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BAS 201:KENYA IN WORLD HISTORY

By Dr PAUL OPONDO

COURSE OUTLINE

1.Kenya's Political Geography

2. Kenya's place in Human Evolution -Australopithecus, homo habilis, erectus, zinjanthropus

3. Technological Developments

Stone Age

Iron technology

4. Origins and development of Food Production and Agriculture

5. Indian Ocean Trade and Kenya

Middle East

Portuguese

- Greeks

India

Phoenicians

Arabs

6. Industrialization, capitalism, imperialism and colonization

7. Kenya's role in World War I and II

8. Nationalism and Decolonization in Kenya

9. Independent in World Politics

10. Globalization and Kenya's Economy

11.Culture and Politics and Ethnicity

Importance of culture

Kenya as part of global culture

Youth,popular music and drama

 Kenya's Political Geography

Kenya's historical geography looks at Kenya's spatial patters in terms of people's movements and settlements
in various climatic locations. We examine how climate and vegetation affected human settlements.

Historical geography is an explanation of the location of various tribes in the Kenyan environment and then
interrelations with other communities.

Geographically Kenya is bordered in the Indian ocean in the S. East, Somalia in the East,Ethiopia on the
north,Sudan on the north west,Uganda on the west and Tanzania on the south.

The name Kenya was derived from Mt. Kenya (Kerenyaga), the second highest mountain in Africa, located in
the S. Central part of the country at the equator.

Kenya's physical geography and history has been influenced by the lowlands located along the Indian Ocean
along the Indian Ocean, the Kenya highlands, the great rift valley and the broad uplands of the Lake Victoria
basin in the west.

All these factors affected the historical mgration of the Bantu, Nilotes, Cushites, Arabs and Europeans who
occupy Kenya today.

Kenya's population is divided by languages and culture into more than 40 different ethnic groups. The largest
and most active politically includethe Kikuyu (20%) a Bantu speaking peoples. Other important Bantu peoples
include Kamba (11%), Luhyia (14%) and Kisii.

The Luo, of Nilotic origin who speak a non-Bantu language constitute about 14% of the population. The second
largest non-Bantu ethnic group comprise several clans of the Nilotic origin named the Kalenjin a name
indicating their common identity and cultural origins.

The Arabs and Swahili are a people of mixed Arab and black African origin are found on the Coastal areas while
the Somali and Galla are located in the northern sections of the country.Several thousands of Europeans
(British) and Asians live in Nairobi and other cities.

Historically the official language was English up to 1974, when Kiswahili took over (New Constitution).

Demographicnlly, the population density for Kenya shows that 4/s of the country is occupied by less than 15% of
the population and the remaining '/s the remaining is occupied by more than 85% of the total population. The
most densely populated areas are the Kenya highlands and the Lake Victoria basin with the densities of 400 per
km2,

Kenyn and the Human Evolution

Evolution is the process by which all living things have developed from primitive organisms through changes
occurring over billions of years, a progression that include the most advanced animals and plants. Changes occur
in living organisms that serve to increase the adaptability, or potential for survival and reproduction in the face of
changing environments,

Man belong to a class of animals known as primates and the family known as hominids. Fossil remains have been
found in East Africa that are relevant to dating the sequence by which the hominid separated from the pongidae
e.g. apes, gorilla and chimpanzee. Fossil evidence indicate that higherprimates had their ultimate origin in an arc
running from Western Europe through Africa to south-cast Asia, an area which still contains the largest number of
species of present day primates. As early as thirty million years ago two distinct groups had emerged belonging to
the genus Dryopithecus, the ancestor of the apes and the Ramapithecus an early hominid.

The proconsul fossils, from around the Kavirondo gulf area, particularly Rusinga island and Moroto in Karamoja in
Uganda. The Kenyapithecus group. It would appear that the differences between the two families were at that
time not as marked anatomically as they are at present.

It has not been early to imagine the methods of locomotion and the degree of erect posture in learning about
reconstruction and mode of life of the early proconsuls. This is because of the few number of fossils found and
broken bones that are recollected.

Between 20 and 30 million years ago to 3 millions ago the main development on hominids was
bipedalism.Different theories have been put forward to explain why an erect pasture and two-legedness
walk(bipedalism) developed.

Previously tree-living primates had to adapt themselves to a savanna environment. The small
primates poorly equipped to face the larger predators had to look up over the tall grass on their
hind legs to see of their way was clear.

Effeets of bipedalism

It treed the hands

The hands were able to evolve as specialized units, the thumbs becam separated and the fingers more adaptive.

The first bipedal creature known as Australopithecine of which several species have been found in South Africa, East
Africaand Chad area.

In East Africa, the Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania is the most famous and most important early Stone Age site. Louis and
Mary Leakey of Kenya in 1959 excavated a preserved skull which was named Zinjanthropus. Due to its large crushing
and grinding molars. It was nicknamed the nutcracker man and it belonged to the Australopithecine.

