1 (2015): 103-131. Castration by British troops and denying access to medical aid to the detainees were also widespread and common. 6. The Kikuyu claimed some of the land reserved for Europeans and continued to feel that they had been deprived of their inheritance. [63] Another notable example was the pioneering lawyer Argwings Kodhek, the first East African to obtain a law degree. He took 50.5% of the vote. Britain had many colonies in Africa: in British West Africa there was Gambia, Ghana, Nigeria, Southern Cameroon, and Sierra Leone; in British East Africa there was Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania (formerly Tanganyika and Zanzibar); and in British South Africa there was South Africa, Northern . The British would force their beliefs and ideas of a more "civilized" lifestyle on the native people of Africa. What is Kenya Known for today Faced with the challenge of a new, multiethnic political coalition, Moi shifted the axis of the 2002 electoral contest from ethnicity to the politics of generational conflict. He also reminded the governor that If we are going to sin, he wrote, we must sin quietly.[220][223], Author Wangari Maathai indicates that in 1954, three out of every four Kikuyu men were in detention, and that land was taken from detainees and given to collaborators. They came from every corner of Africa Turkanas from Ethiopia; Kikuyu, Akamba and Meru from West Africa; and the Masai, Luo and Samburu from the southern part of Sudan. The Indians, then, must be satisfied with limited industrial and political rights, while for the black nativethe white Englishman spoke! The harshness of the British response was inflated by two factors. Germany recalled its ambassador to protest the "increasing brutality" of the regime and foreign donors pressed Moi to allow other parties, which was done in December 1991 through a constitutional amendment. Brennan, James R. "Lowering the Sultan's Flag: Sovereignty and Decolonization in Coastal Kenya." The psychological war became of critical importance to military and civilian leaders who tried to emphasise that there was in effect a civil war, and that the struggle was not black versus white, attempting to isolate Mau Mau from the Kikuyu, and the Kikuyu from the rest of the colonys population and the world outside. The history of Kenya dates as early as 2000 BC when a patchwork of ethnic groups, each with their own culture and language, settled in the country. The server responded with {{status_text}} (code {{status_code}}). Electric shock was widely used, and so was fire. On 20 October 1952, Governor Baring signed an order declaring a state of emergency. Science 324, 1035 (2009); The Genetic Structure and History of Africans and African Americans. During the Middle Ages, the East African Swahili coast [including Zanzibar] was a wealthy and advanced region, which consisted of many autonomous merchant cities. There was no university in Kenya at the time, but colonial officials opposed the programme anyway. The Mau Mau movement was also a bitter internal struggle among the Kikuyu. [80] In 2011, after decades of waiting, thousands of secret documents from the British Foreign Office were declassified. Journal of African History. (Portuguese-ruled territories, ports and settlements remained active to the south, in Mozambique, until 1975. If they had 1,000 in assets they could get a free 1,000 acres (4km2); the goal of the government was to speed up modernisation and economic growth. Moi ruled using a strategic mixture of ethnic favouritism, state repression and marginalisation of opposition forces. This movement therefore focused on anticipating the end of colonialism, rather than actively inducing it. It was ruled as a de facto one-party state by the Kenya African National Union (KANU), led by Jomo Kenyatta from 1963 to 1978. Up to the 19th Century, very little was known of the Kenyan hinterland until the arrival of the British who came and colonized Kenya. Hostility between Kikuyu and Luo was heightened, and after riots broke out in Luo country the KPU was banned. Trade unions led by younger Africans filled the vacuum created by the crackdown as the only organisations that could mobilise the masses when political parties were banned. After KAU was banned, Mboya used the KFRTU to represent African political issues as its Secretary General at 26 years of age. [205], Disease prevention was not helped by the colonys policy of returning sick detainees to receive treatment in the reserves,[206] though the reserves medical services were virtually non-existent, as Baring himself noted after a tour of some villages in June 1956.[207]. The Mau Mau military strategy was mainly guerrilla attacks launched under the cover of dark. [53][54] When Sultan Seyyid Said moved his capital to Zanzibar, the already large clove and spice plantations continued to grow, driving demand for slaves. [46][47] Another ancient traveller, Chinese Admiral Zheng He visited Malindi in 1418. Nov 2011, K. Conboy. These Bantu speakers mixed with the local inhabitants they encountered at the coast. [60], An early anti-colonial movement opposed to British rule known as Mumboism took root in South Nyanza in the early 20th century. The Swahili City States begin to emerge from pre-existing settlements between 1000AD and 1500AD. [27][44] The oldest Swahili texts in existence also date to this period. A certain amount of taxes was to be paid to the government for each hut a family owned. That said, other Kenyans directly or indirectly supported the movement. Aside from military operations against Mau Mau fighters in the forests, the British attempt to defeat the movement broadly came in two stages: the first, relatively limited in scope, came during the period in which they had still failed to accept the seriousness of the revolt; the second came afterwards. Excerpts available from: Freedom and suffering. Kenya Protectorate Order in Council, 1920, S.R.O. [2] Subsequently, many species of early hominid have been discovered in Kenya.
