Thread by @wmnjoya

Over the last few days, I've been having a fun time reading about the intrigues of colonial Kenya. Some of the most entertaining readings for me are about how European settlers were frustrated with government.

(QUITE A LONG THREAD)

So the settlers came in 1902, some of them Boers who didn't like how the war with the English in South Africa turned out. Once they landed, they complained about land taxes, delay in obtaining titles deeds, and laws against hunting and killing as much wildlife as they wanted.

The settlers were racist rogues, carrying out public lynchings or our people.

They also complained that they weren't getting enough Africans to work on their land, and that the government was doing nothing to force our people to work.

Things got worse when the colonial govenrment gave Indians a right to land. The white folks were mad.

So in 1905, they wrote a protest to London about the Indian code and taxation without representation.

In 1907, London gave in, created a legislature with 3 nominated settlers, which was more ceremonial than anything else. Kind like #BBIReport

Two years later, the settlers said that wasn't enough.

Lord Delamere said that the council was "a farce" where settlers "were allowed to make speeches as long as they pleased but which in no way affected the plans and policies of the government."

Other settler complaints that are scaringly familiar are:

"Kenya suffers from a continuous epidemic of public meetings, which produce much eloquence, heady talk and little practical benefit to the [white settler] community as a whole."

The settler community was also tayad of seeing "its economic position completely undermined by the lack of policy of a Government dependent on an uninstructed electorate situated 6000 miles away."

The settlers also said that during the economic recession, the colonial government "reacts disastrously in that any problem which looks slightly thorny is conveniently shelved, and main issues are avoided."

The settlers also complained about an expatriate/consultant who was sent to Kenya, at the colony’s expense, to come sort out their balance of payment troubles. He suggested an income tax, and the policy failed.

(Kinda like IMF, World Bank and management consultants do)

They accused the colonial government of discrimination for not employing the sons and daughters of settlers, and was insisting on employing only UK-born British Europeans, yet they are the ones who built the economy*

Believe it or not, they also said the govt was in autopilot.

Eventually, the white elected members of the Council quit, calling the Legislative Council "a time-honoured pantomime [theater for kids]" and accusing the government of turning the constitution "into an efficient machine for obstruction."

Later, the colonial governor returned from sick leave in London, and the settlers expected him to bring good news about debt relief for loans (yes) that the colony was being forced to repay, loans borrowed "on exceptionally harsh terms."

Basically, the complaints of the white settlers against the colonial government were familiar: the government was incompetent and moribund, always refusing to act before it got a go-ahead from London.

If you're still reading this, the story gets more interesting.

The colonial government was stalling on the settlers' demands because, it said, it was taking care of Africans' interests.

So when settlers took their complaints to London, they also argued to the "uninstructed electorate" that it was THEY who REALLY cared for Africans.

And you know how Western Europeans talked about the settlers?

This will tickle or annoy you, depending on your sense of humor.

Western based Europeans said that their diaspora here had "exaggerated political mindedness"....

...caused by "the instability of the settlers' nervous system brought about by the deleterious effects of the sun's actinic rays on the equator." (yani the African sun had ruined the settlers' minds)

The "climatic conditions" of Africa had also given the settlers "an aggravated persecution complex."

The settlers were "a tropical squirearchy" [yani landowners], polo-playing aristocrats constantly surrounded by "black villains."

They also said that the settlers were "obsessed with political rights" because they did not have access to posh entertainment which was available in London but not in Africa, so they were keeping themselves busy "chasing political and economic hares."

London said that the settlers were always whining, yet they had more public schools for their kids in Kenya (***) and more representation on the legislative council.

In a nutshell, London didn't care for settlers because they were too few to make the colony profitable.

It preferred African capitalism to run the economy for Britain.

It saw the settlers as backward because they were trying to copy their American predecessors, but they were too late. They were "trying to follow a covered-wagon tradition in the era of the Ford [the car]."

But even though the Kenya settler experiment failed, London still gained. As the article I've been quoting says, London learned how to manage different racial groups, and so maintained the stability of the empire for the "evolution of the British Commonwealth," which still exists

and Britain showed *kindness* to us Africans by suppressing the ambitions of the white settlers "not because of reluctance to part with power, but rather to retain it for the protection of backward wards [yani sisi waafrika] belonging to another race."
doi.org/10.1111/j.1540…

This thread is about how race and class interact. The British ruling class never intended for white settlers to be here. It was prepared to sacrifice fellow Europeans to keep Kenyan more profitable.

When Africans fought the settlers, British capital quickly rearranged things.

They used the graduates of missionary schools and land to create an African elite to take over, and so the system for exploiting Kenya remained intact.

And so in 2020, we're making similar complaints about government because it still performs the same function. #WajingaNyinyi

And parting shot to #Uthamakistan:

You see the way Her Majesty's government dumped its people when it had no use for them?

That's the way Muthamaki will dump you. Money has no relatives or ethnic group.

END