1) Australopithecine fragments and pieces have been found at the Omo valley in southern Ethiopia, Olduvai
Gorge, at Lake Turkana.

Contemporaneous with australopithecines in East Africa was another hominid called 2) Homo
habilis (the skilful man/man with ability). He was the first systematic tool-maker and a direct
ancestor of modern man. It was the creature with a bigger brain than Australopithecine. It is
suggested by palaeontologists that homo habilis represents only a more advanced form of
australopithecines rather than being a separated a separated genes.

By around 2 million years ago in the open environment of the eastern rift valley region of East Africa,
the Australopithecine had emerged as 3) erect bipedal creatures. Their hands developed
manipulative skills, the power of grip, and the precision of grip when using tools for delicate
work.During the human evolution, both the power grip and precision grip were developed.

In 1969, at Koobi For a near Lake Turkana, Richard Leakey discovered stone tools of the Olduvai type
dated 2.6 million years ago. Several remains of Australopithecines have been found in east Lake
Turkana. Kenya continues to be an important country for research in human evolution.

As a result of archaeology several hominids have been discovered in Kenya such as Kenyapithecus
vichen, Australopithecus Boisel, Homo Habilis,Homo Sapiens and Homo Sapien Sapien.
e

The Kenyapithecus which was excavated at Fort Ternan, though to have lived 14 million years ago. Related fossils were found near Lake Baringo and
Samburu Hills but those fossils were younger than those of Fort Ternan.

Fossils of the Homo Habilis who was the first hominid to make tools were found at Koobi Forest near L. Turkana.

Fossils of Homo Sapiens have been found at Kanjira and Kanam near Lake Victoria as well as L.Turkana sites.

Evidence of early man as a tool maker have been excavated in Olorgesaillie near L. Magadi,Kariandusi near L.
Elementaita,Kilombe near Eldama Ravine, Lewa near Isiolo, Isinya in Kajiado, Mtongwe in Mombasa and Many
places around Lakes Victoria and Turkana.

These archaeologists discoveries made Kenya an important place for research on human evolution.
 Social context of evolution

In social terms, the development of distinct human social organization demanded an accelerated development of
brain parts that encourage interaction within the community as a whole. As hunting supplemented scavenging, a
greater necessity for group consciousness took place.hunting by primitive methods was a group activity. As
was a l
evolution proceeded,ideas were shared and tools made in a regular pattern. The pelvic changes necessary for
bipedal movement resulted in the birth of young in a more immature state. More developments on the
complicated brain took place after birth and greater dependence on mothers by the young ones allowed a greater
opportunity for the transmission of ideas and habits. As a result, the mothers were withdrawn more and more
from hunting so that man's social loyalties and attachments developments.

TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS

1.Stone Age

2. Iron age

The Stone Age

This was the period in human history when man used stone as raw material to make his tools and create
industries. Humanity during its existence has passed through several drastic and fundamental revolutions of
economy and lifestyle through Stone Age,Bronze Age and Iron Age up to the nuclear age. However the methods
which gave human societies their particular advantages were largely dependent on the use of material
implements (tools) for catching,collecting, transporting and preparing food, and also on a rapid means of
communication to ensure co-operation in these tasks to language. The use of implements enable man to achieve
a far greater and more generalized control over his environment than the animals endowed with teeth or horns.
Language, by gesture and voice, in addition to indicating the most effective use of implements ensures both the
coherence of society and the handling on of its accumulated culture to later or subsequent generations (J.D.
Bernal, 1954:39). By time implement were being made,the social control already necessary for the selection and
use of the same because even more when such implements fashioned for particular purpose.

Although there was uniformity in the making of these tools, there were also inevitable
changes;improvement,borrowings and combinations which have led through a stage-by-stage evolution,to our
present state of techniques.

There was also the development of clothing. At first only food and implements were the concern of man. But the
came the custom of attaching objects more or less permanently to the body, in the hair, round the neck, waist, in
the hair, round the neck, waist, wrists and ankles.These attachments tended to become distinctive, and
ornamental and later, feathers, bones and skins were added.Then it was discovered that skins helped to keep
people warm in cold nights and in winter,from which came clothes.
 The Stone Age in Kenya can be divided into tree periods

1)An early period Antiquity up to 50,000 BC when the Stone Age societies were characterised by
hand-axes industries and the evidence for this is in Rift Valley areas of Kenya, Tanzania and
Kagera river in Uganda.

2) A middle period, from 50,000 BC to 10,000 BC when man became more adaptable and more
widely distributed because of his mastery of fire and new tool making techniques.

3) Late Stone Age, a period dealing with men similar to the present day races of Africa up to 1500 AD.(Merrick
Posnansky, 1968, Zamani),

1. The Earlier Stone Age

The pace of change was slow.The first tools from Olduvai Gorge are the oldest Stone Age industry in Africa
and have been named Olduwan. These tools were simple and were made for the job in hand such as
chopping open bones and cutting branches off trees for spears.The waste flakes struck off from the stone
pebbles or splinter of a stone giving a sharp edge, which was used for skinning animals, cutting different
ligaments between bones, scrapping skills and sharpening sticks.

