Empire's Children

Until the nineteenth century East Africa's contact with the outside world was confined to the ports and islands along the coast. Contact with Arab and Persian traders began in the eighth century, drawn by the value of rare commodities like ivory, gold, and of course, slaves. By the fifteenth century the coastal region had become an important and wealthy part of a trading network that included India and China as well as Africa, Arabia and Persia.

The Portuguese were the first Europeans to attempt to penetrate the wealthy markets of the Indian Ocean. The explorer Vasco da Gama stopped in East Africa in 1498 before resuming his journey east. Portugal invaded East Africa at the beginning of the sixteenth century, pillaging many cities and occupying Mombasa, where they established Fort Jesus.

In 1698 the Portuguese were defeated after an Omani Arab siege of Fort Jesus lasting nearly three years. For over a century, the region once again fell under the nominal influence of Omani Arabs, to whom local African rulers owed allegiance because of the Omani expulsion of the Portuguese.

When Sa'id ibn Sultan (1791-1856) consolidated his power as the Sultan of Oman in 1806, he was determined to extend his power in East Africa. Over the objections of the British he defeated local rulers and gradually established a protectorate over the region. In 1832 he moved with his court to the island of Zanzibar.

From here he controlled East African trade with the rest of the world. Merchants from Britain, Germany, France and the United States came to Zanzibar, while the Sultan sent his own ships to Arabia, India and even across the Atlantic on occasion.

The British established a consulate on Zanzibar in 1841. But British relations with Sa'id were strained by his continued trade in African slaves, a practice that had been repudiated by the British in 1807. In 1822 he agreed to abolish the sale of slaves to Christian powers. But he continued to import thousands of slaves from the continent each year, primarily to work on the clove plantations that were a lucrative source of income for the Sultanate.

By the time of his death in 1856 Zanzibar had become the principle power in East Africa. In 1861 Zanzibar became an independent sultanate, but increasing British and German interest in the colonisation of East Africa undermined its authority on the mainland. Zanzibar became a crown protectorate in 1890, from which time the power of the Sultan dwindled.

For thousands of years, trade routes from the fertile regions of the interior of East Africa over the desert of the Taru plain to the coast were controlled by African caravans. This began to change in the first half of the nineteenth century, when Sa'id ibn Sultan sent caravans from Zanzibar inland to Lake Victoria and the wealthy kingdom of Buganda.

Outside contact with the interior continued to be limited, due both to the difficulty of the terrain and to the hostility of local tribes. It proved difficult for the British to assert authority over tribal leaders, who had little understanding of, or interest in, diplomatic agreements with the Sultan. A series of military expeditions were sent into the interior in the 1890s and early 1900s to establish British authority.

In India, deals had been struck by the British with local rulers so that the Raj could be administered indirectly with only a small number of colonial administrators. However, in Africa the British found no extensive native forms of political organisation. They decided that authority would have to be established directly, but this was an expensive proposition. The construction of a railway from the coast to Lake Victoria between 1895 and 1903 transformed the situation, opening up the interior of Kenya for economic development.

The Christian missionary movement became increasingly active in the first half of the nineteenth century, motivated in particular by revulsion against the East African slave trade. Public sympathy in Europe for the plight of the African slave made it easy to raise money to fund missions in Africa. By 1885 there were around 300 Christian missionaries in East Africa. Although they did not make many converts initially, by the end of the century Christianity had spread as far as Lake Victoria.

By the middle of the twentieth century, Christianity had become an important faith community in Kenya. Missions established by various denominations were a key source of medical care and education for the African communities they served. The teachings of the Christian faith were fundamentally at odds with imperial objectives.

This tension became increasingly marked as the nationalist movement grew in Kenya. Many Christian leaders, both black and white, were outspoken in their criticism of British rule. Today, the majority of the population are members of the Catholic, Anglican and other denominations.

The imperial powers of Europe began to take a renewed interest in Africa as a source of commerce, wealth and power from the mid-nineteenth century. The Berlin Conference of 1884-85 established agreed spheres of interest and ground rules for this expansion. The conference formalised what has become known as the imperial 'scramble for Africa'.

The British government was initially interested in developing the commercial links that had already been established on the coast of East Africa rather than establishing a colony there. Sir William Mackinnon, whose shipping company traded extensively with the Sultan of Zanzibar, was encouraged to develop British commercial interests further. In 1888 the government incorporated the Imperial British East Africa Company (IBEAC) under his direction to administer and develop this new British sphere of influence.

The IBEAC leased a stretch of coastline from the Sultan and set about trying to establish safe routes through the interior to the wealthy and fertile regions north of Lake Victoria. But this proved to be difficult, particularly when civil war broke out in Uganda. The interior was too dangerous and remained divided by tribal conflict. In 1895 the British therefore established the East Africa Protectorate, administering the territory under its control in East Africa directly for the first time. Uganda was made part of the protectorate in 1902. In 1905 its capital was moved from Mombasa to Nairobi.

