Jomo Kenyatta characterised Kenyatta as a Pan-Africanist. However, Maloba observed that while during the colonial period Kenyatta had embraced "radical Pan African activism", this was in "marked contrast" to the "deliberate conservative positions, especially on the question of African liberation", that he espoused while Kenya's leader. As leader of Kenya, Kenyatta published two collected volumes of his speeches: "Harambee" and "Suffering Without Bitterness". The material included in these publications was carefully selected so as to avoid mention of the radicalism he exhibited while in Britain during the 1930s. Kenyatta had been exposed to Marxist-Leninist ideas through his friendship with Padmore and the
Jomo Kenyatta insisted that it was necessary; in a March 1961 speech, he described Kenyatta an "African leader to darkness and death" and stated that if he were released, violence would erupt. This indefinite detention was widely interpreted internationally as a reflection of the cruelties of British imperialism. Calls for his release came from the Chinese government, India's Nehru, and Tanganyika's Prime Minister Julius Nyerere. Ghana's President Nkrumah personally raised the issue with British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan and other UK officials, with the Ghanaian government offering Kenyatta asylum in the event of his release. Resolutions calling for his release were produced