A million years ago later, man discovered that tools with a sharp edge all round, and with a point formed by
the convergence of two sharp edges, provided a practicalall purpose tool that archaeologists call hand axe.
It took another half million years before these hand axes became fully refined. All these industries were
named Acheulean,after a place in France where identical hand axes were first found over a hundred
years.ago.

By the end of the earlier Stone Age another tool, besides hand axes many other tools were made
e.g.cleavers, which had a straight cutting edge like a present-day axe. Other tools included scrappers and
throwing stones, which turned into a throwing stones, which were turned into a throwing weapon called
the bolus, and then knives.

Man was a parasite durig this period of living by hunting and food gathering thedeveloped progressively as
a hunter, living on trapped animals and scavenging on large animals, which had died natural deaths, later
on he could using weapons.

His social groups were smaller groups of people who constantly changed camps,living by the lakes or rivers
where animals came to drink. A great part of his food supply came from collecting activities, digging up
roots, eating berries and nuts, insects and various green vegetables/leaves.

Africa was the most populous continent with a probable population of 100,000 around half a million years
ago. The remains of the early Stone Age are so abundant in East Africa e.g.Olorgesaille site in Kenya and
Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania. Stone tools are heavy,easily lose

their edges and must have been used on the spot for butchering anials rather than being carried

around.

The evidence from Lake Baringo area indicate that by around 750,000 BC man who existed was Homo erectus.
Man was spreading from Africa into Asi and Europe.

The Middle stone age (50,000 -10000 BC)

The most important discovery during this period was fire discovered 50,000 BC with its use,man could drive out
predators from rock shelters, keep himself warm in high alttudes,helped him in hunting, cooked poisonous
roots to make them edible.

Fire was use for scaring away animals from thickets.

The tools were now, thinner and smaller with distinct uses showing that man had mastered their use. Tools
became specialised e.g. tools for working wood,pounding roots and working bone.Due to the discovery of fire
and technological advances, man now lived on more vegetated areas especially in western Uganda.

The tools and cultures that existed have been named Sangoan and Lupemban industries. These tools were
specialized for wood, working and digging up roots e.g. chisels.Another set of tools known as stillbay industries
have been discovered in the open savanna of the Rift Valley tools which are left-like and pointed and the sharp
ends.

The Later Stone Age (10,000 BC)

By 10,000 BC,a new people who were Caucasoid (Mzungu-like) entered East Africa.They were similar to the
peoples of south-west Asia and North Africa. They brought new technological advances in stone tool making.
They made different tyes of tools. More efficient tools.More efficient could be made by using smaller sized
points or cutting components.

There was the invention of composite tools. Instead of a large number of specialized stone tools
of assorted type, the new tools consisted of variously shaped small sharp blades with handles.

There was the use of tiny blades or microliths that allowed man to exploit materials. There was
the use of barbed materials e.g. barbed arrows and spears. Barbs allowed the animals to die
slowly especially if they were poisoned ones. There was the use of bows and arrows.
In several caves in Kenya,hurial sites have been found e.g. at Gambles cave near Elementaita several skeletons have
been found. In East Africa all these new tools and microliths industries have been named Wilton industries.

Fishing was an important economic activities together with hunting.Evidence from L.ake Turkana shows that
fishermen used barbed bone points as fish spears and harpoonsfor catching fish. Late Stone Age peoples
lived around Lake Victoria. In the Rift Valley arca of Kenya between Nairobi and Eldoret, late Stone Age
industries are characterized by the presence of long knives extracted from the volcanic soils.The pop that
lived in this time were Bushmen similar to Bushmen hunters of South Africa.

The Legacy of Stone Age period

1.The period gave rise to agricultural and pastoralism knowledge in East Africa. Many of the stone industries
associated with the first food producing pastoral societies are similar to Stone Age industries.

2. In East Africa,the knowledge of pottery preceded the knowledge of food production yet in many rock-
shelters late Stone Age industries are associated with pottery.

3. Stone Age period lifestyles evolved into iron age period c.g. many stone age hunters acquired the use of
metal for their arrows and many of these hunters were absorbed by them Bantu-speaking neighbours.The
tradition of many Kenyan societies recognize small hunting people whom they interact with.

4. In Kenya the Dorobo were still common in the late 19th C as hunters and gatherers.Many of the present
day populations in Kenya retain an element of the original populations.

IRON TECHNOLOGY

From the middle of the second millennium BC the existing civilizations in Egypt and Babylon along the river
basins experienced Iron Age. It was first witnessed in the cultivatable areas of Asia,northern Africa and
Europe.

