SOURCES AND QUESTIONS for teachers

To what extent were the Kenyan people instrumental in their liberation / independence from imperial rule?

Using your understanding of the historical context, how useful are sources 1,2 and 3 in assessing the range of African grievances regarding their position and settler / government attitudes in Kenya prior to the declaration of a State of Emergency in October 1952?

Context

The East African Protectorate was established in 1895 by the British Government. The protectorate would be renamed as the Colony of Kenya in 1920 when it became a Crown Colony. (1) Lord Delamere first travelled to the Protectorate in 1897 recognising the farming potential of the land he moved to their in 1901 and acquired major land holdings in what became known as the White Highlands. More European settlers were to follow and by 1921 the white population had grown to an estimated 9600.

Kenya is similar in size to France c225,000 sq miles. Much of it is dry and arid land; it is estimated that c14 percent or 31,000 sq miles is suitable for agriculture either crops or intensive cattle grazing. The high value farmland is concentrated in the southwest corner of the country the Kenya Highlands are the area that would become known as the White Highlands because of the intensive settlement of Europeans. It is estimated that the African population of Kenya was  3 million in 1890 and ‘some three quarters would have lived in the Highlands’ (2)  

In the words of Tabitha Kanogo ‘Establishing colonial rule in Kenya and attempting to turn the country into a white settlement area had a profound affect on the local African population. Not only did the alienation of African lands (for European settler occupation) disinherit and dislocate many Africans, but the subsequent development of settler plantations and mixed farms created a demand for large number of wage labourers.But since no African labour force was forthcoming, the colonial government adopted a combination of financial and political measures to create the required labour supply. Attempts to coerce Africans into seeking wage employment included imposing taxes, creating reserves, disrupting local economies and denying Africans the right to grow major commercial crops. (3)

The three primary sources below highlight a range of perspectives on the issues facing the population of Kenya in the post WWII years just prior to the outbreak of the Emergency in 1952. Christopher J.Wilson who was a pillar of settler society Mbiyu Koinage who was a young Kikuyu who had studied in Britain and America and Karigu Wa Muchai who would eventually become a fighter in the Land and Freedom Army or what the British called Mau Mau. Muchai would eventually be interred at Hola Camp where the fighters who would not recant their oath of loyalty and who were put to hard labour and a brutal regime of physical punishment.(4) The challenge to settler power in Kenya was delivered by the increasingly militant young Kikuyu who made up the ranks of the unemployed in Nairobi and in the Kikuyu reserves. David Throup argues that from 1952 ‘the Nairobi militants and their rural associates, - were prepared to use force to undermine the settler hegemony.’ they were prepared to use force.(5) 

Notes:
1.    A "crown colony" was a British colony where the Crown (the monarch) retained direct control of legislation and administration, with a governor appointed by the Crown and responsible to the colonial office, as opposed to having a constitution and representative government. 
2.    John Lonsdale P13 - Bruce Berman and John Lonsdale ‘Unhappy Valley Heinemann 1992
3.    Tabitha Kanogo - introduction to ‘Squatters and the Roots of Mau Mau. Heinemann 1987
4.    In 1959 inmates were murdered by camp guards the ensuing cover up by government officials  and the revelations of what had taken place led to a debate in Parliament and international criticism of British policy. See  Caroline Elkins Britain’s Gulag  (2005)
5.    David W. Throup Economic & Social Origins of Mau Mau. Heineman 1988

 

Source 1: African Colony by Christopher J. Wilson (1945) 

MML =  YD12 AFR

A Signpost Booklet published by the Signpost Press and was commissioned by a Committee of Conservatives 18 pamphlets are listed on the final page covering a range of foreign and domestic topics.

The author Christopher Wilson C.M.G. had a twenty two year career in the Colonial Medical Service which began in 1911 when he was posted to the British East Africa Protectorate (Kenya Colony 1920). Apart from five years 1929-1934 when he was posted to the Federated Malay States. On retirement he returned to Kenya Colony in 1934 and became a member of the Legislative Council representing native interests. He was awarded the Military Cross during the First World War fro his service in the East African Campaign and was appointed C.M.G. (Companion of the Most Distinguished Order of St Michael and St George) 

Front piece: 

Too little is known of the condition in our Colonial Empire and of the undeniable benefits that have been conferred by British rule. Unfortunately ignorance does not prevent stay-at-home theorists from criticising our administration and prescribing wholly impracticable reforms. The facts about one corner of the Empire are here related by a pioneer who has devoted long years of service.

Authors Note: 

These few biographical details may perhaps provide a background for my attitude toward the African. I will only ask those who disagree with me to believe that what I have said about the backward races of Kenya has been written with real sympathy, some knowledge, and, I hope, some understanding.

