Harambee is a Kiswahili term whose precise roots are debated. Most linguists treat it as genuinely Bantu/Swahili and note that it functioned historically as a work chant used by porters when lifting heavy loads along the East African coast.
Harambee is a Kiswahili word often translated as “all pull together” or “let us all pull together,” and it names a long-standing East African—especially Kenyan—tradition of community self-help, where people voluntarily mobilize labour, money, and resources for collective projects such as schools, clinics, or local infrastructure. It became a central political and cultural principle in Kenya after independence in 1963, when Jomo Kenyatta adopted Harambee as a national motto, calling on communities to work together to build the new nation; the word now appears on Kenya’s coat of arms and is widely used for fundraising events and even as the nickname of the national football team, the “Harambee Stars.”