Iron tools and the skills of making them became known in East Africa 2000 years ago. In the western region of

Kenya especially around L. Victoria the first iron-using and iron working is believed to have been introduced

by early Bantu speaking people who were expanding rapidly and opening up for agriculture, vast areas in

East Africa, the Congo basin and southern Africa.

The evidence for this expansion is based on linguistic evidence and the discovery of lron Age

sites where distinetive types of pottery known as dimple-pots have been found.
But in northern part of Kenya iron technology was introduced by Nilotes especially the Highland Nilotes who
were pressing into Kenya from the north-west in the first millennium AD (1000). It is also possible that the
southern Cushites in Kenya had independently acquired iron before the arrival of the Nilotes. By 1000 AD
therefore all East Africans had passed from the stone age to the iron age.
 10

Impact of iron technology

·Led to food production technology being adopted in Kenya rather than dependable on nature of food.

Man took control of nature leading to population increase and human domination of the landscape.

Led to the domestication of grain crops and animals.

More virgin land and thickly vegetated lands for increased intensive agriculture.

In sum, iron technology created agricultural expansion and diversification as well as more pastoral specialisation.

Origins and developments of food production

It is the type of tools available that determine the range of crops grown and the efficiency of tools.Therefore,
metal tools such as iron are moe efficient than stone and wood tools. Iron was useful for cutting bush or forests,
for sowing, planting and cultivation of food.

Food production in many parts of the world including Kenya began in the late Stone Age
especially the Neolithic period. Ideally food production began with the arrival of iron-
working.With iron working, man became settled and acquired food production skills.

Iron smelting from rocks was secretive venture practised by a few families and clans as a
highly,specialized craft. The iron-smith was respected person. He had a high social rank and had
10
political power.

Iron led to an increase in population and migration of people the more areas for
settlement in Kenya.The Bantu expansion fo instance was facilitated by the acquisition
of iron technology.

The origin Agriculture Agriculture

The precise origin of agriculture remains conjectural uncertain. The domestication of edible seeds and horned cattle probably created new
began in the Middle East. It is possible that the growing of crops and the domestication of animals were always associated. relations
Originally animals may have been attracted by the extra fodder left by grain growers and tamed. In the old stone age was the first
between ma
animal to be trained.
and natur
There is evidence that agriculture may have started on the alluvial fans of mountain streams on the edge of desert plains. i.e. ma
Because grain gathering was women's business agriculture was the invention of women and was the work of women until the
ceased to b
invention of the ox-drawn hoe plough.
parasitic o
animals an
Where agriculture became dominant over hunting, it raised status of women in the old society as opposed to plants as h
hunting which had favoured men.
could grow
food.
 Man controlled nature through a knowledge of its laws of reproduction and hence he achieved standard

independence from external conditions.

It marked new order of advancement lead to a new kind of society which was qualitatively different because of the
enormous quantitative increase in the number of people supported by small piece of land.

Part of the population was set aside for other tasks for some par of the year hence new possibilities and new problems
emerged.

The emergence of reaI property owned communally - land, cattle, huts and stores of grain were there as fixed goods
owned communally by mankind.

Introduced a new concept of social life -work/kazi.New intervals or planting and harvesting were exhausting and
tedious processes hence they were done in seasons. New concepts of land as the giver and taker.

Indian Ocean Trade

Arabs
Portuguese.

India/Greece

By 600 BC the Phoenicians started their journey from the Red Sea and sailed to the Indian Ocean and the
consts of Eiast Africa (Justus Sanders, 1989, 1), Europcans hardly travelled during the middle ages to the
East Africa until much later. This is because of Ptolemy's theory which stated thut life was to be found only
in the temperate zones and not the tropical zones. Asbetter use of the compas was made and the
knowledge of distant countries became clear, the spirit of adventure drew men to the unbounded oceans.

Justus Strandes, The Portuguese period in East Africa, Nairobi, KLB, 1989

In the middle ages, India was not well known. India as a conception embraced southern
Arabia,Ethiopia,East Africa and the East Indies. India-meant those from where came the costly products
such as spices, aromatics, and precious stones. These items had become necessary for the comfort and
adornment of the powerful and wealthy classes in Europe. Since the time of Romans, Europeans had used
gold and silver and pay Indians in exchange for the precious stones and spices from India.

INDIAN OCEAN TRADE

In discussing the history of the coast of East Africa we know that the Phoenicians,Greeks,Indians and Arabs
visited the Coast many years before the Christian period. A lot of historical documents were written by Arab
geographers. Most of these reports are written by people who actually sailed to the coast of East Africa.
They describe the state of affairs when they were set down.In the Indian Ocean, "Zenj" is used to mean
black people of the coast. The most important works are those of al-Masudi (900 AD) and Ibn Batuta (1331
AD). There are also chronicles of individuals describing towns and names of their rulers. They were written
by Arabs or Kiswahili.

Some institutions have suggested that Egyptians, Phoenicians, Persians, etc may have to East Africa Coast
centuries before the birth of Christ. A Greek historian, Herodotus gives a brief account of the navigation of
Africa by Phoenicians. The Egyptians on the other hand voyaged to the land they called Punt near the south
or east African coast.