The Native Races of Kenya 1. The Hard Truth

Recently the National Executive of the Labour Party proposed that “self-government at the earliest possible date” should be the principal object of colonial administration. What are the merits and demerits of this project with reference, for instance to the natives of Kenya? (p3)

It may be said that these are early days for worthy leaders to emerge.; that right education is all that is needed to produce the right men. British administration may be blamed for the lack of such men at present. But the case is not as simple as that. The fact is that the East African has hitherto failed to develop the mental and moral character which would justify his being placed in authority over his fellow Africans to the extent implied by democratic self-government for the colony as a unit. And I find no evidence, either from past history or present experience to demonstrate that the African will develop the necessary qualities within any predictable period. If this is so as I am compelled by evidence to believe, then the phrase “self-government at the earliest possible date” loses all practical meaning. (p4)

White Settlement:

One towering and venomous falsehood, perpetually presumed and replenished, is that white settlement in East Africa began by the seizure of land already cultivated by Africans, who were either driven by seizure of land already cultivated by Africans, who were either driven from their homes or forced to remain in a state of semi-slavery. This is a shameful travesty of the truth. It was the very fact that vast areas of East Africa were uninhabited and unoccupied when the Uganda Railway was built which led to the British Government to call for pioneers to develop these barren lands. (p21) 

Conclusion: 

Now, with the Colonial Development and Welfare Fund to draw on., plus reserve funds  accumulated during the war, we have a chance such as never before been granted for a great advance along the whole line. That advance will be planned, directed, sustained and paid for by the white man. The African for his own benefit, must follow the lead and willingly co-operate in the common effort, even when some of the work, for instance soil conservation may seem to offer no immediate profit. The cruellest disservice which could be done now to the African would be to distract his attention with futile dreams of political power, to dissipate his energies in immediate and delusive pursuit of the will-o’-the wisp of self government. (p30)

Content:

Consider Christopher J. Wilson’s arguments about the following. 
•    Calls in Britain for African self government in Kenya
•    White settlement and the seizure of African land
•    The future development of Kenya and the roles envisaged for Europeans and Africans

Provenance:

Consider the following questions
•    Who was the author and what connection did he have with Kenya?
•    What was the possible motivation for writing the text of the pamphlet?
•    Why was the pamphlet produced / published?
•    How does this affect the value of the source?

Further reading:

• Biography of Christopher Wilson found in Europeans in East Africa (on Line site)
• https://www.europeansineastafrica.co.uk/_site/custom/database/default.as...

Source 2: Africa and the Future: Land Hunger in Kenya by Mbiyu Koinage & Achieng Oneko (Congress of People’s Against Imperialism pamphlet, 1952) foreword by Fenner Brockway

Both authors were members of the Kenya African Union (KAU) which was formed in 1944 to unite all Kenya Africans for the cause of African self-government. 

MML  = YC14 LAN d

Forward by Fenner Brockway:

I stayed with Mbiyu’s father when I was in Kenya in 1950. He is so old that none can tell his age, but his influence and example are still as great as in the days of his chieftainship which the British ended. We are sometimes told that the Africans have no heritage or culture. There is more culture in the little finger of this old man than there is in many educated members of civilised races. He speaks in parables rich in meaning. 

Across the road from his farm is land that was once his, now occupied by a European settler. He was offered compensation the value of the trees, an insignificant amount which he refused. He is a skilled farmer, the first African to grow coffee in Kenya: but though the Europeans had extensive coffee plantations, he, the African, was not allowed to grow it. I am glad to say that he defied the order. I am more pleased still to say that he won his case in the Nairobi Supreme Court when the government prosecuted him.

Mbiyu is carrying on the work of his father. He wrote this pamphlet whil;st on a visit to London to lay the case of his fellow countrymen before members of the British Parliament. He went from London to Paris to lay it before members of the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations. He and his people will not be content until the Kenya Africans have gained to right to live on their own land. (p3)

Land Hunger in Kenya: Mbiyu Koinage & Achieng Oneko 

Now his majesty’s government had no power under Protectorate Law in East Africa, to extinguish the rights of land ownership of the Africans whose protection the British had assumed. And yet this power was taken. There was enacted the Crown Lands Ordinance (1902 updated 1915). This undemocratic Ordinance has empowered the Government of Kenya to control land to extinguish rights of ownership, to lease or sell or “alienate” land to non Africans. The word “alienate” much favoured means to dispossess Africans of the land of their birth and to give it to Europeans. - it meant in brief, the alienation of 16,000 sq miles to 2,000 Europeans settlers and the “reservation” of 50,000 sq miles for 5.5 million Africans. But even our 50,000 sq miles has been reduced by various proclamations which have “set aside areas” for trading centres, administrative and police posts - or where African lands are suspected of bearing mineral deposits, such lands are declared to “restricted areas”. The area of of effective settlement is thus gradually reduced although the population grows, and even if the cause of setting aside areas is beneficial to Africans. (p5)  

Towards a Democratic Kenya: Mbiyu Koinage & Achieng Oneko 

Even so, I have dwelt on the “land question.” And I have done this because we believe that the restoration of our land is essential for progress in other fields. Our advance to social, political and economic emancipation must begin with this vital reform. We know, too, that unlike our fellow Africans in the West, we face a dual struggle for the self determination in our country, and for full democratic rights on a non racial basis for all of the people of kenya. 

