When the Church of Scotland Mission demanded that Kikuyu Christians renounce female circumcision in 1929, thousands left and built their own schools. The Kikuyu Independent Schools Association was born. Githunguri Teachers College, founded in 1939, became the flagship. Jomo Kenyatta was made principal. The schools taught in Kikuyu, celebrated Kikuyu culture, and rejected missionary control. They were political institutions disguised as educational ones. The British recognized the threat and shut Githunguri down during the Emergency. But the independent schools had already educated a generation of nationalists. They proved that resistance could take institutional form.