The British Colonization Of Kenya: A History Of Terror As the bearers of the mark of victory we should see it with the eyes of an artist, the heart of a poet and the mind of an activist. By the 1930s they actively supported union with Tanganyika as a protection against Germanys claims to its former overseas dependencies. After our long history with the UK and Kenya who actually decides on the president elected when kenyans dont have the right to vote fairly if at all. Their past distribution, as determined by the presence of loanwords in other languages, encompasses the known distribution of the Highland Savanna Pastoral Neolithic culture.[19]. After his tenure Kenya held its first general elections after the new constitution had been passed in 2010. [109], In the December 2007 elections, Odinga, the candidate of the ODM, attacked the failures of the Kibaki regime. 4 (2008): 83161. The new colonial constitution of 1958 increased African representation, but African nationalists began to demand a democratic franchise on the principle of "one man, one vote." The Colonial authorities suppressed the movement by deporting and imprisoning adherents in the 1920s and 1930s. The British Government founded the East African Protectorate in 1895 and soon after, opened the fertile highlands to white settlers. DOI: 10.1126/science.1172257. I stayed for a few hours to help the boys out, softening him up. A series of meetings dubbed Piny Owacho (Voice of the People) culminated in a large mass meeting held in December 1921 advocating for individual title deeds, getting rid of the kipande system and a fairer tax system. A year later, Europeans started settling. The Colony and Protectorate of Kenya was established on 23 July 1920 when the territories of the former East Africa Protectorate (except those parts of that Protectorate over which His Majesty the Sultan of Zanzibar had sovereignty) were annexed by the UK. After the fall of the Imperial British East Africa Company, the British government decided to turn Kenya into a protectorate that would defend and consolidate its commercial interests in the region. At a conference held in 1960 in London, agreement was reached between the African members and the British settlers of the New Kenya Group, led by Michael Blundell. On 3 March 1959, the camp commandant put this plan into action as a result, 11 detainees were clubbed to death by guards. A Royal Commission on Land and Population condemned the reservation of land on a racial basis. In 1993 and after, mass evictions of Kikuyu took place, often with the direct involvement of army, police and game rangers. By the 1930s, approximately 15,000 white settlers lived in the area and gained a political voice because of their contribution to the market economy. Even before it was officially declared a British colony in 1920. Before the war, African political focus was diffuse. To support its military campaign of counter-insurgency the colonial government embarked on agrarian reforms that stripped white settlers of many of their former protections; for example, Africans were for the first time allowed to grow coffee, the major cash crop. This was to be the first piece of the Uganda Railway. 3562. It was established when the former East Africa Protectorate was transformed into a British Crown colony in 1920. The dry reaches of the north were lightly inhabited by semi-nomadic pastoralists. It is estimated that between 43,000 47,000 slaves were present on the Kenyan coast, which made up 44 percent of the local population. Ishmael Ithongo called the first mass meeting in May 1921 to protest African wage reductions. When attacks did commence they were fast and brutal, as insurgents were easily able to identify loyalists because they were often local to those communities themselves. General Gatunga had previously been a respected and well read Christian teacher in his local Kikuyu community. The country remained independent until 1895, when it was colonized and subsequently governed by the British Empire. As the movement progressed, a Swahili backronym was adopted: Mzungu Aende Ulaya, Mwafrika Apate Uhuru meaning Let the foreigner go back abroad, let the African regain independence.J.M. The supreme court upheld the election results and President Kenyatta began his term with William Ruto as the deputy president. A variety of persuasive techniques were initiated by the colonial authorities to punish and break Mau Maus support: Baring ordered punitive communal-labour, collective fines and other collective punishments, and further confiscation of land and property. Militarily, the British defeated Mau Mau in four years (195256) using a more expansive version of coercion through exemplary force. Colonialism in Kenya lasted roughly 68 years, from the end of the 19th century until Kenya 's independence from Great Britain in 1963. Furthermore, the imminent transfer of control to the local population became a high priority.[75][76]. [74], As Kenya modernized after the war, the role of the British religious missions changed their roles, despite the efforts of the leadership of the Church Missionary Society to maintain the traditional religious focus. The Carrier Corps was formed and ultimately mobilised over 400,000 Africans, contributing to their long-term politicisation. "The Genetic Structure and History of Africans and African Americans". British Colonization (1888-1964) Zambia's colonization began in 1888 when the British South Africa Company secured mineral rights in the area. The settlers were partly allowed in 1907 a voice in government through the legislative council, a European organisation to which some were appointed and others elected. One of the most famous and complete hominid skeletons ever discovered is the 1.6 million year old Homo erectus known as the Turkana Boy, which is on display at the Nairobi National Museum. Augustin F. C. Holl. Letter to Evelyn Baring, 9 January 1953. [79] In these camps, the colonial authorities also used various forms of torture to attempt information from the detainees. The failure of KAU to attain any significant reforms