Throughout the twenitieth century, many individuals have made importaint
contributions to their nations or to thier region.Three that i will be talking about are
Jomo Kenyatta, Yassir Arafat, and Yizhak Rabin. due to what these Three have done what
whould be of there nations or regions.
Jomo Kenyatta was the first president of Kenya. He was devoted nationalist who
was a staunch protector of Western political and economic interests in Kenya. Kenyatta
was widely regarded as a stabilizing force in Kenya.
Kenyatta was born probably on October 20, 1891, at Ichaweri in British East Africa (now
Kenya). A member of the Kikuyu tribe, he was named Kamau wa Ngengi. Educated at the
Church of Scotland Mission at Kikuyu and baptized a Christian, he worked as a government
clerk in Nairobi. Where in 1922 he joined a political protest movement. By 1928, as
secretary of the Kikuyu Central Association, he was chief advocate for Kikuyu land
rights. From 1931 to 1946 he worked and studied in Western Europe and Moscow. While in
London, Kenyatta studied under the British anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski and wrote
his influential book Facing Mount Kenya (1938).
On returning to Africa, Kenyatta was elected president of the new Kenya African
Union (later, Kenya African National Union, or KANU). In 1952 he was charged with leading
the Mau Mau Rebellion against the British, and, despite his denials, he was sentenced to
seven years in prison and two years in exile. Released in 1961, he assumed the presidency
of KANU. In 1963, when Kenya gained independence, Kenyatta became prime minister. He was
elected president of the new Republic of Kenya in 1964 and held that post until his death
in Mombasa on August 22, 1978.
Yassir Arafat is a Palestinian commando leader and politician. Hes the head of
head of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). Born in Jerusalem he fled after the
establishment of Israel in 1948 later studied engineering in CairoRabin, Yitzhak (1922-
), Israeli political leader. Born in Jerusalem and educated in an agricultural school,
Rabin fought with Palmach, a Jewish commando unit, against British authorities in
Palestine. Jailed by the British in mid-1946, he was released in early 1947 and helped
lead the defense of Jerusalem in the War of Independence (1947-1949). Rabin then rose
through the ranks of the Israel Defense Forces, becoming chief of staff in 1964. After
the Six-Day War (1967) he retired from the military and served as ambassador to the
United States from 1968 to 1973. He entered the Knesset (parliament) as a Labor member in
January 1974; by May he had succeeded Golda Meir as prime minister and party leader. In
April 1977, after a series of scandals, he was forced to surrender his party leadership
to Shimon Peres. As defense minister from 1984 to 1990, Rabin was responsible for
carrying out Israel's hard-line response to the Palestinian uprisings known as the
intifada. In February 1992 he replaced Peres as Labor party leader, and after elections
in June Rabin again became prime minister. In 1993, after secret negotiations, Rabin
agreed to the signing of an historic peace accord with longtime enemy Yasir Arafat,
chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization. The agreement paved the way for
limited Palestinian self-rule in Israeli-occupied territories.group Al Fatah, and for the
next few years, while working with a construction firm in Kuwait, repeatedly led fedayeen
raids deep into Israeli territory. In 1964, he linked Al Fatah with similar groups in the
PLO, which he has headed since 1968. After the Arab League recognized the PLO as the sole
representative of Palestinian Arabs in 1974, Arafat worked to win the organization
international recognition. Also he made a strong effort to shed his terrorist image for
that of the moderate statesman. In 1988 he proclaimed an independent Palestinian state,
addressed a special session of the United Nations General Assembly in Geneva, and
recognized Israel's right to exist, thus meeting a pivotal U.S. condition for substantive
dialogue with the PLO. His support for Iraq during the Persian Gulf War eroded his
international standing, especially with most Arab governments in the Gulf. In a startling
development, after secret negotiations, Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin
agreed to the signing of a peace accord in Washington, D.C., on September 13, 1993,
calling for Israel and the PLO to recognize each other and for Palestinian self-rule to
begin in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank town of Jericho.
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