Ras Makonnen, Pan-Africanist who gave Jomo a job in London pub

In the precinct of the expansive Lang’ata cemetery lies the grave of Tafari Ras Makonnen, a leading Pan-Africanist and financier of liberation struggles who gave Mzee Jomo Kenyatta a job during his sojourn in Britain in the early 20th century.

Born in Buxton, Guyana, as George Thomas Nathaniel Griffith, he changed his name to Ras Makonnen to express his sympathy with Ethiopians in the face of fascist aggression.

It was during this agitation for Ethiopia that he met Kenyatta and struck with him a friendship that lasted over 30 years.

ETHIOPIA

Ethiopia was always seen as a symbol of black independence and accomplishment.

Therefore, when Italian Prime Minister Benito Mussolini invaded the country in 1935, Black people all over the world staged protests against what they believed was a personal attack on their pride.

Among those who organised protests in London was Kenyatta.

With Wallace Johnson, Nancy Cunard, CLR James, George Padmore and Makonnen, who had arrived in Europe from Cornell University in the US, they formed the International African Service Bureau to champion Ethiopia’s cause. This also marked the time Kenyatta started keeping his beard, for they had all pledged not to shave until Ethiopia was free.

SETTLED IN LONDON

Makonnen would later settle in London before moving to Manchester, where he established a chain of restaurants, lodges, a bookshop, nightclubs and a shop.

His success in running and expanding his businesses made him one of the well-off Black people in Britain at the time.

He used all the profits he made to help Africans and support their causes.

Whenever they got into trouble, Makonnen had the contacts and finances to arrange bail or legal defence.

This earned him great respect in the African diaspora, who always approached him for financial assistance. In 1944, when a West African man called George Williams wanted to purchase a club in Liverpool, he approached Makonnen to lend him £600.

Makonnen agreed, provided the money was paid with a £40 interest at the end of three months.

JOBLESS

He also stipulated that during those three months his friend Jomo Kenyatta, who was jobless in Britain, should be allowed to manage the club.

And if the £600 was not paid within three months Kenyatta should become Williams’ partner with equal control of club management.

Williams rejected these conditions but his business partners threatened to resign if he did not agree.

Nevertheless, Makonnen lent the money to Williams, who repaid it after three months, during which Kenyatta became a manager. Kenyatta also worked in one of his restaurants.

PAN-AFRICAN CONGRESS

The famous fifth Manchester Pan-African Congress remains the most well-known Pan-African activity Makonnen played a great role in organising.

One of the reasons the Congress was held in Manchester was that the city had a large population of black activists, and Makonnen owned restaurants and lodges where delegates could eat and sleep. Because of the racial bar in Britain at the time, finding accommodation for a black person was almost impossible.

Historians always consider the Congress as an apogee of Pan-Africanism. Its uniqueness in advancing Pan-Africanism lay in its composition.

Unlike the previous conferences, the Manchester Congress brought together workers and black activists from all over the world. For the first time, Pan-Africanism was being led by the masses and not intellectuals in the diaspora.

Makonnen later said: “One important thing that came out of the Manchester meeting was the declaration that the struggle was not to be found in Europe for the majority of us. We had to make our own freedom, assert our own freedom in Africa, the land which we had been defending all along.”

RETURN HOME

Indeed, many delegates at the conference who were based in Britain, such as Mzee Kenyatta, Kwame Nkrumah and Hastings Banda, decided to return home to launch liberation struggles against colonialism.

When Kenyatta left Britain for Kenya, Makonnen was the one who saw him off. Because of the emergence of the Mau Mau and the heightened anti-colonial agitation in Kenya following the return of Kenyatta, the British government began to investigate his connections with Makonnen.

Ironically, the person who was feeding the police with information was George William, the West African Makonnen had lent money to buy a club.

PROBE KENYATTA

In a bid to find out if Mau Mau had connections with communism, the colonial government in Kenya sent a request to Liverpool City Police to carry out investigations on Jomo Kenyatta’s activities and associates in Britain.

“I beg to report that information concerning certain activities of the above named (Jomo Kenyatta) and his associates has been supplied to the police here by a West African named George Williams, who has proved to be a reliable source,” read a report by Liverpool City Police dated December 22, 1952.

Williams informed the police that Ras Makonnen had given Kenyatta £1,000 to return to Kenya and form a political party.

He believed this was the reason Kenyatta left England for Kenya. Makonnen was subsequently arrested and questioned about his links with Kenyatta. The conclusion by the police was that the troubles in Kenya were not connected to communists since Kenyatta had stopped being a communist sympathiser after he realised they were not ready to support his political work.

SETTLE IN GHANA

In 1956, in the run-up to Ghana’s independence, and in the spirit of Pan-Africanism, Nkrumah invited the African diaspora to settle in Ghana.

The first person to respond to the call was Makonnen, followed by George Padmore, a leading Pan-Africanist, journalist and author; then W.E.B Du Bois, a Harvard-educated American sociologist, historian, civil rights activist and Pan-Africanist.

Padmore and Makonnen worked as Nkrumah’s advisers on African affairs through the Bureau for African Affairs (BAA), an institution established by the Ghanaian government to provide assistance to countries that were still under colonial rule. This bureau would later be led by Peter Mbiyu Koinange following the death of Padmore.

Makonnen was moved to the newly established African Affairs Centre as director. The centre was set up to cater for the needs of refugees from both independent and non-independent countries.

OAU

He was also instrumental in the establishment of the Organisation of African Unity OAU, which later became the African Union (AU)

In 1966, when Nkrumah was overthrown, Makonnen was arrested by the military government and imprisoned at Ussher Fort for nine months.

Having benefited from Makonnen’s kindness, Kenyatta knew it was his turn to return the favour. He sent his brother-in-law and Cabinet minister Mbiyu Koinange to negotiate with General Joseph Ankrah, who had overthrown Nkrumah.

That same year in November, General Ankrah, travelling from the OAU summit in Ethiopia, made a stopover in Kenya, where he met Jomo Kenyatta at State House. It appears the question of Makonnen’s release was discussed, because he was freed a couple of weeks later.

INVITED TO KENYA

Kenyatta subsequently invited him to Kenya, where he gave him land, citizenship, and a job as adviser in the Ministry of Tourism in 1969.

In Kenya, Makonnen set up an African cultural holiday village in Shimo La Tewa and continued to support liberation struggles on the continent. He shared the little he had with South African refugees who had fled to Kenya during apartheid.

Makonnen died peacefully in his house in Lang’ata on December 18, 1983.

Most of his family members still live in Kenya.

The Sunday Nation spoke to one of his sons, Desta Kweku Makonnen, who lives in Kenya but is currently in Ghana.

“I have many memories of him. Interestingly, I always run into people who tell me amazing stories of how he assisted them. Unfortunately, my father was buried in Lang’ata and we are now making arrangements to build a monument that is befitting and educational. It would have been a recognition of his achievements to be reburied in a heroes’ cemetery.”