East African Nationalism And Decolonisation

Question 1

What was Jomo Kenyatta’s background?

Answer 1

. Son of illiterate parents
. Member of the Kikuyu tribe
. Paid his way to education through working for white settlers

Question 2

What was Kenyatta’s education and work like?

Answer 2

. Educated in a Scottish missionary school
. Worked as a clerk in Nairobi in 1920s
. Developed education in London since his arrival in 1929 (stayed for 17 years after), authored books such as Facing Mount Kenya
. 1946 - returned to Kenya to become principal of Kenya’s teacher’s college
. 1947 - became president of the Kenya Africa Union (KAU)
. 1948-51: toured and lectured around Kenya to campaign to get back Kenyan land given to settlers by the British and to get independence within next 3 years

Question 3

What is the biggest rumour about Jomo Kenyatta?

Answer 3

Whether he was really part of the Mau Mau society and managing it when he was arrested in October 1952
. His defence lawyer argued that white settlers were trying to scapegoat Kenyatta without evidence to quell the nationalist movement
. 1953 - sentenced to 7 years in prison with hard labour

Question 4

How did the Mau Mau movement change Kenyatta’s life?

Answer 4

Britain feared any kind of nationalist movements so the KAU was banned and a state of emergency in Kenya was declared in 1952

Question 5

What did Kenyatta do when he was working in Nairobi as a clerk?

Answer 5

He became interested in politics and joined the Kikuyu Central Organisation (KCU) to defend the Kikuyu land-holdings being approached and taken by white settlers
- many argue he became radicalised here

Question 6

How was Kenyatta clearly popular in Kenya?

Answer 6

. Public meetings and petitions to demand his release
. May 1960 - became leader of the Kenya African National Union (KANU) even though still in prison

Question 7

When was Kenyatta released from prison?

Answer 7

After the State of Emergency from the Mau Mau Rebellion was lifted in Jan 1960
- released in 1961

Question 8

What were Kenyatta’s big achievements after being released from prison?

Answer 8

. Immediately negotiated with British to finally achieve Kenyan independence in December 1963
. Served as PM until Kenya became a republic in 1964 and Kenyatta was then a president (for 14 years until he died)

Question 9

How did Kenyatta approach Africanisation?

Answer 9

Took a more gradual approach as President, keeping many colonial civil servants in their positions until there was a smooth gradual replacement with black Kenyans.
- this helped create quite a prosperous capitalist state and a peaceful land reform process

Question 10

How was Kenyatta quite biased as President in terms of who held powerful positions?

Answer 10

. He made sure Kikuyu dominated over other groups
. His Kikuyu people went into the most powerful state and security offices to enjoy a wealthy life where they could also persecute political opponents

Question 11

How did Kenyatta take advantage of having all the power as president?

Answer 11

1964 - created a one-party state
1966 - amended the constitution to expand his powers

Question 12

Who developed the first East African political protest movements?

Answer 12

Harry Thuku

Question 13

What were some of the nationalist achievements of Harry Thuku?

Answer 13

. Involved in the formation of the young Kikuyu, a non-militant organisation set up to recover lost Kikuyu lands when Kenya became a crown colony in 1920.
. Founded the East African Association in 1921 which had more representative organisation and was just bigger

Question 14

How are Harry Thuku and Jomo Kenyatta linked?

Answer 14

. Both African nationalists
. Both part of the East African association, with Kenyatta joining in 1922.
. They were responsible for the broadening of the East African Association into a campaign for African rights and representation

Question 15

How did Harry Thuku influence others as the radicalising effects of African nationalism took place post-WW2?

Answer 15

1946 - established Kenya African study union to greater educate Kenyans to increase autonomy
- this became the Kenya African Union

Question 16

What is urbanisation?

Answer 16

The increase of the proportions of people living in towns or cities, associated with a more prosperous economy

Question 17

What did Britain believe about the worth of East African post-war and what did this mean?

Answer 17

Britain believed it could be very profitable post-war through generating big dollar-earning exports
- this meant the population of Nairobi in Kenya increased by half
- populations of towns such as Dar-es-Salaam and Mombasa doubled

This rapid growth and urbanisation of African towns became a difficulty for Britain

Question 18

How did rapid growth of towns and urbanisation post-war pose a problem to Britain?

Answer 18

. Increased political awareness
. More political activism
. More labour disputes
. High inflation
. Poor housing
. Overcrowding

All these factors fuelled protest and nationalist feeling

Question 19

What is a symbol of the aspirations of British to use east Africa for economic benefit post war?

