Kenya and the Death of Colonialism

...Although there is no compulsory free education for Africans, the peasant, the laborer and the market woman, no matter how ignorant or illiterate, as well as the more sophisticated clerk or businessman, hold equally as a major objective the setting aside of at least part of their meager earnings for the education of their children...

...Detention camps are gradually emptying, and the country is reverting to peaceful conditions...

...Kenya is part of today's awakening Africa...

...As in many such countries, land represents security, either individually or within the context of a family, clan or tribal unit...

...Today, the color bar in hotels, shops, post offices, cinemas and public transportation has either completely disappeared or is on its way out...

...Tom Mboya is one of the outstanding young African leaders and spokesmen for a democratic Africa...

...Colonialism is an idea that is dying fast, and the colonial powers, through various devices, are hard at work trying to put off for as long as possible the day of its liquidation...

...Socially, members of a tribe regard each other as brothers or sisters, whatever their actual relationship may be...

...The Africans were given only a token representation in 1946...

...Kenya has passed through a series of political and constitutional changes...

...The same Constitution granted Europeans four ministers as against two for the Africans and two for the Asians...

...Generally, however, the situation is more hopeful and the future brighter...

...Those engaged in the ideological battle between Communism and democracy want to know which way Africa will turn...

...In Kenya itself, the Royal Technical College of East Africa has been established with a view toward developing a full-fledged technical college at the university level...

...Britain was forced out of Egypt and in the end gave independence to the Sudan...

...By Tom Mboya Kenya and the Death of Colonialism Kenya Africans want political, social and economic equality leading to complete freedom NAIROBI A DECADE AGO the name Kenya meant nothing to many outside Africa and little to some in Africa itself...

...The situation since then has improved considerably...

...When studying any part of Africa, one must constantly bear in mind that it is no longer a dark continent of primitive, ignorant people...

...I want to present a truer picture of Kenya, and its political, social and economic problems...

...East Africa consists of four units: Tanganyika, a Trusteeship territory which will achieve self-government this September...

...In 57 years of contact with the modern world, his social life has been subject to change and his economic structure is more and more dependent on a money economy...

...One important feature in Kenya's life, connected with agricultural development, relates to land tenure...

...Although this structure is breaking down in some areas, depending on the extent to which the money market is influential, this communal and tribal structure is still dominant in many areas...

...The European settlers cling desperately to domination in the Government, the sanctity of the "White Highlands" and separate schools, even though awakening Africa has no room for such obsolete concepts...

...It is also caught up in the stream of nationalism sweeping Africa...

...Of the 60,000 Europeans in Kenya only some 10,-000 actually live in the "White Highlands...

...I say, "in theory," since in practice the British insist on determining the pace of that development, and also in deciding when these people are ready for self-government...

...Under this system 400,000 Africans meeting age, property, public service and educational qualifications became eligible to vote...

...Though an ardent nationalist, Mboya is deeply committed to gradualism, non-violence and freedom...

...There is no longer any active fighting...

...After World War II...

...They own and use their land and other property, such as cattle, communally...

...Most of this educational activity is a postwar development, and although an important advance, remains totally inadequate to meet the rapidly growing needs of Africans and the country generally...

...Pan-Africanism is growing, and with this growth there is emerging a more mature and determined African nationalist movement...

...There are also Medical and Public Health Training Institutions and a number of Technical and Trades Centers...

...Despite African protests at these injustices, the British Government has refused to rectify them...

...There are a few countries which will advance to internal self-rule...

...Socially, the African once was the subject of discrimination in public places and was generally treated with contempt and ridicule...

...The African members have declined to accept the two ministerial offices and the two assistant Ministerships reserved for their community...

...However, the Government still maintains a policy of discrimination in schools and hospitals and, in urban areas, in housing and residence...

...White settlers claim that their only reason for coming to East Africa was to stamp out the Arab slave trade and to help develop Africa...

...Africa must be vigilant...

