
prenticed for three years. My teacher was Mr. G. Greive,
now the Principal of the Allied High School at Kikuyu.
During my apprenticeship I was appointeHlsyJDr. J. Arthur,
the Principal of the school, as head boy of one of the
dormitories. At the end of my apprenticeship I was appoin-
ted head teacher at the Kahuhia Central School, which
is run by the Church Missionary Society, and remained

there from 1925 to 1951. In the beginning of the year

1951 I went to Makerere College in Uganda to take a
Teachers' Refresher Course. I began to associate with

Baganda. Later I met a few Kikuyu from Kenya, in Kam-

pala, and they could take me
about the town. I visited the
Lukiko (Parliament) and was extremely surprised to find
that Mr. Speaker of the House was an African, and the
whole body of the House was entirely African. Adminis-
trative and financial departments are under the direction
of Africans. In Uganda and Tanganyika African Local
District Councils are presided over by Africans, and also
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 The Story of Parmenas Mockerie
they hold the office of Treasurer, but in Kenya things are
quite different, African councils are presided over by the
white man
and Africans have no direct control of public
finances. When
the African financial minister of the
Baganda Kingdom took me into his office and showed me
how the British Government had allowed the Baganda to
control a part of their taxation, without the help of a
white man, I was greatly surprised. While I was in Ugan-
da I was taken
to large estates possessed by
big chiefs.
Many poor people live on these estates as tenants and they
have to pay yearly rents to their landlords. I learned from
some Baganda that some of these estates were unjustly
held by the chiefs. When the British Government be-
came protector of the people of Uganda, it allowed chiefs
to appropriate these estates.
In April 1931 course of study was interrupted by
my
the Kikuyu Central Association, an African society among
the Kikuyu tribe in Kenya. It appointed me to proceed to
England and represent the people of Kenya
as its delegate

before the Select Joint Committee on Closer Union in

East Africa, which was then sitting in London, and was

hearing evidence from East African witnesses. There

were nine African official witnesses from Uganda, Kenya
and Tanganyika. Besides these official witnesses, the
Kikuyu people under the auspices of the Kikuyu Central
Association delegated Mr. Johnstone Kenyatta and me as
unofficial representatives to the Select Parliamentary
Joint Committee.
Travelling from East Africa, I embarked at Mombasa,
the Kenya seaport, on the Mazzini, an Italian steamer. It
was my first journey to Europe. It was strange to me to
find the boat sailing day and night in the vast sea. The
first day that I was in my cabin on the boat I saw a warn-

ing notice showing what people should do with life-belts

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 The Story of Parmenas Mockerie
in case of an emergency. I began to read the notice and
had a short lesson on it every day. On the boat my hair
and beard grew long and needed to be cut. I approached a
European barber and he told me that he could not cut my
hair in his shop as he was afraid to lose European custo-
mers on the boat if they found a black man shaved being
there. He said that he would come to shave me in my
cabin. On the boat there were other Africans from Italian
colonies on the coasts of the Red Sea. They consisted of
soldiers and porters. They conversed in Italian among
themselves. This was strange to me as I had never heard

porters in the British Colonies speaking English, as they

are not given the opportunity of learning it.
On May 20th, 1951, 1 landed at Genoa and travelled to
Paris by train. Here a crowd of African men and women
who had come to see the French Colonial exhibition added
something to the beauty of Parisian streets. At the exhi-
bition, African villages were built, and every African

trade, art and culture was represented. When I was pass-

ing to and fro in the exhibition grounds I saw a group of
African soldiers doing military shows. As I never had been
to Europe before I expected to find this sort of thing in
London. I made an inquiry about the attitude of French
people towards African people in the French Colonies in
Africa. I could hardly believe therewere African Repre-
sentatives in theFrench Chamber of Deputies in Paris,
and that an African native of Senegal had been appointed
Under-Secretary of State for the French Colonies, be-
cause in East Africa, in the British Colonies, the African

people have no direct representation on the local legisla-

tures, which consist of white men only.
On May 22nd, 1951, I arrived at Victoria Station in
London. It was summer-time. The weather was cold and
rainy. The first
thing I had to do after my arrival was to
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 The Story of Parmenas Mockerie
buy warm clothes and an overcoat, as the cold weather
had beaten me. I used to wear cotton clothes in East
Africa, and I could not imagine that woollen clothes were
so important in England if one wanted to keep fit. The
crowded streets of London, with men and women dressed
in overcoats in summer-time, could hardly convince me
that people in England had ever enjoyed the bright and

sunny weather which Africans and other tropical inhabit-

ants enjoy almost the year round. It was in the summer of
1935 that I realized that sometimes there is similar wea-
ther in England to that of Central Africa. During that
time I spent a few days in England pouring with perspira-
tion due to the heat.

