The ancestry of Kenya’s modern population began over 1,000 ...
Prejudice in Kenya:
Ethics of Development in a Global Environment
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Farah Giga
EDGE
Professor Bruce Lusignan
Table of Contents
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History, Influence and Prejudice in Kenya
Kenya, a country on the east coast of Africa, is rich in its culture and diversity. With a wide variety of ethnic groups and tribes, Kenya is a melting pot of ideas and interests. Although cultures and identities have become shared over the years, there are still differences that caused conflicts and prejudice between the many different groups that coexist in the country. The history of the country and the many influences that came to bear played an impact on how the different ethnicities interacted and the relationship they developed towards each other. Initially, the tribes conflicted over the resources and land available especially with nearly thirty to forty different ethnic groups residing together. Then with the era of exploration different influences a mixing of cultures not only brought about new identities but also brought conflicting ideas from other parts of the world. In addition, other problems arose from these new people as they usually gained power by oppressing others in the country, which resulted in prejudice and feelings of resentment between different ethnic groups. Furthermore, colonization drew arbitrary lines around the country bringing together warring factions and separating tribes. Finally when Kenya became a political entity, the prejudices came to the surface through government actions and tribal factions vying for power. Thus historical pasts and influences have played an important part in dictating the prejudices of today.
The ancestry of Kenya’s modern population began over 1,000 years ago with the migration of tribes into the country’s fertile heartland. Of the people who migrated into the region, four distinct language groups were established, the Bantu, Cushitic, and Paranilotic, Nilotic who still exist in Kenya today. “The blacks are divided into more than 30 ethnic groups belonging to four linguistic families…The largest ethnic groups are the Bantu-speaking Kikuyu, Luhya, and Kamba; the Nilotic-speaking Luo; and the Paranilotic-speaking Kalenjin” (Geography and History of Kenya).
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The Bantu and Nilotic people mainly reside between Lake Victoria and the coast in what can be considered the interior part of the country. The Cushitic people initially inhabited Western parts of Kenya but were driven out of that region to eventually reside in the Northeastern parts of the country. Other groups that were found to have migrated into Kenya include Somali clans and Oromo people who migrated from the neighboring country of Ethiopia.
The Bantu speaking Kikuyu gradually emerged at the largest ethnic group of Kenya. Having originally come from Mount Kenya, in the fifteenth century, the Kikuyu began migrating towards the southwest three centuries later. In their movement, the Kikuyu absorbed many other tribes including Gumba and Athi and eventually split into two groups as they came to occupy much of the central part of Kenya.
The absorption of the Gumba is of particular interest as they were originally Cushitic speaking people. Primarily in the business of hunting and gathering, the Gumba roamed the open grasslands.
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The Gumba passed on their knowledge of working with the skilled iron and pottery. For a time, the Gumba and Kikuyu had beneficial relationship where the Kikuyu exchanged meat and skins with the Gumba for agricultural products. However eventually the Gumba began to assimilate into the Kikuyu tribe. The Kikuyu were primarily agricultural people who cultivated their land, which led to friction among them, and the Gumba people who were angered as the Kikuyu cleared their hunting ground for cultivation. Kikuyu expansion increased tension between the two ethnic groups and war erupted between the two factions. This led to the end of the Gumba people as a separate ethnic entity during the middle of the nineteenth century.
The relationship between the Athi, the other group the Kikuyu absorbed and the Kikuyu tribe were similar. The Athi were a forest dwelling people who also partly assimilated with the Kikuyu tribe and some can still be found in the Rift Valley area. It was the Athi people who sold the heartland known as Kabete, to the Kikuyu for cattle. It was this transaction that keeps the Athi an important part of the Kikuyu history.
Another major group that emerged from the Bantu speaking people is the Kamba tribe who resided in the Mount Kilimanjaro area till the fifteenth century and moved to the Mbooni Hills, which is currently known as the Machakos District, late in the seventeenth century. They too were initially hunters and gatherers but soon realized that the new fertile lands that they had moved to were ideal for cultivation and thus began agriculture. However, the Kamba people had to give up agriculture when a population growth forced them to expand into less fertile areas. For a while the Kamba went back to their hunting and gathering ways but shortly discovered the value of ivory in trade. This began a period of ivory trade and elephant exploitation and developed a two-way caravan to the coast.
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Their trade and exploitation spread into Tanzania and out into Kikuyu regions, as trade was really booming in the late eighteenth century.