The Romans may have also visited Indian Ocean coast. This was because of the early Christian era, Rome
was expounding, was a military power and was pushed by a great increase in trade especially in the Indian
Ocean. A Greek merchant living in Egypt had written a report, the

13

Periplus of the Erythraean Sea. This was the earliest document that discussed East Africa and the most informative.
The Romans and Greeks referred to Indian Ocean as Erythraean Sea. Another document was Ptolemy geography.

According to these documents, the East African Coast was known as Azania or the land of Zanj to the Arabs. Its capital
town was known as Rhapta. The site of Rhapta is believed to be near the River Rufiji. Traders from Arabia visited the
coastal ports on dhows assisted by north-east monsoon winds. These Arabs knew the language of the Azania and they
married with the Bantu people.

We are told that the people of Azania were very tall,that they were pirates and that they had on a chief in each place,
since they had boats that were sea travellers.They were negroid and Bantu speaking people but this is in doubt. They
could have been Cushitic like the present day Ethiopians or even Indonesians who had come to and settled in
Madagascar or in the coast of Kenya and Tanzania.

The Arabs from Yemen came to East African Coast to buy products such as ivory, turtle shell,rhino horns, coconut oil.
The main goods that the Arab traders brought to exchange for these commodities were metal tools such as hatchets,
daggers and lances from Yemen.All these were made of iron metal, which the people of Azania had no knowledge of
how to smelt. They also brought glass vessels, wine and wheat as gifts to get the good will of inhabitants.

Al-Masudi tells us that between 9th and 10th century, ships from the Persian Gulf came to the
coast, also from Oman. According to him, the people of Zanj were governed by kings who
maintained armies.

It was a religious minded society. The oxen were used as a means to transport and during the
war.The people of Zanj cultivated bananas, millet, and coconuts on the islands.

There was a flourishing trade in ivory which was shipped to Oman and China. Al-Masoudi argues
that the Zenj people were Bantu speaking negroid. Some of these people were cannibals and
sharpened their teeth.
 The Swahili (1300 AD onwards)

The Swahili claim that their name was derived from “watu wa hila"(crafty people)(Strandes,1989:253).

Swahili means coastal people, from the Arabic word 'sahel' which means coast (ibid, 142). The term refers to
the people of the coast of mixed Arab-African stock,Muslim in religion and way of life and speaking an Arabised
form of north-east Bantu. However, none of them refers to themselves as Swahili. They lived further south in
the regions stretching north from Tana River to the modern Somali-Kenya border.

The coast was the region of Kenya most influenced by the Indian Ocean trade and the international connection.

For historians, the Swahili represents a fusion of Shirazi (Persian and Arabian) traders and immigrants with
Sabaki speaking peoples. This fusion is thought to have occurred just prior to 900 AD in the Shingwaya region
along the Soutern Somali Coast.

By the 1000 Swahili speakers had taken up residence at the coast with the earliest settlements at Manda, Pate
and Lamu archipelago. The Swahili founded Mombasa around 1000 AD and by 1000 AD they were living in
Brava, Merka and Mogadishu.

There are northern Swahili and south Swahili. The southern Swahili established themselves at Kilwa and soon
they occupied Zanzibar, Pemba and Mafia islands.

The population in these towns was mostly non-Muslim until 1300 AD when increasing
commercial contact with the Muslim world led to the wide acceptance ofIslam by inhabitants
of the Swahili towns.

Industrialization, Capitalism, Imperialism and colonization and their impact of Kenya Industrialization was an important event
in the economic and technological history of the world and Kenya in particular. It helped to reshape the patterns of life for
men and women,first in Britain, then Europe, America and later in Kenya. It increased the scale of production and hence it
brought about the factory system which in turn forced many people to migrate from the rural to cities. In the cities men and
women had to learn new ways of life,how to cope with work in the factories and live in slums. It led to class consciousness, as
men and women began seeing themselves as part of a class with interests of its own in opposition to the other classes.

Industrialization started with the introduction of new technologies in making textiles, mining coal. smelting pig iron and using
steam between 1750-1850.

Industrialization - The process of producing goods from raw materials in factories. It is about running a large factory or
industrial economy. Machines begun to be used to do work as industries grew rapidly.

2 Industrialization led to growth of cities and huge population. Cities grew in size andnumber once the steam
engine made it practical to bring together large concentrations of men, women and chiIdren to work in factories.
 3 Workers were more rapidly available in cities, attracted large numbers in the hope(false)of finding steady work at
higher wages than those paid to agricultural labourers in 1850s Europe.

4 The overcrowded cities lacked adequate amenities, a menace to the health of those who lived within them.
Cholera,typhus and tuberculosis were natural predators in areas without adequate sewerage facilities and fresh
water.