or redress of grievances from the colonial authorities shifted the political initiative to younger and more militant figures within the native Kenyan trade union movement, among the squatters on the settler estates in the Rift Valley and in KAU branches in Nairobi and the Kikuyu districts of central province. The ODM charged the Kikuyu with having grabbed everything and all the other tribes having lost; that Kibaki had betrayed his promises for change; that crime and violence were out of control, and that economic growth was not bringing any benefits to the ordinary citizen. CIA Kenya underwent changes after being colonized by Europeans. The Voyage around the Erythraean Sea Available from: Felix A. Chami and Amandus Kwekason. Even the attack upon Lari, in the view of the rebel commanders was strategic and specific.. The Legislative Council consisted of 16 appointed officials and 22 elected unofficial members. At least 580 bodies are found in this well planned cemetery. At the outbreak of war in August 1914, the governors of British East Africa (as the Protectorate was generally known) and German East Africa agreed a truce in an attempt to keep the young colonies out of direct hostilities. His main rival, Raila Odinga, got 48.8% of the vote. Who colonized Kenya? Science. If we left that district to-morrow the only permanent evidence of our occupation would be the buildings we have erected for the use of our tax-collecting staff. The independent Republic of Kenya was formed in 1963. Who was Kenya colonized by? No assembly could be formed in the Northeast Region, because separatist Somalis had boycotted the elections, and its House and Senate seats also remained vacant. Bibcode:1978Sci201.1085S. According to some members of Mau Mau, they never referred to themselves as such, instead preferring the military title Kenya Land and Freedom Army (KLFA). Up to the 19th Century, very little was known of the Kenyan hinterland until the arrival of the British who came and colonized Kenya. [62], The first stirrings of modern African political organisation in Kenya Colony sought to protest pro-settler policies, increased taxes on Africans and the despised kipande (Identifying metal band worn around the neck). [60], Kenya became a military base for the British in the First World War (19141918),[61] as efforts to subdue the German colony to the south were frustrated. Kibaki was succeeded by Uhuru Kenyatta in the 2013 general election. At this time the British main interest was not to control local people, but to construct a railway that would connect Uganda, Zanzibar, and the Indian Ocean. However many whites rejected the New Kenya Group and condemned the London agreement, because it moved away from racial quotas and toward independence. Among British acquisitions was the land we today call Kenya. [1] The independent Republic of Kenya was formed in 1963. Palgrave MacMillan 1999 p 93-111. Available from: Highland Savanna Pastoral Neolithic culture, Kenya Federation of Registered Trade Unions (KFRTU), International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), "Taphonomy and Behaviour at the Acheulean Site of Kariandusi, Kenya", "First hominid from the Miocene (Lukeino Formation, Kenya)", "Oldest stone tools pre-date earliest human s", "Scientists Are Amazed By Stone Age Tools They Dug Up in Kenya", "A Cultural Leap at the Dawn of Humanity New finds from Kenya suggest that humans used long-distance trade networks, sophisticated tools, and symbolic pigments right from the dawn of our species", "Long-distance stone transport and pigment use in the earliest Middle Stone Age", "Ancient child grave was Africa's earliest funeral", "Archaeologists uncover oldest human burial in Africa", https://africanrockart.org/rock-art-gallery/kenya/, "The Introduction of Pastoral Adaptations to the Highlands of East Africa", https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190854584.013.63, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/274126407_The_Rise_and_Fall_of_Swahili_States/link/58cbce7c458515b6361d58ee/download, http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1450/documents/, https://www.blackpast.org/global-african-history/east-african-city-states/, https://depts.washington.edu/silkroad/texts/periplus/periplus.html, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/1924318.stm, "History and Origin of Swahili Jifunze Kiswahili", https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00672700309480369, https://orias.berkeley.edu/resources-teachers/travels-ibn-battuta/journey/red-sea-east-africa-and-arabian-sea-1328-1330, http://users.rowan.edu/~mcinneshin/5394/wk05/battutaTVLsEAFR.htm, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/jul/25/kenya-china, https://www.dw.com/en/east-africas-forgotten-slave-trade/a-50126759, https://doi.org/10.1080/21619441.2019.1589711, https://libsysdigi.library.illinois.edu/ilharvest/Africana/Books2011-05/5530244/5530244_1930/5530244_1930_opt.pdf, "Argwings Kodhek (1923-69) | Another World? KASU changed its name to the Kenya African Union (KAU) in 1946. The International Journal of African Historical Studies 33(2):437. He eventually surrendered in Zambia eleven days after the Armistice was signed in 1918. Moi's government in 1993 agreed to economic reforms long urged by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, which restored enough aid for Kenya to service its $7.5billion foreign debt. Was the United States or the Soviet Union involved in Kenyas fight for independence? Though there were degrees of difference between the villages, the overall conditions engendered by villagisation meant that, by early 1955, districts began reporting starvation and malnutrition. By the mid-1960s, the view of Mau Mau as simply irrational activists was being challenged by memoirs of former members and leaders that portrayed Mau Mau as an essential, if radical, component of African nationalism in Kenya and by academic studies that analysed the movement as a modern and nationalist response to the unfairness and oppression of colonial domination.