The African people are no longer prepared to be diverted by minor political or economic reforms. Although they look to world opinion and especially the British people for support, they realise that fundamentally they must rely on themselves for the achievement of full equality. In spite of all forms of oppression and persecution, the political consciousness of the people of Kenya has been growing rapidly. (p12)

Content

Consider the arguments of Fenner Brockway and Mbiyu Koinage & Achieng Oneko about the following. 
•    The historic ownership of land in Kenya and the position Africans find themselves in relation to European settlers
•    The centrality of the land situation / question for the development of Kenya
•    The political consciousness of the African people

Provenance

Consider the following questions
•    Who was the author/s and what connection did he / they have with Kenya?
•    What was the possible motivation for writing the text of the pamphlet?
•    Why was the pamphlet produced / published?
•    How does this affect the value of the source?

The Union of Democratic Control was a British pressure group formed in 1914 to press for a more responsive foreign policy. While not a pacifist organisation, it was opposed to military influence in government. In the 1930’s it took up the cause of anti fascism. Its was non partisan but the majority of its members were liberal or Labour party members. 

Source 3: The Hardcore: The Story of Karigo wa Muchai, 1973, based on his oral accounts of his part in what became known as the Mau Mau rebellion. He was interviewed in 1962 a with the Canadian writer and activist Don Barnett. 

MML = YC 14 HAR d

Early life 

I was born in the Limuru area of Kiambbu during the year 1914. My father was living on a piece of land left him by my grandfather. When his Shamba (farm) was included in the large Limuru section of KIambu grabbed by the British government for settlement by Europeans in 1918, my father was forced to move. He decided to go to Elementeita, which is located in the Rift Valley Province some 120 miles from our former home. There he got a job on a large European farm as a labourer. In those early days African squatters like my father were allowed to cultivate a plot of land for their own use and keep animals on the settler farm. In return they gave their labour and that of their wives and children to the settler for most of the year. Salaries where they existed at all, were barely enough to meet the government poll tax. (p10)

Muchai began work as a Kitchen boy aged twelve for shilling and sixpence (8 ½  pence) per month; aged sixteen he employed as a junior cook earning 6 shillings (30 pence) per month. Aged twenty one he became an apprentice driver earning 45 shillings (2 pounds and 25 pence) per month.In 1942 Muchai was forced to enlist in the army and spent the next four years moving from Ethiopia, to Madagascar and then to Burma 1944-1946.(p11)

While serving in the army we Africans were told over and over again that we were fighting for our country and for democracy, and that when the war was over we would be rewarded for the sacrifices we were making.. We would be given priority in trade and employment and could look forward to a much better life than the one we had left. For my part I was onl;y hoping for a small piece of land somewhere and to be treated a little more decently by the Kenyan government and white settlers. These hopes and dreams of mine were quickly crushed on my return home. - The life I returned to was exactly the same as the one I had left no land, no job, no representation or dignity. (p11-12)

In 1949 I joined the Kikuyu Central Association - KCA banned in 1940 for suspected collaboration with the Italians-  I discovered that the organisation existed underground and continued to hold meetings secretly in the homes of its members. 

In late 1950 I joined KAU, it had been started in 1945. It was a registered association attempting under the leadership of Jomo Kenyatta, to unite all Kenyan Africans and get the British Government to yield to African demands in the fields of education, wages, racial discrimination and most importantly, land and political representation. 

In the two years before the Emergency (20th October 1952) both organizations grew in numbers and gained strength. In the underground association (KCA) our policy had changed since the time I joined. Now we were attempting to unify all Kikuyu by bringing them into the movement. All would be bound together under one oath of unity and could act as a single, unified Muingi or community. We had no plan during this period to use violence in achieving our objectives. (p13)

In February 1953 Muchai was arrested interrogated about his knowledge of Mau Mau and in his own words ‘beaten unconscious’. He was eventually released 
However, I was warned to stay clear of Mau Mau if I valued my life and wanted to avoid even worse treatment than I'd just received. (p15)

Questions

Content

Consider the arguments of Karigo wa Muchai about the following. 
•    The historic ownership of land in Kenya and the position Africans find themselves in relation to European settlers
•    African economic prospects once land was removed from them
•    The experiences of World War Two and the political consciousness of the African people

Provenance

Consider the following questions:
•    What was the possible motivation for Muchai’s testimony?
•    How does this affect the value of the source?

Link to curriculum

OCR: A level History unit - From Colonialism to Independence:    The British Empire 1857–1965 section 2 of the unit = Opposition to British    Rule /Opposition    movements,    peaceful and violent including Kenya and Kenyatta

AQA: A Level History Unit - The British Empire c1857-1967, Part Two Imperial Retreat 1914-1967 inc Decolonisation in Africa