Education and Colonialism in Kenya

Author(s): George E. Urch

Source: History of Education Quarterly , Autumn, 1971, Vol. 11, No. 3 (Autumn, 1971),
pp. 249-264
Published by: Cambridge University Press

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/367292

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 Education and

Colonialism in Kenya
GEORGE E. URCH

THE INDEPENDENT nations of Africa now face the task of re-

evaluating and reshaping those institutions imposed on them by th
former colonial powers. The educational institutions these emergin
nations inherited are not linked to the realities of present-day African
needs.

COLONIAL ATTITUDE

Before abandoning past practices and patterns, the new

nized the need to examine the inherited structures in order to better
comprehend the strengths and limitations of the educational systems
now firmly entrenched in their countries. This is especially the situa-
tion in former British Africa where no uniform policy existed. Each
territory supported its own educational program and each governor
had his own ideas on how to educate the "natives." This British
diversity contrasts with the practice of the French and Portuguese, who
consistently transported their own cultures and orthodox methods of
teaching them to their colonies. The diversity in British Africa ranged
from educational policies that imposed the English model and all its
components on the African to policies that attempted to develop an
educational program based on the African's own environment and on
his own way of life. This lack of uniformity in British educational
policy led to a great deal of controversy. On one side were those
Europeans who favored rapid Westernization of the African. They
argued that old African values must be replaced since, whether educa-
tors approved or not, overwhelming social change was obliterating

Mr. Urch is Assistant Professor of Education, University of Massachu-

setts.

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long-existing traditions. The one great hope for progress in Africa,
they felt, was the application of European knowledge, experience, and
skill. The African students needed an educational program that pre-
pared them to assume a viable position in the modern world, not one
that bound them to the past.
On the opposite side were colonial officials, educators, and nonedu-
cators concerned with the maintenance of those traditions in African
society which they believed essential to the well-being of the African.
They realized the necessity for modernization, but they argued it could
be accomplished more easily and with less harm, if advanced ideas
were integrated into the existing culture. They lamented the fact that
the school, in removing the students from their rural environment, had
given them a dislike for their old traditions. They advocated schools
that were less bookish and more practical.
The controversy over colonial educational policy was especially evi-
dent in the East African country of Kenya. Here early differences in
the programs of government officials, missionaries, and European set-
tlers had developed conflicting policies that still existed when Kenya
gained its independence in 1963. Most of the present African leaders
of Kenya are products of this educational "system."

MISSIONARY ACTIVITY

Although missionary activity in Kenya dates back to the m

nineteenth century, (1) it was not until the last quarter
tury that mission work began in earnest. The Berlin Tr
provided both freedom to operate and some degree of p
missionaries soon set up stations in the interior of East Afr
ing close behind came the Imperial British East Africa Company.
Together, the pioneering evangelists and the traders explored the
hinterland, the former hoping to proselytize, the latter seeking new
avenues of trade. In 1888 the company called on the Church Mis-
sionary Society to establish a chain of missions corresponding to the
locations of the company's stations on a route into the interior. (2)
The company looked to the Missionary Society not only to Christianize
the natives but also to assist the company in developing communica-
tion and agricultural centers.
As missionary activity increased, native tribal leaders resisted what
they sensed as a threat to their own authority. The missionaries soon