Answer 19

The Tanganyika Groundnut Scheme of 1946, with its failure provoking peasants into supporting nationalist movements.
- the failure of this scheme clearly highlights the mess that the empire is in by now

Question 20

Where did the idea of the Tanganyika Groundnut scheme come from?

Answer 20

Britain and many countries were experiencing a severe shortage of cooking fats, and groundnuts could be processed into cooking oils and sold to the world economy

Question 21

How did Britain try to make the Tanganyika Groundnut scheme seem like it was helping the Africans?

Answer 21

They claimed the building of the infrastructure to make the groundnut cultivation possible would provide lots of work for the Africans, when in reality the British just wanting the product to sell.

Question 22

Why did the Tanganyika groundnut scheme fail?

Answer 22

The terrain was too peculiar and the climate was too varied to successfully cultivate and the scheme was abandoned in 1951

Question 23

How was the Tanganyika Groundnut scheme a huge failure for the British?

Answer 23

. The project required £49 million worth of investment in tractors, equipment and the construction of a railway to transport the groundnut
. The land turned into an uncultivable dust bowl, Britain not looking after or caring for their colonies clearly

Question 24

Who were the Mau Mau?

Answer 24

Kenyan movement largely confined to the Kikuyu people, who took up 1/5 of the ethnically diverse population of Kenya

Question 25

What were the grievances of the Kikuyu that encouraged the Mau Mau Rebellion?

Answer 25

. White settlers were pushing them off land in the fertile ‘White highlands’ to make space for themselves.
- the reservation lands the Kenyans got in return weren’t adequate.
. There were some violent evictions of the kikuyu people (thr white takeover broke any sense of community)
. Unemployment and poor conditions in towns due to the far too rapid growth and urbanisation in east Africa.
. Kikuyu people were tired of the ‘white mans rule’, and wanted something in return after the war

Question 26

How were British attitudes towards Kenya not helpful in preventing a rebellion such as Mau Mau?

Answer 26

. The British colonial regime were aware that they were vulnerable but still wanted to dominate Kenya politically and economically post-war, with no concessions to the black majority
. The British blatantly knew how badly they were treating the Kenyans, but still believed they would always be the ‘ones in charge’
. There was definitely still a sense of arrogance among the British despite the fact that the Empire was collapsing
. 1948 - Sir Philip Mitchell announced that self-government for Kenya wouldn’t be possible for the near future (it definitely could, but Britain just wanted the authority)

Question 27

How did Kikuyu members become Mau Mau and was it encouraged?

Answer 27

There was a ritualistic oath of allegiance, committing them to armed insurgency against the colonial occupiers
- Waruhiu wa Kungu (chief of kikuyu people) spoke out against the Mau Mau atrocities and was assassinated for it in October 1952
- most of the Mau Mau murders were on fellow kikuyu (mostly Christian) who refused to take the oath.

Clearly taking the oath was a life or death matter, so it seemed like there was no option but to take it, attaching all Kikuyu people with a sense of violence and ruthlessness

Question 28

When did the Mau Mau murders peak?

Answer 28

1952, mostly on fellow kikuyu but some on white farmers (the settlers)

Question 29

Why was the significance of the Mau Mau having to take an oath of allegiance?

Answer 29

. Fuelled a sense of violence and attached a sense of violence to the Kikuyu people, frightening the white settlers and being seen as a genuinely outrageous challenge to the British empire
. The ritualistic idea in the oath seemed like a religion, very similar to how the British believed they have a religious duty to spread imperialism, undermining this aspect
. The British used the oath as evidence of the ‘savagery’ of the Mau Mau as the ritualistic nature of the oath seemed like black magic
- this justified British action against the Mau Mau and allowed the British to claim their was still work for colonialism to do

Question 30

Why was Jomo Kenyatta imprisoned and was this a good play from the British?

Answer 30

He was suspected of conspiring with the Mau Mau.
- this was a bad idea as he became a martyr to the Mau Mau and he was the only man who could bring all of Kenya together)

Question 31

How were the Kikuyu people divided by the British?

Answer 31

Into ‘loyalists’ - colonial-appointed chiefs and their followers who supported the colonial government during the Mau May insurgency, receiving privileges in return

The rest were Mau Mau - it was the ‘loyalists’ that the Mau Mau were targeting, often hanging them too.

Question 32

When were the East African colonies granted independence?

Answer 32

. 1961 - Tanzania
. 1962 - Uganda
. Dec 1963 - Kenya