Clamouring for Education: the struggle in Colonial Kenya
Airlift to America
In 1956, Tom Mboya, a Kenyan African labor leader, traveled to the United States and met Americans involved in the civil rights movement who were committed to the liberation struggle in Africa. Mboya’s fear was that when independence came, Kenya would not have educated Africans to take over the positions vacated by the settlers. Several colleges and universities had responded to Kenyans’ demands for higher education by providing scholarships for Kenyan students, but airfare costs still needed to be covered.
Mboya had established a Kenya Education Fund to solicit funds within East Africa, however the permit for collecting funds was denied. Mboya was able to garner support from the African American Students Foundation, Jackie Robinson, Harry Belafonte and Sidney Poitier, Dr. Martin Luther King and John F. Kennedy who worked with the State and foundations to implement Mboya’s plan. (Shachtman, 2009). Over 750 students were airlifted.
“Today, Professor Wangari Maathai, who came on the 1960 Airlift, is the first African woman to become a Nobel Peace laureate. Perez Olindo a 1959 airlift alumnus, became one of Kenya’s and Africa’s greatest conservationists. Professor Mahmood Mamdani of Columbia University, the brilliant ‘public intellectual’ from Uganda came on the 1963 airlift…. One that readers will find of great interest is that of Barack Hussein Obama, Sr. Imagine: perhaps if not for support from the African American Students Foundation, he might not have come to America” (Harry Belafonte as cited in Shachtman, 2009, p. ix)
Letter from Dr. King to Tom Mboya – 8 July 1959
“I am absolutely convinced that there is no basic difference between colonialism and segregation. They are both based on a contempt for life, and a tragic doctrine of white supremacy. So our struggles are not only similar, they are in a real sense one.”
Retrieved from The Martin Luther King Papers Project. http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/primarydocuments/Vol5/8July1959_ToTomMboya.pdf
African American Students Foundation:
http://africanactivist.msu.edu/organization.php?name=African+American+Students+Foundation
Tom Mboya & Dr. Martin Luther King at Civil Rights Rally:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0B60s5NiJw
Harry Belafonte speaks about Tom Mboya and airlift:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAiHDgRMzmE
Student Airlift and John F Kennedy: http://www.jfklibrary.org/JFK/JFK-in-History/JFK-and-the-Student-Airlift.aspx
Background Memorandum Prepared by Senator Kennedy’s Office Re: Grant For Airlift: http://www.jfklink.com/speeches/jfk/misc60/jfk010860_africangrant.html
Malcom X and airlift student
Shachtman, T. ( 2009). Airlift to America. New York: St Martin’s Press