The Kamba ivory trade hit its peak in the middle of the nineteenth century, which was the primary reason for the prosperity of the coastal port of Mombasa. At that time, many other groups started challenging the monopoly of the Kamaba people. In addition internal conflict and feud within the Kamba tribe started to affect trade business alongside the attempts of the other people who occupied the highlands of Kenya to keep the Kamba people out of their lands. The other reason that the tribes tried to prevent the Kamba people from entering their regions was because the Kamba had began raiding other tribes for slaves. Ultimately, the elephants started becoming endangered in that area forcing the Kamba people to travel very far for ivory. Caravan traffic was in danger as the country in general was experiencing turmoil, Kamba trade slowly reduced and finally competition from the Uganda railroad that ran through Mombasa and Kisumu eliminated the aggressive monopoly the Kamba held over a century.
The other Bantu-speaking people migrated out into western Kenya in a region near Lake Victoria. They began this move in the eleventh century followed by other tribes interested in agriculture. These people eventually became known as the Luhya. In the sixteenth century the Nilotic speaking Luo people, coming from what is now Uganda, pushed Luhya back towards the east. The Luo people adopted the agricultural practices of the Luhya for a while, but some went onto continue conquering new lands. In this quest for more territory, the Luo came up against the Bantu speaking Kisii people who were also on the same mission as the Luo, to expand into that part of the region. Along with these two groups vying for this territory, there was also the Nilotic people who were residing along the edge of the territory to the east. The territorial maneuvering by the three groups was not always peaceful as war over the land often erupted. The fighting over the land continued until British rule took control in the twentieth century, which also brought and end to occupation of territories of rival ethnic people.
As for the other ethnic groups, their migration into and around Kenya is vague. The Nilotic people migrated into Kenya from Ethiopia. The Maasai people who moved south through the Rift Valley became the dominating group in southwest Kenya. Despite being internally weak from war within its own people, no one dared to tangle with the Maasai people who were feared for their reputation. The last Nilotic people to arrive into Kenya were the Turkana tribe who resided in the northwest regions of Kenya. These mixtures of tribes formed the early ancestry of the modern Kenyan people however the country was influenced by my other outside cultures who came primarily to the country for its resources and trade.
The coast of Kenya was the center for much of the East African trade with ivory, tortoiseshell and spices being noted as early as the first and second centuries. However the earliest outside influence can be traced back to the Arab Muslim traders who set up a trade center on along the coast, which later also saw a Persian influence in the tenth century. The towns that they set up along the coast became a strong link commercially between East Africa and the Indies. The port towns along the coast at particularly Mombasa, Malindi, Lamu and Pate exchanged elephant ivory and slaves for salt, cloth beads and metal goods (Bliss). Even a team of traders from China are said to have reached the coasts of Kenya brining their culture and influences as well. The sultan of Kilwa ruled over these Kenyan towns, but the Arabs were functioning rather autonomously from the sultan’s rule and began competing in Kenya to control the largest part of the country’s trade and commercial prosperity. Eventually the town of Malindi surpassed Mombasa, another rival port town, to become the richest trading center on the East African coast.
The strong migration of Arab families to Kenya from primarily the southern part of Arabia known as Hadramaut, led to the formation of a unique Islamic culture in the coastal regions, which resulted from a considerable amount of intermarrying between the Arab immigrants and the Bantu-speaking tribes of Kenya. “The intermingling of Arabs and indigenous inhabitants formed the Swahili culture and language” (East African Living Encyclopedia). A new language and culture stemmed from the integration of these two cultures, which came to be known as Swahili, an Arabic term for coast. “Since the early 20th century Swahili has become a major African tongue, and it is the official language of Kenya; Kikuyu, Luo, and English are also widely used” (Geography and History of Kenya). Swahili became the dominant language of the country and is still the national language today.
The Arab Muslims were not the only outside influence to affect Kenyan culture, the Portuguese also maintained an influence in Kenya for 200 years when the Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama stopped at Mombasa and Malindi, prosperous port towns along the coast of Kenya on a 1498 voyage to India. The ruler of Malindi developed relationships with the newly arrived Portuguese people and allowed them to trade in the port there. However, Mombasa, the other rival port town was against the Portuguese intruding into their town. In 1505, commander Francisco de Almeida, who had already occupied Kilwa and Sofala with his troops, raided the town. Mombasa became a center of resistance by the Arabs living there and in 1529 the Portuguese once again attacked with the help of Malindi. At the same time, the Portuguese forced the ruler of Malindi to recognize and pay tribute to the royal Portuguese town and accept its rule there.
As the Portuguese continued to rule the regions at a distance with the sultans as figureheads in their respective towns, more and more resentment against this foreign invasion began to build against them. In 1589, Mombasa renounced Portguese rule and asked for protection by Mirale Bey the Turkish cosair. A Portuguese fleet was sent from Goa, which captured the Turkish fleet and left Mombasa. The Zimba, a group of Kenyan warriors who had destroyed Kilwa earlier, then looted Mombasa. The Zimba then turned toward Malindi but they were defeated when the neighboring tribe of Segeju intervened in Malindi. The sultun of Malindi, with the assistance of the Segeju, then moved his court to Mombasa and invited the Portuguese back to establish a fort there.