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realized that they could exert little influence unless they were to enjoy
the protection of the British government. Together with the Imperial
British East African Company they urged the government to move into
the area, referring to the Brussels Conference (1890) where Britain
and the Western powers agreed to suppress the slave trade and prohibit
the sale of spirits and arms to Africans. In June 1894, the House of
Commons voted for the establishment of a protectorate, and one year
later allocated funds for the construction of a railway into the interior.
The forces of Western civilization in the guise of trade and Christian
missions now had access to the area under the protection of the British
flag. These traders and missionaries believed an educated population
to be a precondition for the spread of commerce and Christianity; the
first European educational ventures were a direct product of their
activities.
From the very outset British attempts to introduce schools aroused
opposition among the Africans. The tribal elders permitted the early
missionaries to live among them, to preach on Sunday, and to practice
medicine, but they did not want their youth indoctrinated in schools.
They preferred to retain their own established educational structure -
one designed to perpetuate African life as it was.
The traditional African social order, however, was soon threatened.
Building and operating the railway greatly increased the cost of ad-
ministering the territory; the British government sought ways to make
the railway pay. It first explored the possibilities of white settlement,
then sanctioned, and finally encouraged it, reasoning that the white
settlement of the Americas and Australia a century earlier constituted
"one of the nobler achievements" of the time. By 1903 the East
African Protectorate (3) was committed to a policy of white settle-
ment, and the government controlled the disposal of all land. (4)
When the settlers arrived the prestige and power of the European
grew. The African was drawn toward Christianity in his desire to
learn more about the white man's world, for his traditional way of
life offered few solutions to the problems created by the new socio-
economic system. The educational projects of the missions now entered
a period of vast expansion. In 1903 there were only four Protestant
missions at work in the immediate neighborhood of Nairobi; a few
years later these missions had opened a network of branches up-
country. (5)
The mission's educational objective was not only to expose Africans

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to a superior culture, but also to instruct pupils in the Word of God.
Missionaries wanted Christian "truths" spread into the villages and
countryside. The school curriculum was dominated by reading and
writing. A relatively high degree of literacy was necessary so that the
Scripture could be understood and disseminated to others. Instruction
was initially given in the vernacular. However, the multiplicity of
African languages and the rapid expansion of the missions resulted in
a move toward the use of English. The missionaries felt their primary
role was to proselytize, regardless of whether English became the
medium of instruction or the local vernacular was retained. A literary
education was considered necessary to accomplish this task. (6) Forms
of educational work which went beyond enabling converts to read the
Bible were considered to be dangerous sidetracks. (7)
The African, who soon learned to equate Christianity with educa-
tional opportunity, readily responded to the missionaries' literary edu-
cation. The ability to read and write became an accomplishment
necessary to obtain one of the better paid positions on the newly
established European farms.
While the Africans were developing an interest in Western-style
literary education, the colonial government began to realize the neces-
sity of training Africans for service to the white man. The influx of
settlers had given a tremendous impetus toward trade and develop-
ment. (8) With a policy of granting huge tracts of land to the
wealthier settlers, a great demand was created for African help of all
kinds. The government turned to the missionary educator for assist-
ance.

The demand for skilled native labor by the white settlers and com-
mercial leaders caused the colonial administrators to reevaluate the
educational program of the missions. Education solely for proselytiza-
tion was not considered sufficient to enable the colonies' economy to
expand. Government officials saw the need for an educational process
that would help to break down tribal solidarity and force the African
into a money economy. Sir Charles Eliot, H.M. Commissioner for
the East African Protectorate in 1904, expressed the opinion that the
African must be forced into contact with the European if he were to
improve his position in life.

It facilitates a better and more civilized life if natives can engage in

some form of trade or occupation which causes them more or less to

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break with their old associations and come under Christian supervision.
From this point of view I think it is a great mistake to isolate natives
and place them in reserves for such isolation inevitably confirms them
in their old bad customs and cuts them off from contact with superior
races which might improve themn. (9)

THE COLONIAL GOVERNMENT TAKES AN INTEREST

Divergent thought over educational goals soon arose betwee

government and the various mission denominations. The conflict
caused colonial officials to realize the necessity for interesting them-
selves more deeply in the education of the indigenous people and the
importance of creating an over-all educational policy to move African
education forward in a desired direction. For this purpose the govern-
ment invited Professor J. Nelson Fraser, Principal of the Training
College, Bombay University, to be protectorate adviser on all matters
relating to African education.
Professor Fraser arrived in Nairobi in January of 1909 and for the
next six months held discussions with various interested individuals
and groups in order to thoroughly acquaint himself with the educa-
tional scene. Government officials released his report, a document
satisfactory to them, during October of 1909. Fraser, having been
directed not to reinforce plans for the literary education of the Afri-
can, (10) developed a scheme for industrial training. He further
suggested that the government assume control of the entire educational
program throughout the country. He proposed implementing this
responsibility by appointing a director of education, and by stressing
the natural adaptability of the African to industrial training. (11)
The problem lay in inducing the native to participate in this form of
education; the African preferred his accustomed mode of life and
would not change further than force compelled. Professor Fraser
considered it the white man's obligation to urge the native into
industrial education; not only because white civilization required the
service of the Negro but because it would elevate the African to a
better standard of living with the concomitant advantage of contact
with civilization. (12)
Professor Fraser envisaged industrial training for the African with
dual goals - service under a white employer and work in his own
community. He felt the government should be interested in both