...and Kenya, the last remaining colony, whose political problems are among the most challenging in British Africa...

...Discrimination is still practiced under the pretense that the African lacks experience, or would be helpless without the tutorial role of the British...

...This is the best and most fertile land in the country...

...While this demand was denied, the Asians received direct representation in the legislature...

...Some tribes own land on a tribal basis, others on a clan basis, and only a very few have a family identity...

...Mentioning this issue raises tempers on both sides...

...In addition, there is an East Indian population of 150,000 and an Arab population of 25,000...

...One cannot discuss African economic and social development without referring to education, which has become most urgent to Africans...

...The African members have also stated that Kenya is primarily an African country and as such the Government will be African...

...The African who works or lives on this land is a squatter, never a landowner...

...In theory, Britain has for a long time maintained that her colonial policy was based on the development of her possessions in trust for the indigenous people until such time as they were able to take over...

...the United States too has become a very important source of university education for Kenyans...

...One of the outstanding questions in Africa is the future of the so-called multi-racial areas...

...The Kenya African desired, and still desires, political, social and economic equality leading to complete political freedom...

...It does not wish to exchange one form of colonialism for another...

...Despite the introduction of non-racial wages, salaries and conditions of employment in the civil service, there is still discrimination in employment and promotion opportunities...

...The African remains a peasant farmer, with ox-drawn plows commonly employed on the soil...

...Africa is entering a decade that will see the end of colonialism...

...African nationalism in Kenya is part of a general African awakening...

...In 1955 the one-man commission recommended, and the Government accepted, a qualitative, multiple-vote franchise for Africans...

...Since 1952, in addition to economic and social developments...

...For a long time African agricultural and economic activities have been based on subsistence needs, and there is a high degree of segmentation in land...

...Denied the right to own land, the African is told that because he lacks security he cannot avail himself of loan and credit facilities...

...Contrast this situation with that facing the 6 million Africans who must live in reserves or land units of approximately 52,000 square miles, some of which is dry scrub land...

...To the outside world Britain presents Kenya as a country of primitives who are happy to go about slaughtering their fellow men and who rebel against modern science and contemporary ways of life and religion, reverting to barbarism...

...Here the white settlers own land on 999-year leases, or on free hold...

...African social structure is based in the main on tribal units within which there is a clan, and below this a family...

...The concept of European supremacy is gradually changing, though most European leaders continue to believe in European domination...

...Uganda, a Protectorate whose future is decided...

...Following earlier policies, the British Government set aside some 13,000 square miles of land exclusively for white settlers...

...Kenya is spending about 17 per cent of its budget on education...

...But the postwar period has seen the rapid and spectacular development of a new world opinion, and of a determined and mature political consciousness in the colonies...

...African wealth has taken the form of cattle, goats and sheep, not necessarily for sale and slaughter, but for such purposes as dowry payments and ceremonial fees...

...One cannot give a complete picture of Kenya without dealing with the position of the white settlement of approximately 60,000 as compared with 6 million Africans...

...Not only do Europeans own large tracts of land, but there is vacant land which awaits new European settlers...

...This was the situation in 1952 when, due to Mau Mau violence, the Government declared a state of emergency, which has cost the country over 3,000 lives, and many more wounded...

...They should aid Africa in removing the conditions which undermine the foundations of freedom and democracy...

...The Asians have agitated for their rights and demanded the creation of a common voters' roll...

...In March 1958 another election was held in Kenya...

...Kenyan students, some on scholarships, are also to be found in the United Kingdom and India...

...In 1952, whereas 6 million Africans were represented by six nominated members, 60,000 Europeans were represented by 14 directly elected members, 150,000 Asians by six directly elected members, and the 25,000 Arabs by one elected and one nominated member...

...But many of us continue to ask whether this costly and destructive emergency was necessary to awaken the British and the settlers to the realities of African aspirations...