In the ten years between 1831-1841 London's population grew by 130,000, Manchester by 70,000, Paris
by 120,000 between 1841-1846 while Berlin had a large population by 1848having increased by 180,000
since 1815 (Burns,Lemer and Mecham, 1980:647).

5 Standards of living diminished and there was instability and unemployment hence poor salaries
and benefits.

Roufine work-To function efficiently, a factory demanded that all employees hegan and ended

accustomed to the relentless pace of the machine.

Poer housing - In the new manufacturing centros, rows of tiny bouses, louated close by smoking houses were poorly
built, old buildings felt into disrepair while new houses decayed quickly.Crowding was common place. Family of 8 lived
in 2 or 3 rooms.

Women -the life of working class wives and mothers was hard. Lack of cheap contraceptive devices and a belief that these
devices were immoral helped to keepwomen pregnant through most of their child bearing years endangering their
general health with a weekly wagc from their husbands,wives were expected to house, feed and clothe the family on the
little income. They also worked hence they had less time to accomplish the household tasks.

Capitalism and industrialization in Kenya (Nicola Swainson-Ch.3 p.99)

Sender and Smith (development of capitalism in Africa) Defined capitalism as a form of organization of
production in which the direct producers sell them labour power since alternative means of survival are
increasingly constrained. It is a mode of economic system where production is done for profit. Producers are
separated or have little control of their means or subsistence. The production process is dynamic and there is
a free marketleading to accumulation of profits and more capital (main objective). Competition occurs
between producing units, there's improved production techniques due to competition (p. 35-37).

The spread of machinery, the socialization of labour and the elimination of handicraft industries led
to the success of capitalism system of production.

Throughout Africa (Kenya included) free market (capitalism) have led to the rapid accumulation of
massive and shocking wealth by members of an outsider or non indigenous ethnic group (minority).
 Today's capitalism did not appear overnight but represents the triumph of 5 decades of American
foreign policy.After WWII (1945) in order to promote capitalism and contain communism, USA

promoted the creation of World Bank, the IMF and the organization for Economic Cooperation and
Development(OECD).They exported capitalism to Africa through these institutions including USAID and Ford
Foundations.

After 1945 there began a phase of concentration and centralisation of capital on a world scale.The post war
period in Kenya colony witnessed a rapid expansion of agricultural and industrial production. In 1954 for
instance, the GNP from manufacturing industry was greater than that of European agriculture. Official grants
(loans) and new private capital increased rapidly after 1945.Official grants rose from £0.4 million in 1946 to
£9.5 million in 1956 and private capital imports rose from £6.2 million to £12.2 m in 1953 - and this increased
industrialization in Kenya. A larger population of investment was directed to secondary and tertiary
industries which gave higher profits (Nicola Swainson).

More finance into Kenya was raised on the London stock assisted by Barclays Overseas Development
Corporation and between 1950-1952 East Africa received loans averaging£17million per annum.

Agricultural development was also enhanced in 1950s through the Swynnerton plan of 1954.Under
Swynnerton plan the following measures were taken

Individual land title

New marketing boards provided finance forcoffee,pineapple, tea and pyrethrum growing in the African
reserves. This stimulated the production of cash crops and accelerated capital accumulation in Kenya.

Labour regulations established

Land consolidation programmes

Loans provided to farmers in Kisii, Kiambu, Nandi farmers.

In 1953 the British government provided £7 million to assist African agriculture

NB: All these measures succeeded in enhancing the development of capitalist agriculture and the revenue
earned from the newly established cash crops rose from nothing to £4 million at independence.

In 1960-61 settlement schemes were established in Kenya through the assistance of the
World Bank and Commonwealth Development Corporation (CDC), aim was to bring about
an
 intensification of high grade agriculture in the Kenyn highlands and thercby increase the

production of commodities for the world market.

Colonial Policy Towards Industrialization

The large increase in British aid to the colony in 1955 whiclr amounted to £10.8 million was part of the post Mau Mau
solution for developing infrastruture and agricultural production in the African reserves. Kenya was on the eve of large
scale industrial development. The colonial government in 1950s offered special inducement to investors in Kenya
including the provision of infrastructure, such as roads and water supplies. Inducement also included subsidies, tux
concessions and monopolistic privileges which were offered to overseas enterprises who settled in Kenya.

Various government bodies were created in Kenya to foster industrial development e.g. industrial management board
established under the Defence Regulation in 1944 to supply the armed forces with manufactured items such as crockery,
sulphuric acid for batteries,pyrethrum and extract for cooking fat.

There was the East African industrial management Board and the East African industries Ltd engaged wood
workings, bricks, ceramics and tiles.

There was also Industrial Commercial Development Corporation (ICDC) established in 1954designed to
facilitate the industrial and economic development of the colony by initiating,assisting or expanding industrial,
commercial and other undertakings in the colony.

Most of the funds flowed rapidly into the manufacturing sector especially import-substitution projects
i.e. manufacture goods locally, those which used to be imported.