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forms of training since each would bring more prosperity to the
protectorate.
Fraser noted the desire of missionaries for financial aid in order to
continue their educational work. Although not wholeheartedly in
sympathy with their aims, he recommended that assistance be given
them in order to enable the authorities to keep in touch with those in
a position to influence the young African. (13)
The Education Report of 1909 made the colonial administrators
aware of the role education could play in building a young colony.
With the Report as a guide, the government began to assume a direc
interest in African education. An education department was organize
with Mr. J. R. Orr as director. The governor appointed an advisory
board composed of government officials, commercial men, representa-
tives of the missions, and members of the settlers' associations to assist
the director.
In an attempt to satisfy the varied interest of the advisory board, Mr.
Orr started to organize African education into three general categories.
The first, classified as "General Education," was to be carried on by
the missionary societies. It was to be primarily concerned with reading
and writing with a view to proselytize and to train African teachers.
The second category was referred to as "Industrial Education."
Missions were encouraged to develop the industrial side of education
through government grants-in-aid. The system consisted of an initial
equipment grant to two pounds per pupil and an annual grant of five
pounds allotted for each pupil who passed an examination set by the
public works, medical, or other governmental departments. (14)
Grants were made available for carpentry, masonry, agriculture, tailor-
ing, smithing, printing, and medical work. This course also included
literary training. (15)
The third category was the "Education of Sons of Chiefs and Heads-
men." This education was designed to prepare young men to partici-
pate in the administration of the territory. Schools were to be de-
veloped by the missions.
By 1918 it was apparent to the government that various missionary
sects were continuing to use education as a tool for expanding religious
activities and enlarging their own sphere of influence. It was equally
obvious that the missions were not providing the educational programs
suggested by the education officials. The government's first attempt at

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procuring a school census indicated that in 410 mission schools, thirty
thousand African students from an estimated native population of
2,700,000 were learning to read and write but little else was being
taught. (16) Much to its dismay, the government found the quality
of both African and missionary teachers low. Buildings were erected
with no apparent view toward permanency, and curriculum offerings
did not comply with the department's recommendations. (17) It was
an awakening which not only created general dissatisfaction with the
state of education but also forced the government to reevaluate the
protectorate's total school program. Accordingly, the director of edu-
cation requested the governor to form a commission to investigate
educational procedures throughout the colony.
The acting governor appointed to the commission prominent men in
the protectorate, representing exclusively European interests. His
instructions to them included an investigation and report on African
education in the protectorate; they were also to assign priority to the
type of education which should immediately be introduced among the
Africans. (18)
Members of the Commission collected data and interviewed those
Europeans who were most concerned with the educational situation.
The newly arrived white settlers favored an industrial type education
which, hopefully, would produce the African artisans essential for the
economic development of the area. The government's provincial and
district commissioners agreed with the settlers that literary education
should be subordinated to technical training and be provided by the
government, should the mission schools fail to comply. (19) They also
informed the commission that some Africans were not happy with
mission education and had begun to demand government schools de-
void of religious training. (20)
The missionaries, dedicated to indoctrinating the African with a
Christian moral code and knowledge that could be applied to the
"betterment" of the tribal community, insisted it was necessary to
coordinate education with religion. A general feeling persisted among
the missionaries that the government was aiding the settlers to exploit
the African. (21)
Conflict between colonial administrators and missionaries had been
evident for some time. Government officials regarded the missions'
practice of permitting each mission society to provide its own curricu-

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lum for African education inimical to the protectorate's interest. Gov-
ernment administrators lacked the manpower to control the entire
educational structure; the mission societies resented government inter-
vention in an area which they had developed. Missionaries saw in
education a means by which to extend Christianity and, in their view,
to help the African. They now realized their plans would be inhibited
by lack of funds.

