Kenya: How And Why Colonialism Came To Kenya (original) (raw)
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Modus Operandi of Oppressing the “Savages”: The Kenyan British Colonial Experience
Peace and Conflict Studies, 2018
Colonialism can be traced back to the dawn of the “age of discovery” that was pioneered by the Portuguese and the Spanish empires in the 15th century. It was not until the 1870s that “New Imperialism” characterized by the ideology of European expansionism envisioned acquiring new territories overseas. The Berlin Conference of 1884-1885 prepared the ground for the direct rule and occupation of Africa by European powers. In 1895, Kenya became part of the British East Africa Protectorate. From 1920, the British colonized Kenya until her independence in 1963. As in many other former British colonies around the world, most conspicuous and appalling was the modus operandi that was employed to colonize the targeted territories. Part one of this article discusses the tactics of subjugation used by the British to oppress, humiliate, subdue, conquer and colonize the Kenyan communities. These tactics included crown land ordinances; capitalist estate production; the establishment of African res...
Coping with the Contradictions: The Development of the Colonial State in Kenya, 1895–1914
The Journal of African History, 1979
By drawing on the current Marxist debate about the nature of the capitalist state, this article argues that the colonial state was obliged to be more interventionist than the mature capitalist state in its attempts to manage the economy, since colonies were distinguished by the way in which they articulated capitalism to local modes of production. This posed severe problems of social control, since the capitalist sector required the preservation of indigenous social institutions while also extracting resources from them. In early colonial Kenya this problem was mitigated by a rough compatibility between the needs of settler capital and the patronage exercised by African chiefs within a peasant sector which was expanded to solve the colonial administration's initial need for peace and revenue. The peasant sector was not destroyed, rather it was represented in the state, which never ceased thereafter to be plagued by the conflicts between the two modes of production over which it ...
The politics of control in Kenya: Understanding the bureaucratic-executive state, 1952–78
Colonial rule in Kenya witnessed the emergence of a profoundly unbalanced institutional landscape. With all capacity resided in a strong prefectural provincial administration, political parties remained underdeveloped. The co-option of sympathetic African elites during the colonial twilight into the bureaucracy, the legislature and the private property-based economy meant that the allies of colonialism and representatives of transnational capital were able to reap the benefits of independence. In the late colonial period these elites not only attained the means of production, they also assumed the political and institutional capacity to reproduce their dominance. The post-colonial state must therefore be seen as a representation of the interests protected and promoted during the latter years of colonial rule. Under Jomo Kenyatta, the post-colonial state represented a ‘pact-of-domination’ between transnational capital, the elite and the executive. The ability of this coalition to reproduce itself over time lay in its capacity to demobilise popular forces, especially those elements of the nationalist movement that questioned both the social and economic cleavages of the post-colonial state. Whilst Kenya may have experienced changes to both the executive and legislature, the structure of the state itself has demonstrated remarkable continuity.
Kenya is no doubt a special case" : British policy towards Kenya, 1960-1980
2015
This thesis examines the ways British policy towards Kenya was made from 1960 to 1980 – from the last years of British colonial rule and through the first two decades of Kenya’s existence as an independent state. Despite the late colonial traumas of Mau Mau, relationships between the British government and the new government of Kenya were very close. British officials actively pursued influence, and a combination of multiple and overlapping interests and a dense network of relationships encouraged British politicians, civil servants and diplomats to place a high value on this relationship, coming to describe it as ‘special’. The thesis examines how ‘policy’ was made, and argues that this emerged from numerous decisions taken by individuals at multiple levels, informed by ‘habits of thought’ as well as a general understanding of British interests which was shared – despite some rivalries and tensions between UK government departments. British attitudes were also shaped by misundersta...
2015
Cette étude compare les relations entre les communautés asiatique (indienne) et africaine dans la province de Nyanza et la Western province en suivant la problématique des relations inter-communautaires. Elle examine, compare les racines de la présence asiatique (indienne) et de l’occupation humaine dans ces deux provinces depuis 1901 ; elle explore les fondements et la dynamique des relations socio-économique entre les deux communautés. Des études ont portésur les Indiens au Kenya. Toutefois, aucune recherche scientifique n'a été faite pour comparer les relations entre les communautés asiatiques et africaines vivant dans différentes provinces du Kenya, dont la province de Nyanza et la Western province ; ce déficit a justifié une telle étude devenue nécessaire. Suivant un plan chronologique, des périodes politico-économiques, l'étude s'articule autour de quatre hypothèses de base sur un modèle, commun ou non, d’occupation duterritoire, sur les causes des conflits Afro-in...