Harambee
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Harambee is a Kenyan tradition of community self-help events, eg. fundraising or community development activities. Harambee is also the official motto of Kenya and appears on its coat of arms.
Harambee literally means "pulling together" in Swahili, and may range from informal affairs lasting a few hours in which invitations are spread by word of mouth, to formal, multi-day events advertised in newspapers. These events have long been important in parts of East Africa as ways to build and maintain communities.
Following Kenya's independence in 1963, the first Prime Minister and later first President of Kenya Jomo Kenyatta adopted "Harambee" as a concept of pulling the country together to build a new nation. He encouraged communities to work together to raise funds for all sorts of local projects, pledging that the government would provide their startup costs. Under this system, wealthy individuals wishing to get into politics could donate large amounts of money to local harambee drives, thereby gaining legitimacy; however, such practices were never institutionalised during Kenyatta's presidency.