Asian merchant capital was confined within urban boundaries. The Asians invested in the
western Kenya.

It is estimated that in 1958 more than 1/3 of privatelyowned assets in Kenya was owned by non
-Kenyans. By mid 1950s foreign firms were manufacturing a wide variety of industrial products
including shoes and leather, cement, paint, metal containers, vehicle parts, fruit, soft drinks,

bicycle tyres and tobacco.Most industries were oligopolies (owned by a few). BAT established a monopoly over
production and distribution in all three East African countries since 1930s.
Other dominant firms (industries) after independence in Kenya included Firestone tyres,British
Oxygen,Lyons Maid and Gilbeys,Bamburi Portland Cement (1953), EA Bata Shoe Company (1958),Finlay
Industries in charge of brushes and wooden articles (1952), EA Oil refinery (1961) for paints and
varnishes, EA Breweries (1952), Del Monte (1965). In sum, the type of capitalist expansion which took
place in Kenya after the WW2 was determined by a fusion of internal and external forces.
 As a result, the Kenyan economy has become depend on external capital for her development.

The average Kenyan is not wealthy and does not possess western style amenities like the political
bourgeoisie.

Disparity in wealth distribution is outstanding -most people work in sustenance agriculture.The rich own
and control the large-scale farms in areas with fertile land.

The agricultural systems is still inequitable and biased towards the rich Kenyans with little
farms.According to Bradshaw (1990) irregularity is evident in the distribution of farm land,the flow of
capital in and out of agriculture and the class structure that perpetuate this situation.The Kenyan state
remains closely aligned with elite interests in both rural and urban areas, thereby maintaining an
unproductive organic system that contributes to under-development.

The Kenya government has consistently formulated polices that maintain adverse terms of trade for
agriculture. The government granted MNCS subsidiaries a high level of protection for their investments.

The worst poverty in Kenya is caused by landlessness and unemployment. A well-entrenched African
elites resist land reforms to perpetuate a capitalist system that undermines the poor.

Karl Marx (Das Kapital)(1966)

Capitalism -the production of goods for exchange by capitalists who combine capital and land which they
own with labour power which they buy from free property less workers.

It centres on exploitation of the labour power of free wage labourers.

Culture and politics in Kenya

It is a way of lie encompassing the customs and beliefs, art, way of life and social organizaton of a particu
country of group e.g. there is European, Islamic, American and African culture.Do we have a Kenyan culture.

It is a country or a group with its own beliefs etc - Its art, music, literature, drink, dance, foods.

Popular culture is that enjoyed by a lot of people

It is aset of beliefs and attitudes of a given people which they share.

Cultured people well educated and able to understand and enjoy art, literature etc.

Colonialism and culture

The civilizing mission of the imperial powers can be seen as an attempt to establish a regime of new ways
thinking and attitudes and bring social harmony among the different people (Robin Hallet). Yet colonial
introduced into Africa far more violence, instability, corruption,anarchy and loss of lives.
 The following are the socio-cultural consequences of colonialism in Kenya (Africa). African culture was affected by
urbanization, Christianity, western education etc.

Western education

The spread of western education was due to the activities of Christian missionaries. This education produced the
educated African elite which spearheaded the overthrow of the colonial system and constituted the bulk of the civil
service of independence African states.

Education also provided a Lingua franca - the mother tongue of the metropolitan country
become the official language and medium of communication among the numerous multi-ethnic
populations.

Education provided individual merit and achievement, which facilitated social mobility.

It also led to employment opportunities, production of cash crops, abolition of slavery and new
social structure divided into the educated and illiterate, rural and urban dwellers,rich and poor.
The urhan dwellers became stratified into 3 subgroups,eliteadministrative-clerical professional bourgeoisie,the sub-elite and the
workers (urban proletariat)

(Adv Boahen,1987,104)

The rural population became sub divided into rural proletariat or the(ahoi)landless peasantry and peasants.
These stratifications have been maintained in Kenya since 1963.

Modern facilities - All modern facilities e.g. schools, hospitals,street lights,radio postal services and most
employment opportunities were concentrated in the urban arcas.The combination of modern life and
employment pulled rural dwellers,especially the youth and those with schooling to the cities. Those social
services were inadequate and unevenly distributed.

The educated elites - Educational facilities were so limited and unevenly distributed because education was
not really meant for the benefit of Africans thensclves but "to produce Africans who would be more
productive for the colonial system.”

The curriculum provided by these schools -Alliance, Maseno was not relevant to the needs and aspirations of
Kenyans.

The elites produced by these schools were people who were mostly alienated from their own society in terms
of their dress, outlook and tastes in food, music and dance.
They worshipped European culture, equality it with civilization are looked down upon their own culture
hence the talk of mis-education rather than education.

Emphasis on liberal education and neglect of technical education created in educated Africans a contempt
for manual work and an admiration for white collar jobs.

In addition, the use of metropolitan language e.g. English in Kenya as the lingua franca prevented the
development of an official African language as a lingua franca.

