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Derek R Peterson

Oct 19, 2021 • 9 tweets • 4 min read • Read on X

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The 'Shifta War' was an inhumane conflict fought in northern Kenya between 1963 and 1967. Short thread.

The conflict pitted Jomo Kenyatta's KANU government--which insisted on the unity of Kenya--against Somali secessionists. Here's a clip from Mandera & Wajir, Aug. 1967. 1/

2/
Secessionists saw the Northern Frontier District as a part of Somalia & predicted a unitary Kenya would bring 'oppression, servitude, civil war and other evils'.

Clip: Northern Province People’s Progressive Party resolves not to participate in Kenya's elections, March 1963.

3/
Mogadishu & Hargeisa radio broadcast poetic invocations calling on Somalis to unify, across the Kenya boundary, to seek the unity of greater Somalia.

Clips below from British intelligence.

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British authorities anticipated a separate future for the NFD: according to one plan it would have remained under British administration.

But Kenyatta's new regime--pushed by protests like the one shown in this clip--insisted that Kenya's territory was inviolable.

5/
Kenyatta, in a May 1962 essay titled 'Pan African Unity and the NFD Question in Kenya':

'We in Kenya shall not give up even one inch of our country to Somali tribalists, and that is final'.

6/
There followed a massive military deployment into the NFD.

Drawing from models developed by the British during the Mau Mau war, the Kenya govt. interned pastoralists in military-run villages--a way of cutting off support for guerillas.

Clip: shiftas surrender, Aug. 1968.

7/
The 'Shifta War' ostensibly came to an end in 1967, when Zambian president Kenneth Kaunda brokered a peace deal between Kenyatta's govt. and the govt. of Somali PM Mohamed Egal.

Here's the signing ceremony in Arusha, Oct. 1967.

8/
The Somali threat, however, remained a potent resource for Kenya's government: a way to inspire militant patriotism, an excuse for demagoguery & saber-rattling.

Report below from the Nation, Feb. 1976.

@Reuters

9/
All clips from @Reuters.

I've written about secessionist projects in Kenya in the essay below.

And check out @KerenWeitzberg's lovely @OhioUnivPress book 'We Do Not Have Borders
Greater Somalia and the Predicaments of Belonging in Kenya'.

oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/o…

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Derek R Peterson

@Unseen_Archive

Oct 9, 2024

Happy Independence Day to colleagues & friends in Uganda.

Here's the original version of the anthem by George Kakoma. The 1st phrase was 'Oh Uganda, thy people praise thee'. A week before independence, tho, the Church of Uganda bishop protested that God was nowhere mentioned. 1/

2/
Milton Obote hastily agreed to change the phrase to 'May God uphold thee'. The new version had to be printed in great haste. It is the latter phrase that Ugandans will be singing today.

Here's a photo of the independence celebrations, October 1962.

3/
In 2022 colleagues @ugandamuseums and I put together an exhibition to mark the 60th anniversary of independence.

Here's the documentary film we made for 'Uganda at 60', featuring interviews with Miria Obote, late Joyce Mpanga, Rhoda Kalema & others.

Read 7 tweets

Derek R Peterson

@Unseen_Archive

Mar 5, 2023

@GettyImages

Like many others, I am sorry to hear of the passing of journalist and public intellectual John Nagenda.

His was an extraordinary life. Here's a short thread. 1/

(Below: Nagenda in 1989, courtesy @GettyImages).

@GettyImages

@GettyImages 2/
Late Nagenda's parents were William and Sala Nagenda, who were--with Simeon Nsibambi--the central figures in the early history of the East African Revival.

Here's William Nagenda with colleague Yosiya Kinuka in 1936.

@GettyImages

@GettyImages 3/
John Nagenda studied at King's College, Budo--his marks are detailed below. Thereafter he went to Makerere, where he read English literature.

Read 12 tweets

Derek R Peterson

@Unseen_Archive

Oct 24, 2022

The father of new British PM--Rishi Sunak--was born in Kenya & emigrated to London in the 1960s. He was one of several thousand Asians who fled in the years after independence, seeking financial security. Short thread.

Here's Tom Mboya, Minister for Economic Planning, 1968. 1/

Mboya: while some Asians have left, 'I wld rather have that than have disloyal, disaffected people...who are not prepared to cooperate in promoting nation-building'.

In 1969 the Trade Licensing Act barred Asians from owning important businesses in & outside Nairobi.

3/
As a result of the Act, some 3,000 Asian businessmen were put out of work. Many sought to emigrate to Britain--but strict quotas made it hard for them to relocate.

Here Asians demonstrate outside the British High Commission in Nairobi, demanding support from the British govt.

Read 7 tweets

Derek R Peterson

@Unseen_Archive

Aug 8, 2022

@RailaOdinga

Kenyans go to the polls on Tuesday. Here's a thread about one of the contenders for the presidency, @RailaOdinga. In the 1980s & 90s he played a key role in bringing down the dictatorship of Daniel arap Moi.

Below: Raila speaks at a convention of opposition leaders, 1992. 1/

@RailaOdinga

@RailaOdinga 2/
Raila married Ida Betty Akoth Oyoo in September 1973. She was to play a key role in his political career: as an advocate, a defender of his liberty, a spokesperson, and a public face--at a time when Raila himself was in detention & out of view.

@RailaOdinga

@RailaOdinga 3/
Raila studied engineering in Germany; by 1975 he was a manager at the Kenya Bureau of Standards. Below: a thought piece from the Nation about 'Standardisation'.

Read 15 tweets

Derek R Peterson

@Unseen_Archive

Aug 4, 2022

Fifty years ago, on 4 August 1972, Idi Amin announced that Uganda's Asian community--over 50,000 people--had 90 days to leave the country.

Here he is at 'Command Post' in Kololo on 6 August, explaining the policy to the diplomatic corps.

Short thread. 1/

@GettyImages

2/
'One’s mind boggles at the thought of the effects of the sudden withdrawal of all Asians from Ugandan life', wrote a British diplomat a few days after the announcement. 'Practically everything one can think of has Asian somewhere in the system'.

Here's a @GettyImages report.

@GettyImages

@GettyImages 3/
The Uganda government argued that the expulsion was an orderly and logical. Here's a remarkable clip: Grace Ibingira, UN representative for Uganda, defending the expulsion of the Asians at the United Nations.

As far as I know, this is the only place where Ibingira is on film.

Read 8 tweets

Derek R Peterson

@Unseen_Archive

Feb 28, 2022

On 20 Aug. 1968 250,000 soldiers from the Soviet Union invaded Czechoslovakia, putting an end to the 'Prague Spring'.

The invasion caused outrage in eastern Africa. Here students in Tanzania lob rotten eggs at the Soviet embassy--& express sympathy to the Czech ambassador. 1/

2/
In Kenya students marched to the Soviet embassy, carrying signs calling the invasion 'An Act of Imperialism of the Vilest Decree'. Other signs: 'Russians Go Home' & 'New Hitlerism'.