Facing Mount Kenya : The Tribal Life of the Gikuyu (1938) by Jomo Kenyatta was the first academic anthropological monograph to be written by an African about his people. [1] It has led a tumultuous existence, being ignored, disparaged and celebrated in turn. During previous research into the remarkable history of this work, it became clear that other texts and their authors were engaged in relations of opposition or association with it, in particular during its production and its initial reception from the 1930s until the period following the Second World War…