In 1593, the Portuguese began building a major defense unit at Fort Jesus, at the entrance to Mombasa’s port, as a preventive measure as well as to increase their strength and visibility in East Africa. Afterwards, the Portuguese rule in Kenya remained stable for nearly forty years. In 1963, they lost their holdings in Mombasa to an Arab sultan for close to eight years, but managed to reclaim it. However, Oman in southeastern Arabia was becoming more and more powerful and they shortly after began challenge the Portuguese power to regain control of the coast. In 1660, the Omani troops conquered Mombasa, but the Portuguese managed to keep Fort Jesus for close to another forty years. The Portuguese once again tried to regain power in 1728, but their attempts failed. This brought and end to European influence in Kenya until British arrived centuries later.
Although the Portuguese spent nearly 200 years on the coast of Kenya they never attempted to colonize the region. The only legacy they left behind was a few words they had contributed to the Swahili and a couple of coastal towns for trade. However, did have one major contribution to Kenya, which was the introduction of New World crops such as maize, cassava, and potatoes. This became the staple food of Kenya in many regions and played a significant role in the growth of the population of Kenya. Once the Omani people took over, that was the only remains of Portuguese influence.
After the Omani seized Fort Jesus and banished the Portuguese from the East Coast, the ruler of Oman took control over Kenya. Although his rule was not very powerful the Omani people managed to have strong control through Arab families who ruled the coastal towns of Kenya. In particular, the Mazrui family, who began ruling Mombasa in 1727, was the strongest of these.
Said al Busaidi overthrew the sultan of Oman in 1741, and formed a dynasty. At the change of rule, the Mazrui family took advantage of the opportunity break away from Oman and established their own independent rule in Mombasa. The Mazrui family rule eventually came to dominate the Kenyan coast.
Said bin Sultan, a strong member of the Busaidi family came to power in 1806 with the intention of bringing Omani authority back to East Africa. Also at the same time, the British were trying to end the slave trade and piracy in the Persian Gulf. The British involvement influenced how Said and his successors ruled through most of the nineteenth century. One example of British influence was convincing the Said to restrict involvement in slave trade in 1823. The treaty did very little to curb slave trade except to keep it from spreading into new markets, however the treaty did establish an acceptance of Omani rule as well as begin to establish a British influence.
Said’s troop worked to overthrow the Mazrui influence and managed to do so from the Archipelago by 1824. The Said wanted control of Mombasa, which was an important coastal town at the time. Afraid that the Said would take over, the town approached a captain of a British naval vessel to help them maintain control over their town. The captain agreed that Mombasa would become a protectorate of the British government as he found this to be a good opportunity for the British to achieve their goal of curbing slavery in Kenya especially through a port town like Mombasa. The captain did not have the authority to make such kind of agreement and the British government did not hold the agreement valid. In 1828, the Mazrui lost control of Mombasa to the Omani all except for Fort Jesus, which managed to remain under Mazrui control.
The British, still concerned about slave trade, continued to influence the Said especially when he moved his court from Oman to Zanzibar in 1840. At the time, Zanzibar was the primary center of slave trade in East Africa. This move gave the British the opportunity to influence the Said with yet another treaty in 1845 that imposed trading limitations on the coast. The treaty did not to anything to curb slave trade as it continued in full swing in that area. The horrors of slave trade continued on and appalled the British public after hearing accounts from British officers and other Europeans who had traveled. The public put pressure and support for the British to establish a permanent station to patrol slavery on the coast. Furthermore, the British made the Omani government to put more restrictions on trade. By 1873, the British made the current ruler, Barghash, stop all slave sales and shipping in coastal areas under his control. Slave trade continued inland until finally in 1877, this was ordered to stop as well. To ensure the end of the slave trade, British troops were placed in East Africa in a missionary center for free slaves. In 1880, Swahili slave traders attacked the British in Mombasa because they associated the trade restrictions with them. This resulted in disgruntlement on the Kenyan coast till the twentieth century.
After slave trade came to a halt, the sultan tried to develop cloves as an industry especially inland, this turned Zanzibar into a center of trade. Most traders avoid going through Kenya because of restrictions, but Mombasa still remained successful largely in part to due to illegal trade of slaves and ivory by the Kamba people. As the elephants became depleted and tribal wars started to break out and upset the trade in Kenya. This resulted in Zanzibar in becoming a greater commercial center than Mombasa as all the commercial activity left Mombasa and the antislave restrictions kept it from growing its trade. Thus Mombasa lost its former prominence and did not recover until the twentieth century when Mombasa became a center of an important British project, a railroad to Uganda.