THE COMMISSION REPORTS

The commission's report in 1919 appeared to favor the m

cause. The commission held that government secular scho
be successful without the "proper" religious and moral in
Christianity was considered an essential for the civilization of the
native. The best method of furthering the education of the African,
according to the commission, was by utilizing the existing organizations.
(22)
The commission then examined the literary versus technical educa-
tion problem. It recommended that literary education, together with
hand and eye training, be given to pupils up to eleven years of age,
after which a transfer to schools providing technical or teacher training
would be made. Technical training was suggested in such areas as
medical, administrative, commercial, industrial, and agricultural work.
(23)
As a solution to the language problem, the commission went on
record as opposing the spread of Swahili, the lingua franca. It per-
mitted the use of the vernacular in the preliminary stages of education
but strongly recommended English to succeed it, both on practical and
patriotic grounds. (24)
The government's role in education was also explored, resulting in
the commission's urgent request that funds be allocated to missionary
schools on the basis of an over-all plan for African education. The
official policy of the Education Department was spelled out in a
directive published in 1922. (25) In accordance with the recommend-
ations of the education commission, this directive contained plans for
the development of African education largely through the missionary
society's "assisted schools" - defined as "any mission school receiving
a grant-in-aid from colony funds." An attempt was made to categorize
all schools in order to establish conditions and procedures for allotment

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of government grants. All "assisted schools" were required to be open
for inspection at any time; the principal teacher must keep a log book
containing the lesson plans as approved by the education department;
a system of inspectors was organized. However, no inspector was per-
mitted to inquire into religious instruction or to examine any student
for religious knowledge. This area of education was still to be exclu-
sively under the aegis of the missionaries.
The government directive planned for a broad base of elementary
mission schools supported, in part, by grants-in-aid. The "assisted
schools" were to concentrate on literary training with such obligatory
subjects as reading and writing in the vernacular and/or Swahili. (26)
Beyond the elementary level the government envisaged a system of
assisted, mission-operated "central schools" providing both literary and
vocational training. Students wvere to be prepared for a specific in-
dustrial vocation while simultaneously studying such obligatory subjects
as English grammar and literature, arithmetic, and history. (27)
The directive helped move African education away from its forma-
tive stage toward a well-defined program, involving the financial
resources of the colony. Interest in the education of the African thus
broadened from a few missionary societies to include both government
officials and white settlers.
The early 1920s also brought concern for the people of Africa from
the outside world. By the end of the First World War the principles
of democracy became the prevailing mood as a wave of idealism swept
the European continent. The League of Nations and the development
of the "trustee" concept aroused a strong feeling that colonial govern-
ments had a greater responsibility toward their subjects. There was a
growing recognition that the education of the indigenous population
was the concern of the controlling government; a concern especially
evident in 1923 when the British Colonial Office in London published
a white paper declaring the interests of the African native in Kenya
to be "paramount," and emphasizing the intent of the British govern-
ment to improve education in its colonies.

There can be no room for doubt that it is the mission of Great Britain
to work continuously for the training and education of the Africans
towards a higher intellectual, moral and economic level than that
which they had reached when the Crown assumed the responsibility
for the administration of this territory. (28)

The British government realized that before progress could be made,

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a determined effort must be made to discover the educational needs of
the African people. Help arrived from an unexpected source.