The construction of a railway that could link the coast of British East Africa with its interior was the obvious solution to its economic and political development in the late nineteenth century. Work began at the end of 1895. The project was fiercely resisted by local people in many areas.

The railway was built largely by thousands of Indian 'coolies', who were brought to British East Africa as temporary indentured labourers. Working conditions were harsh and many of them died in the process. It was completed in 1903 at a cost of more than five million pounds.

The railway was instrumental to the subsequent development of the region, making it possible to transport heavy equipment and supplies into the interior on a large scale and to bring agricultural products back in return. During the twentieth century the rail network was steadily expanded, and proved to be a vital component of Kenya's modernisation.

In 1902 the fertile highlands west of the Rift Valley became part of the British East Africa Protectorate. Most of this land was uninhabited and suitable for large-scale farming. With rail links to Mombasa opening in 1903, the Protectorate suddenly became a lucrative prospect for Europeans willing to settle there and the British encouraged this development.

The response to the British invitation was rapid, particularly among South Africans, and hurried land surveys were undertaken. In the process, some of the land claimed by the Kikuyu people was controversially leased to white settlers. This would form a long-term source of tension with Africans, who were hostile to the establishment of a white farming culture.

The political demands of white settlers in the Protectorate were the source of a series of grievances in the following years. They expected that Africans would comprise the bulk of labour on the farms that they established. But, perhaps unsurprisingly, there were not many who would voluntarily leave their own homelands and way of life to work for low wages in remote areas.

Africans were often forced to do this work. Compulsory labour was not outlawed until after the First World War, after which time tenant farming in return for labour became common practice. Even more controversially, from 1904 the British introduced a policy of confining African people to tribal reserves and prohibited them from leasing land themselves.

The British East Africa Protectorate became the Kenya Colony on 23 July 1920. Politics at first were dominated by the dispute between white settlers and Indians over representation on Kenya's legislative council. In 1924 it was agreed that there would be eleven European, one Arab and five Indian elected representatives. Africans were entirely left out of this equation and had appointed white representatives.

In 1923 British policy began to stress the concept of a 'trusteeship' to protect the interests of black Africans in Kenya. But there was little official provision for native peoples. The Young Kikuyu Association was founded in 1921 (renamed the Kikuyu Central Association in 1925) to campaign for equal political rights. Jomo Kenyatta (1894-1978), the nationalist leader and first prime minister of post-independence Kenya, was an early recruit, and became its leader in 1928.

During the Second World War, Kenyan soldiers fought in many areas. Their exposure to political developments in other parts of the Empire and in Europe, especially in India, inspired many to join the nationalist movement upon their return. African frustration was underscored by widespread unemployment among veterans, who believed that they deserved a better deal in return for having loyally served the crown. The British only gradually introduced black representation onto the Legislative Council from 1944, and these representatives were appointed, not elected.

By 1950, mounting frustration over land distribution and political inequality in Kenya had led to the formation of the Mau Mau movement of civil disobedience and violent resistance to British rule. Its members belonged overwhelmingly to the dominant Kikuyu tribe and took traditional ritual oaths to mark their increasing involvement in the rebellion. Escalating Mau Mau activity led to the declaration of a state of emergency in Kenya between October 1952 and 1960.

The British response to the Mau Mau was successful in the sense that the rebellion had been brought under control within a few years. But the brutal actions this entailed continue to be highly controversial today. It has been officially estimated that over 11,000 Kikuyu Mau Mau and 2,000 African loyalists had been killed by 1956. By contrast there were only around 100 European deaths.

More than 20,000 Kikuyu were put into detention camps. African leaders, including Kenyatta

A series of reforms were introduced by the Conservative Governments from 1954 which gradually prepared the colony for independence. The first election of African representatives to the Legislative Council was held in March 1957. All eight of those elected refused to serve as ministers of the Executive Council in protest at the continued political inequality of the 3 million Kenyan Africans.

Alan Lennox-Boyd (1904-83), the British Secretary of State for the Colonies, came to Nairobi in November 1957 and tried unsuccessfully to resolve this dilemma. The views of the European, Indian and African communities in Kenya were sharply divided because of the basic issue that full-fledged democracy meant African majority rule.

African leaders began to press in earnest for full-fledged independence. In the wider global context of Cold War politics, it was becoming impossible for Britain to avoid the conclusion that the colonial period in Africa was rapidly coming to an end. In February 1960, Prime Minister Harold Macmillan (1894-1986) gave a speech to the South African Parliament at the end of a tour of the African colonies. "The wind of change is blowing through this continent," he declared. "Whether we like it or not, this growth of national consciousness is a political fact."

For Kenya, this was followed rapidly by the convening of a constitutional conference which gave Africans the majority of seats in the Legislative Council for the first time. This ushered in a new period in which African political movements began to dominate the agenda, reflecting tribal divisions that had previously been subordinate to the struggle against white minority rule.

The Kikuyu dominated Kenya African National Union (KANU) party emerged as the majority party following elections in 1963, and Kenyatta became prime minister. Kenya became fully independent in December, and in 1964 became a republic.