My mission to England disappointed me extremely,

since the Parliamentary Select Committee did not receive
us officially as we hoped
they would do. But I had the
hope that truth would win in the end in spite of the dis-
ability placed upon African people in political problems. I
could not imagine the reason why the Parliamentary
Select Committee refused to allow us to give evidence be-
fore it. This refusal was not a new thing; it was an opinion
held by some white people that Africans who hold inde-
pendent views should be ignored. The Kikuyu people,
realizing this attitude, became disillusioned by African
representatives appointed by the Government to give
evidence before the Committee and wished to be repre-
sented by their own delegates. However, we were able to
secure the help of some British sympathizers who are not
conservative in their outlook with regard to imperialism,
and who wish the African people to progress on the same
lines as white men. I learned when I was addressing
meetings in London, Birmingham and Colchester that
there were some people in England who have the welfare
of Africans at heart. But imperialistic views dominate too
166
 The Story of Parmenas Mockerie
many English people. Consequently, it becomes very dif-
with problems relating to the land which
ficult to deal

was expropriated by the white settlers in Africa, who

subjected the Africans who formerly owned the land
to the position of wage-earners under capitalistic exploi-
tation.

My
anxiety regarding my stay in England for further
education increased when I decided to study at Fircroft
Working Men's College, one of the group of Selly Oak
Colleges, Birmingham. I had no personal friends in Bir-
mingham and wondered how I could manage to live in a
big city with a great population without a friend. For-
tunately, I met Dr. and Mrs. Duncan Leys and their
little Colin, who are very interested in African
boy,
problems. Their acquaintance removed the feeling of lone-
liness which I experienced before I came to Fircroft. At
Fircroft College I started to learn about English society, of
which I had no previous knowledge. The thing that sur-
prised me most is the feeling of friendship between the
white and coloured people at the Selly Oak Colleges, parti-
cularly at Fircroft. I was associated with the social life of
the College and made many friends among my fellow
students. I stayed at Fircroft as a resident student from
October 1931 to Easter 1955, and then became a resident
student at Ruskin College, Oxford.
One who, comes from a country without
like myself,
such educational those provided in the Oxford
facilities as

Colleges, with a big student population, would lose no

time in observing what is going on in these colleges. One
of my great desires was to see whether there were Afri-
cans in them. Fortunately, I met Mr. Mayanja, a native of
Baganda, who has just graduated as a Bachelor of Arts;
Miss Aina Moore from West Africa, who was studying at
St. Hugh's College 5
and also there were several Africans
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 The Story of Parmenas Mockerie
from other and the West Indies. It was a
parts of Africa
great pleasure for me tomeet Miss Stella Thomas, an
African lady who had just become a barrister, African
women in East Africa would hardly believe that an Afri-
can woman could pass in law during this stage of African
development.
Education to fit African men and women for professions
such as is
given in Oxford and Cambridge cannot be ob-
tained in Africa at present. The environment and the

scope of educational stimulus, which is obtained in the

African village community,, is limited. For this reason a

great number of African students must come to Europe for

higher education, although it will cost them much. Dur-
ing my stay in Oxford and other parts of England I could
not change my belief that the right thing for the African
Government to do for African people would be to give
liberal scholarships to African students who desire to be-
come teachers, lawyers, doctors and engineers and allow
them to pursue their studies in Europe. The Western
sciences cannot be followed successfully in Africa where
libraries are lacking and the environment does not give
facilities forhigher education. At the same time there
should be higher education for Africans who are not able
to go abroad. Scholarships should be provided without any

suggestion that Africans should be educated gradually as

certain educationalists have emphasized. Gradualism is
disaster when it is applied to education. It aims at enslaving
the minds of the people, and at preventing them from the
realization of truth. Parents who do not feed their chil-
dren sufficiently cause them to be weak mentally and
physically. When a pupil has been to school and grows up
as a citizen,and does not understand the principles of his
relations to the community and State, there must be

something wrong in the teachings of the school. I would

168
 The Story of Parmenas Mockerie
rather prefer Africans to know the truth early than late.
This can be completely achieved if the scope of their edu-
cation is not limited.
During my visit to schools in England
I found that education is not limited. Children are given
every opportunity to have sufficient education. The same
spirit which is held by educationalists in European coun-
tries should be maintained by educational authorities in
Africa.Modern civilization and its complicated science
have been evolved, not to benefit only a section of the cbm-
munity or one class, but to benefit human beings in the
world without respect of race or colour. So any human
being who restricts these benefits from being enjoyed by
every creature is cursed.
While attending a meeting of the League of Coloured
Peoples in London I had an opportunity of seeing Mr.
Paul Robeson, the negro who is well known as an artist
and singer among the white men in Europe and America.
His lovely voice aroused me when I heard him singing on
the wireless in England. After a few days I read in a
socialist newspaper, the Daily Herald, that Mr. Paul