GOVERNMENTAL RESPONSIBILITY

As American missionary efforts in Africa increased, problem

in defining their educational role. The contrast between ed
ideas pursued in Africa and those pursued in other parts o
caused both confusion and criticism. At the instigation of
can Baptist Foreign Missionary Society, the Foreign Mis
ference of North America petitioned the trustees of the Phel
Fund to support a study of education on the African con
trustees welcomed the opportunity since one of the stated
of the Fund was educational support for the Negro, both in t
States and in Africa. (29)
With the aid of the Phelps-Stokes Fund two commissions w
ized and sent to Africa. The first visited west, south, and cen
the other went to East Africa. Both were headed by Dr. Th
Jones, a Welsh-born American trained as a sociologist at
University. The assignment was to inquire into the educa
and to investigate the people's educational needs in the l
ligious, social, hygienic, and economic conditions. (30) The two
reports they published were to have a far-reaching impact on educa-
tional development in British Africa.
The general theme was the advocation of African education to be
adapted to African needs. The reports warned that the time had
passed when a curriculum suited to the needs of a particular group was
necessarily the best for other groups at a different level of advance-
ment. They urged the adaptation of the school curricula to the natural
and social environment of the African and especially encouraged the
adaptation of education to the needs of the local community. (31)
The Phelps-Stokes group which visited East Africa mentioned the
conceit of Western civilization in imposing a superficial imitation of
European ways on others. It counseled both native leaders and Euro-
pean educators not to blindly follow European customs, but through
Western education to develop respect for whatever was good in tradi-
tional history. The Commission decried the triviality of a school curri-
culum that taught African youth to sing "British Grenadiers" and

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despise the music of their own people. It also questioned the reason
for teaching the history and geography of Europe and America while
ignoring the more essential elements of the local environment. (32)
The East African Commission also commented on the lack of
cooperation in the educational area among government, missions,
commerce. Before education could progress, it was stressed, the h
of all three groups pulling together toward well-defined educatio
objectives was mandatory.
The Phelps-Stokes reports created a widespread interest in Afric
education previously reserved for missionaries' conferences. The Briti
government now realized the necessity of assuming a more prominen
role in the education of its colonies' native populations. They also
portrayed to the home offices of the various missionary societies
serious deficiencies in the education proffered by their men in the fi
In June of 1923 a memorandum was submitted to the Secretary o
State by the Educational Committee of the Conference of Mission
Societies in Great Britain and Ireland. It brought to the attention
both the government officials and the missions in Africa what it con
sidered the deplorable state of education in Africa, stressed the need
more cooperation between the various organizations, and finally, aske
that a permanent educational advisory committee be established. (
The result was the formation of yet another committee, this tim
permanent advisory committee with official authority to supervise th
entire educational program in British Africa.

To advise the Secretary of State on any matters of native education in

the British Colonies and Protectorates in Tropical Africa, which
may from time to time refer to them; and to assist him in advanc
the progress of education in those Colonies and Protectorates. (34)

The Advisory Committee met immediately to study the two Phelps-

Stokes reports.
After verifying the views and positions expressed in the reports, th
committee issued a memorandum outlining the principles designed
form official government policy. (35) Some of the most import
were:

1. The British government reserved the right to direct educational

policy and to supervise all educational institutions.
2. Voluntary missionary efforts in the field of education were to be
welcomed and encouraged with a program of grants-in-aid.

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3. Technical and vocational training should be carried out with the
help of government departments.
4. Education should be adapted to local conditions in such a manner
as would enable it to conserve all sound elements in local tradition
and social organization, while functioning as an instrument of
progress and evolution.
5. Religious training and moral instruction should be regarded as
fundamental to the development of a sound education.
A new surge of interest in the education of the African, heightened
by the Phelps-Stokes group and their reports, set in motion a definite
policy. Using Booker T. Washington's book, Working with the Hands,
as a framework, the Education Department accepted the concept that
African education should be adapted to African environment and
should be guided by both social and economic aims. The department
was determined to raise the standard of living in the native reserves
while endeavoring to satisfy the pressing demand for skilled labor. A
program of industrial and manual training was deemed essential in
order to meet the needs and aspirations of the African and to enable
him to be of assistance to his own people. (36)
Another result of the Phelps-Stokes visit was the establishment of
Kenya's first education ordinance. Idealistic and progressive, it firmly
placed the control of education in the hands of the government. Under
its provisions a district education committee was to be established in
each native administrative area throughout the colony. Composed of
both Africans and Europeans, these committees were responsible for
the efficiency of each school within their districts. The Central Educa-
tion Department was to assume the responsibility for licensing every
teacher in the colony. (37)
The year 1924 also saw the formation of the Central Advisory Com-
mittee on African Education, intended to serve as a sounding board for
proposals of the Education Department and to make recommendations
of its own. A notable achievement in the committee's efforts to pro-
mote cooperation between government and missions was seen when
the missions approved the suggestion of the Education Department to
exempt objectors in their schools from attendance at religious instruc-
tion. As a consequence schools were open to all Africans regardless of
their religious beliefs.
The spirit of cooperation also inferred a greater effort on the part

