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Reflections on Makhan Singh, Kenya's freedom fighter and trade unionist 1913 - 1973
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This is the second book published by Vita Books on Makhan Singh (1913-1973). The first one was Makhan Singh, A Revolutionary Trade Unionist published in 2015. That a second book is considered necessary is an indication that the full history and contribution of Makhan Singh to the working class struggles in India and Kenya still need more publications to be written and placed in the public domain. Of course, the Makhan Singh Archives at the University of Nairobi and Unquiet: The Life and Times of Makhan Singh by Zarina Patel remain key resources on him. As Kwamchetsi Makokha says in the Introduction of this book, "Fewer tasks can be as challenging as constructing the larger than life profile of Makhan Singh: a man who saw through and instantly rejected the tokenistic colonial assignment of Indians to a class above Africans; deconstructed the hierarchical colour bar by organising trade union activities that brought the two communities together; and brought a penetrating ideological clarity to the fight for self-determination by making a demand for Kenya's independence in 1950". While the name of Makhan Singh may well be more known in Kenya today than in the years after his death, little or not attempts have been made by trade unionists or politicians to understand and follow his ideological stand and to resist capitalism and imperialism as he did It is for this reason that the experience and the record of Makhan Singh needs urgent attention in Kenya, indeed in Africa, today.
