Jomo Kenyatta written for Malinowski's class and published them as "Facing Mount Kenya" in 1938. Malinowski wrote an introduction for the book, while the jacket cover featured an image of Kenyatta in traditional dress, wearing a skin cloak over one shoulder and carrying a spear. The book was published under the name "Jomo Kenyatta", the first time that he had done so; the term "Jomo" was close to a Kikuyu word describing the removal of a sword from its scabbard. "Facing Mount Kenya" was a commercial failure, selling only 517 copies, but was generally well received; an exception was among white Kenyans,
Jomo Kenyatta whose assumptions about the Kikuyu it challenged. The book reflected Kenyatta's desire to use anthropology as a weapon against colonialism. In it, Kenyatta challenged the Eurocentric view of history by presenting an image of a golden African past by emphasising the perceived order, virtue, and self-sufficiency of Kikuyu society. Utilising a functionalist framework, he promoted the idea that traditional Kikuyu society had a cohesion and integrity that was better than anything offered by European colonialism. In this book, Kenyatta made clear his belief that the rights of the individual should be downgraded in favour of the interests of the group.