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of the government to support mission schools financially. By the end
of 1924, the Education Department had classified 296 mission schools
with an enrollment of 12,986 students as government aided, and had
given ?14,305 for their maintenance and development. (38) This was
out of an estimated 50,000 African students attending mission schools.
(39)
By 1925, with control firmly in its hands, Kenya's Education De-
partment began to criticize mission schools openly and to establish
principles governing African education. The department called for
curriculum based as far as possible on the mentality, customs, and
institutions of the African which reinforced the activities and opera-
tions of the village, not the interests of the European. Citing the mis-
sion schools' alienation of the African from his traditional customs and
beliefs, the department ordered the teaching of reading and writing in
the vernacular accompanied by hand and eye training in the work-
shops and gardens. The primary objective was to develop the school
as a community center providing instruction and service for the sur-
rounding community. (40)
Although cooperation between missions and government continued
to be stressed, it was understood by those concerned that the adminis-
tration of the educational system was now under the control of the
government. Through its grants the government was able to insist
on inspection, the curriculum of its choice, and the qualifications
necessary for teachers. The education of the African had moved from
a private endeavor to a public responsibility.
Thus, by 1925 the fundamental problems which faced education in
Kenya throughout the colonial period had been magnified to the point
where concern was being shown by both African and European. The
government continued its criticism of mission education which dis-
played more concern for religious training than meeting the social and
economic needs of its parishoners; the missionaries were frustrated
when their newly educated students left the tribal compound to seek
work in the fast developing urban area.
The African, virtually ignored a few years before, now began to
make himself heard in Kenya. The initial shock generated by the
European impact had begun to dissolve. The traditional causes of
tribal war, famine, and epidemics were disappearing and the African
had time to focus attention away from his local environment. A grow-

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ing minority took note of the developing Western society and wanted
to become part of this world no matter how it affected the indigenous
way of life. The attempt of the government to introduce an education
relevant to the traditional needs of the African in his tribal community
was not well received. Instead, the African perceived in education an
opportunity to become part of the Western world.
A new era was about to begin in Kenya Colony - an era which
would witness the gradual disintegration of traditional society as the
African endeavored through education to emerge into the Western
world of the twentieth century.

Notes

1. In 1846, Dr. Ludwig Krapf and the Rev. John Rebmann, German
members of the Church Missionary Society, Church of England,
established a mission station at Rabai, fifteen miles inland from
the coastal city of Mombasa. It was at Rabai that East Africa's
first mission school was started by Krapf, who realized that his
converts must be taught to read the Bible. Both of these men
explored the interior. An account of early missionary activity in
East Africa can be found in Roland Oliver, The Missionary Factor
in East Africa (London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1952).
2. Slater W. Price, My Third Campaign in East Africa (London:
William Hunt and Co., 1891), p. 3.
3. Prior to 1920, the area of British influence in East Africa was
called the East African Protectorate. In June 1920, the interior
of what had been the East African Protectorate, excluding Ugan-
da, became the Kenya Colony with a ten mile strip on the coast
of the Indian Ocean designated as the Kenya Protectorate (Mar-
jorie R. Dilley, British Policy in Kenya Colony [New York:
Thomas Nelson and Sons, 1937], p. 30).
4. George Bennett, Kenya, A Political History (London: Oxford
University Press, 1963), p. 9.
5. M. G. Capon, Toward Unity in Kenya (Nairobi: Christian Coun-
cil of Kenya, 1962), p. 5.
6. The ability to read and write was also made the criterion of a
genuine desire for baptism on the part of the African.
7. Somerset Playne in F. Holderness Gale, ed., East Africa (British)
(London: Foreign and Colonial Compiling and Publishing Co.,
1909), p. 92.
8. By 1903, the railway line stretched from the coast to the shores of
Lake Victoria. Its completion gave to the East African Protec-
torate a sense of unity and encouraged European settlers.