Robeson would like to see Africa as a Republic with a

negro President. This would be a sign to show that the
negro race has reached the stage to show to the world that
it has
something to contribute to the world. If there had
been such a Republic, Mr. Paul Robeson would have been
made a Peer or Lord of Africa, as his contribution to
society is similar to that of those who have been made
Lords by the British Government.
In the nineteenth century, when white men began to
realize that negro people were human beings and not sub-
human as some white men had thought, they fought
amongst themselves in order to set free the negro slaves in
America. Those whites who died for the cause of black
people wished to recognize the negro race in society. But
169
 The Story of Parmenas Mockerie
the intention of these gallant whites seems to be disre-
garded during this generation. As an instance, I will re-
late here how I entered a refreshment house in London
and I was told that I could not be served as black people at
this house were not served. It is very often heard that
there are some parts of America, and Africa, where black
men cannot travel in the same carriages with the whites,
or eat at the same hotel. This shows that besides the white
men setting the negro slaves free there is something more
they have to do. That is the removal of racial prejudice.
If thiswere achieved, the coloured man would be recog-
nized in society. To remove this prejudice the Govern-
ments in Africa should raise the education of African men
and women to the level of that which is given to the chil-
dren of white men. I am convinced that if Africans are
given opportunity and their way of advancement is open
they will make their own characteristic contribution to
world culture.
In the summer of 1952, I spent my vacation in Den-
mark and visited a number of High Schools, and I also
visited bacon factories and dairies. The dairies are very
clean and well managed. I could not imagine that I would
meet any African in Denmark. A Danish friend took me
about Tivoli, a place of pleasure at Copenhagen, in the
evening. Promptly I met an African, a well dressed and
tall man, who was a native of the Congo. He speaks Dan-
ish fluently, and a little English, and has been thirty years
in Denmark. He married a white woman and has six chil-
dren: when I asked him how he was treated by the Danes,
he said that they treated him nicely.
'How did you come to Denmark?' I asked him.
'A Dutchman brought me to Holland, and he died. I
was employed by a German, and when we came to Den-
mark, he disappeared, and I had no money to get back to
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 The Story of Parmenas Mockerie
Holland. Subsequently a Danish firm employed me, and
here I have been for thirty years.'
Next day, when I was strolling through the Danish
Parliament in Copenhagen, an Abyssinian who was a
singer in Copenhagen attracted my attention. I intro-
duced myself to him.
'How did you come to Denmark?' I asked him.
'A German prince engaged me as a chauffeur from
Egypt, and brought me to Germany nine years ago. I left
his service because his German servants were always

bullying me: I became an artist at Vienna, and a Danish

hotel manager employed me to entertain visitors at his
hotel in Copenhagen. I tried to go to London to visit my
fellow countrymen who are students there, but when I

got to Dover the British Government would not allow me

to enter Great Britain, although I had sufficient money to

keep me there,' he said. I asked him whether he had an

Abyssinian passport with him, and he showed it to me at
once. He could speak and write German fluently: his

knowledge of Spanish, French, Italian, Danish and Eng-

lish was not far from perfect.
Whilst I was in Copenhagen, I was told that at Elsinore
there is a castle where Danish kings used to torture their
prisoners. I visited it, and found that a large part is used
as a museum, and the other part is a long dungeon where

prisoners were kept. It could hold about three hundred

persons if they were packed like boxes of articles stored in
a barn: from the roof leaked water, artificially placed to
wet the prisoners. It has no windows, and is very dark, so
that not one prisoner could see another. I can say with
certainty that this torture place for a white king's enemies
was much more cruel than anything used by Africans
before the Western powers established themselves in
Africa.
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 The Story of Parmenas Mockerie
As I am writing this in England in August 1955, 1 can-
not end without a reference to the events which have
taken place in Germany during my stay in Europe. When
Hitler came into power, his Government tortured the
Jews and banned the negro jazz bands, yet when the
World Economic Conference met in London, a German
delegate presented a manifesto to the conference demand-
ing back the German African colonies which Germany
had lost in the war. Hitler's Government dislikes the
negro race, yet it makes a claim to a share of African ter-
ritory. German administrators in Africa before the war
were cruel and inhuman: Africans were tortured like
beasts. How can Germany govern a people whom she
hates?

I have now finished my time for study in Europe. I

must go back to my own country, and work among my
own people. I am full of hope, though I do not know what
the future holds for them or for myself.

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