Women - Another social impact of colonialism that still goes on today in Kenya was the downgrading of the
status of women.There are still few facilities for girls than boys. Women can thus they cannot gain access
into, the professions such as medicine, law, the bench and civil service.Very few are appointment to any big
post. The colonial world was a man's world and women were not able to play any meaningful role in it except
as petty traders and farmers.

Negative perception of culture

The colonial administrators, missionaries and African elite and condemned everything African culture e.g.African names,music,dance,
art. religion, marriage, system of inheritance-and they completely discouraged the teaching of all these things in their schools and
colleges. Even the wearing of African clothes to work or school was banned, all these retarded the development of the
continent(Kenya).

Colonial mentality (Psychological)

This was the creation of colonial beliefs among educated Africans. This manifests itself in the condemnation of anything
traditional the preference for imported goods, the style of dress such as the wearing of 3 piece suits in a climate where
temperatures are very high, the beliefs that all public property and finance belong to the government and should be taken
advantage of at the least opportunity hence corruption and mis-use of public funds and property.

Ostentations and flamboyant lifestyles especially on the elite and business class-while the
colonialists taught their colonial peoplethe protestant work ethic (self-denial) and the drive for
worldly success, they did not give us the spirit of frugality and little consumption. We were only
taught to make money not "make money but do not spread it, which was the commercial
imperative operating within the protestant ethic.
Money economy

The money replaced the barter economy. With the use of cash, the status of the individuals in
society came to be and is still determined by the amount of money you are able to
accumulate,not by your birth, age or the number of wives or children.

Independence Kenya in world politics

 After independence Kenya's became politically connected to the west i.e. USA and
Britain.Kenya's politics have always been volatile (G. Arnold, 1981). The politics have been
about personalities moe often than policies and the rivalries usually within the ranks of
ethnically based political parties KANU, KADU, FORD, ODM etc. At independence in 1963 there
were two parties,KANU and KADU though the latter dissolve itself and KANU remained theonly
party. In 1966, Oginga Odinga, the former vice president, formed Kenya People's Union
(KPU)which provided formal oppositio based on socialist ideology.

When there were no political parties, J. M. Kariuki, John Seroney and Martin Shikuku provided
criticisms of government within KANU.

Kenya's politics has been characterised by manipulation of succession, voting, cthnicity and assassinations.
Assassinations have been a factor in sparking off crises. In 1965, Pio Gama Pinto,an Asian, was eliminated, in
1969, Tom Mboya, in 1990, Robert Ouko.Other mysterious deaths of politician such as Argwings Kodhek and
Ronald Ngala. But there are not deep ideological rifts in Kenyan politics, the political elite wants to maintain
the broad status quo of a reasonably capitalist oriented system with minimum state intervention.

In January 1978 the Kenya we want conference was held and major issues discussed included creating
employment, personality, cults, nepotism and tribalism, use of Kiswahili, role of tribal organizations,
Kenyanisation, immigration and the role of women.

Tribalism/Ethnicity has been another big factor

Ethnicity is an aspect of social relationship between agents who consider themselves as culturally distinctive
from members of the other groups. Members have myths of communal original and ideologies encouraging
endogamy (Thomas Erikson, 1995). It is a social organization of communicated cultural differences. The aim is
to use ethnicity to access national resources. on behalf of the ethnic elites e.g. After the assassination of Tom
Mboya,President Kenyatta called on his Kikuyu community to smash the Luo revolt by banning KPU and
detaining Odinga.

When President Moi took power the government in 1978 he had learnt these tactics of manipulation ethnicity
to stay in power. So in 1979 he called on national unity and promised to rehabilitate the Luo politically.

Moi united the country despite the Kikuyu domination.

He maintained political stability for a while.

 But his 24 years of rule saw the marginalization of the Kikuyu, Luoand other regions of
Kenya.He preached peace, love and unity - but by 1990s ethnic wars and tarnished the name
of the country. In 1990s political parties. were formed a long ethnic lines leading to more
ethnic

animosity. In 2005 constitutional referendum, the nation became ethnically divided leading to
2007/2008post election violence that nearly destroyed Kenya.

BA Ogot states that president Moi was a populist i.e. his policies witnessed the supremacy of the will of the people.
He defined opposition by practising a policy of reconciliation and forgiveness instead of fighting open battles with
his enemies. He released political detainees.He pursued the policy of Nyayoism -he would follow Kenyatta's
footsteps.

Another factor in Kenya politics has been corruption. In the 1978 conference it was referred to as a big problem
that had taken root in Kenya especially magendo.

The political elite is affiliated to the capitalist owned MNCS through patronage - client relationship in the
distribution of power and resources.

References
1.Charles Hornsby, Independent Kenya

2.Daniel Branch, Kenya: Between Hope and Despair

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3. B A Ogot and W R Ochieng, eds, Nationalism and Decolonization

4. B A Ogot,ed, Zamani:East African History