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 9. Sir Charles Eliot, The East African Protectorate (London: Ed-
ward Arnold, 1905), pp. 241-42.
10. East African Protectorate, Education Report, 1909 (Nairobi:
Government Printer, 1909), p. 32.
11. Ibid., p. 33.
12. Ibid.
13. The Leader of East Africa, October 30, 1909, p. 2.
14. East African Standard, The East African Red Book, 1925-26
(Nairobi: East African Standard, 1925), p. 227.
15. H. F. Ward and J. W. Milligan, Handbook of British East Africa,
1912 (Nairobi: Caxton [B.E.A.] Printing and Publishing Co.,
1912), p. 176.
16. East African Standard, The 'Standard' British East Africa and
Uganda Handbook and Directory (Nairobi: East African Stand-
ard, 1919), pp. 163-64.
17. After educational officials visited a mission school up-country the
Provincial Commissioner, Nyeri, was informed that education was
so primitive that it was a matter of getting the young men to read
and write and to grasp the simplest elements of arithmetic. Most
of the students would appear only in the morning (East African
Protectorate, Native Affairs, Minute Paper No. 22 (d) [Nairobi
Government Printer, 1918]).
18. East African Protectorate, Report of the Education Commission of
the East African Protectorate (Nairobi: Swift Press, 1919), p. 6.
19. East African Protectorate, Evidence of the Education Commission
of the East African Protectorate (Nairobi: Swift Press, 1919),
p. 214.
20. Ibid.
21. Empathy for the problem of the African caused the missionarie
to suggest to the colonial government that they represent th
native's interest in the protectorate's Legislative Council. George
Bennett, "Settlers and Politics in Kenya," in History of East Afri-
ca, ed. Vincent Harlow (Oxford: Claredon Press, 1965), 2:293.
22. East African Protectorate, Report of the Education Commission
the East African Protectorate, p. 6.
23. Ibid., p. 9.
24. Ibid., p. 8.
25. Kenya Colony and Protectorate, Departmental Instructions Con-
cerning Native Education in Assisted Schools (Nairobi: Govern-
ment Printer, 1922).
26. Ibid., p. 4.
27. Ibid., p. 10.
28. Great Britain, Colonial Office, Indians in Kenya, Cmd. 192
(London: H.M.S.O., 1923), p. 10.
29. The Phelps-Stokes Fund was provided for in the will of Mi

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 Caroline Phelps-Stokes in May 1911. The fund was active in
supporting Negro education in the southern states and in promot-
ing interracial cooperation.
30. Thomas Jesse Jones, Education in Africa (New York: Phelps-
Stokes Fund, 1922), p. xvi.
31. Ibid., p. xix.
32. Thomas Jesse Jones, Education in East Africa (New York:
Phelps-Stokes Fund, 1925), p. 18.
33. L. J. Lewis, Educational Policy and Practice in British Tropical
Areas (London: Thomas Nelson and Sons, 1954), p. 13.
34. Great Britain, Colonial Office, Advisory Committee on Native
Education in the British Tropical African Dependencies, Educa-
tional Policy in British Tropical Africa, Cmd. 2347 (London:
H.M.S.O., 1925), p. 2.
35. Ibid.
36. Kenya Colony and Protectorate, Education Department, Annual
Report, 1924 (Nairobi: Government Printer, 1924), p. 19.
37. Kenya Colony and Protectorate, Education Ordinance, No. 17
(Nairobi: Government Printer, 1924).
38. East African Standard, The East African Red Book, 1925-26
(Nairobi: East African Standard, 1925), pp. 230-31.
39. Ibid., p. 288.
40. Kenya Colony and Protectorate, Education Department, Annual
Report, 1925 (Nairobi: East African Standard, 1925),p. 13.

264 HISTORY OF EDUCATION QUARTERLY

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