...Arrest and detention without trial resulted in the mass deprivation of freedom and liberty for over 400,000 persons, leaving many innocent women and children without support or means of livelihood...

...World opinion is becoming increasingly sensitive to colonialism, and whether Britain likes it or not, the days of her rule are numbered...

...East Africa as a whole is served by one University College, at Makarere in Uganda, where Kenyan students comprise roughly half the student body...

...in March 1957, Africans in Kenya went to the polls for the first time...

...Under an Order-in-Council, not only are non-Europeans refused ownership of land in this area—commonly known as the "White Highlands"—but they aren't even allowed to manage it or become sub-tenants of white owners...

...Today Kenya is facing a political and constitutional crisis...

...The African electorate returned six new members, pledged to join their eight colleagues in the fight against the new Constitution...

...This is a rationalization current among all white settlers in Africa...

...In the early days education for girls lagged behind that given boys, as in many poverty-stricken countries where women are regarded as socially inferior...

...The truth, however, is that the white man came to Kenya and East Africa to find a new home and better himself...

...Those who believe in democracy must not engage in a negative struggle...

...It has therefore been necessary for the colonial peoples to assert their right to self-determination...

...Mboya was the first African elected to the Kenya Legislative Council in March 1957, and in December 1958 became chairman of the All African People's Conference in Accra...

...The African is pressing for more schools, technical and vocational institutions and universities...

...Under such circumstances, greater production is not necessarily the main or immediate objective...

...He can be moved from place to place without notice or without consent, and he has neither legal title nor legal rights...

...Here, on what is known as "Crown Land," the African is a temporary tenant at the will of the Crown...

...the rest are in urban areas, engaged in commerce, industry or administration...

...Politically, Kenya's development has seen a wavering and undecided British Government and an extremist European settler community attempting to establish a permanent European-dominated government...

...There is no longer any hope for permanent European settler domination in Kenya or any other part of East Africa...

...Schemes like the Swynnerton Plan are fostering a rapid agricultural revolution which, when completed, will not only replace the peasant subsistence producer with a market producer, but will also alter the social structure, making the African an economic individual rather than a member of a tribal, clan or family unit...

...Zanzibar, a Protectorate under a Sultan...

...Kenya is an agricultural country whose economy is dependent on such export crops as coffee, tea, sisal, pyrethrum, wattle bark and some cotton and maize, as well as hides and skins...

...In 1957, Africa's first dominion was created in Ghana...

...The African members rejected the new Constitution...

...In 1954 Oliver Lyttelton, then Secretary of State for the Colonies, decided that Africans should be allowed to return representatives to the legislature by direct vote, and recommended that a one-man commission be appointed to examine the best means of selecting African members of the legislature...

...To my mind, the question is not whether African nationalism will triumph over colonialism and European settler domination, but how and when Africans will attain their goal of self-determination and freedom...

...Nineteen Sixty represents a new era...

...Today, land remains the chief bone of contention in Kenya politics...

...The African may grow only 100 trees of coffee initially, and must obtain a permit before he can enlarge his plantation...

...Africa has fought for freedom, and therefore cannot be neutral where freedom or human rights are concerned...

...The African representatives in Kenya have made it clear that whereas they will not compromise in their determination to free Kenya of colonial rule and European settler domination, they do not advocate the eviction of Europeans or Asians from Kenya, providing those who wish to remain accept complete equality for all citizens and respect Government rule...

...A dedicated trade unionist, he has been since 1953 general secretary of the Kenya Federation of Labor and last year became a member of the ICFTU Executive Board...

...Thus, land remains the most sensitive political issue...

...Kenya is the last of Britain's colonies in Africa...

...As their first act, the eight newly elected members condemned the Constitution and demanded an immediate increase in African representation from eight to 14 members, bringing Africans into parity with Europeans...

...Today, however, education for girls has become at least as important as education for boys...

...The Kenya African is learning, and changing fast...

...In addition to the nine independent states, six more will gain this status...

...Later African representation was increased by two...