The Europeans had started an influence in Kenya when they began their anti-slaving operations and set up missionary stations and from 1840s to the end of the 1800s, and set up a few coastal trading towns. The European influence initially was largely in the area of religion as Johann Krapf and Johann Rebmann started Christian missions in the middle of the nineteenth century near the town of Mombasa as a part of the Anglican Church Missionary Service. Kramp then established another mission near Mombasa when he joined the Methodist Missionary Society. Each of them started the first Western schools in Kenya, which would propagate European thought in influence and become a starting point for other Western schools.
The locals of Kenya were unreceptive to the idea of missions and when the European missionaries attempted to expand their ventures the native tribes met the missionaries with resistance and opposition. In addition to the tribes, the earlier Muslim influence left a significant part of the population with the Muslim religion and they were vehemently against the missionaries teaching Christianity. Yet these other influences managed to spread through Kenya creating a religiously diverse country. “It has been estimated that the population of Kenya is about 28% Roman Catholic, 38% Protestant, and 6% Muslim. The remaining persons are largely followers of various traditional religions” (Geography and History of Kenya).
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However Roman Catholic and Scottish Presbyterian missions were eventually formed and by the end of the nineteenth century there were close to 300 missions in Kenya.
The European influence opened the doors to further involvement in East Africa especially with the British. Kenya as a political entity did not exist until the British became a major player in East Africa in the late nineteenth century.
Britain and Germany competed for control of Maasailand, leading to their 1890 agreement to divide the hinterland between them. Under the agreement, Britain took possession of the area north of the mouth of the Umba river, which is now located in modern Kenya and Uganda. The British Government gave the administration of the area to the Imperial British East Africa Company, which had been granted a royal charter to operate in East Africa” (East Africa Living Encyclopedia).
Shortly afterwards, the British established Kenya as a protectorate and a colony of the crown and managed to bring the many different tribes and influences under one country. Until then tribes had been coexisting in the East African area, but it was the British who drew the boundary lines of the country and named it Kenya.
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This separated many tribes as well as brought together many warring factions under one government.
The intent of the British government in colonizing Kenya was to make it an imperial state to derive its economic advantages as well as provide the inhabitants of the country security and improve the general state of affairs. However as was the case with many colonies at the time the " political, economic, and social changes brought about by the British were not effected smoothly, however, nor from an African perspective were they uniformly advantageous.”(Bliss) Like the local tribes already living there, the British soon recognized that the climate and fertility made the Kenya Highlands and ideal place to settle and began reserving these lands for the European settlers. Thus the country’s best lands were in the hands of the white minority while oppressing the needs of the Africans and Asians living in Kenya. This caused a growing resentment of the white minority especially with the inferior status the majority African community held, but when a population explosion occurred in the 1920s made it impossible for the Africans to meet the needs of their people with the limited amount of land available they decided to do something about their situation and began forming political action groups according their respective ethnic membership.
Despite their efforts, the life of the Africans did not improve until the end of World War II. At that time Jomo Kenyatta led the Kikuyus in a political uprising asking for representation in Kenya’s government which was controlled by the white minority and the black majority had no role.
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The British refused to give up any control and continued to deny Africans any rights in government. They believed in the “white man’s burden” and wanted to make the government exclusively white. This sparked a violent reaction in middle of the twentieth century, which came to be known as the Mau Mau emergency. The British managed to defeat the Kikuyu’s and put Jomo Kenyatta and other leaders in jail for being suspected of a connection to the revolt. This setback kept the Africans subdued for nearly ten years, but in 1950 “when the campaign for majority rule within the framework of the colonial regime succeeded in submerging ethnic differences among Africans and in winning the recognition of British authorities” they set the stage for a move towards independence. (Bliss)
In 1961, the African majority achieved their goal of receiving a stronger role in government. This led to Kenya’s independence from the British in 1963, and in 1964 it became a republican form of government with only one party, the Kenya African National Union. Jomo Kenyatta was the named the first president of Kenya and he initially managed to unify all the major parties into one without any resistance. As Kenyatta was of the Kikuyu tribe, other factions representing different ethnic groups were apprehensive about his power and about the Kikuyu dominating the government. Oginga Odinga left the KANU party for this reason and started the Kenyan African Democratic Union towards the end of the 1960s, but his rival party was banned in 1969 and Odinga was thrown in jail and one party once again ruled Kenya.
Kenyatta tried to unify the country but the varying interests of the differing interests groups proved to be an obstacle in bringing the country together.
Ethnic antagonisms remained the principal stumbling block to national unity, but Kenyatta's firm, paternalistic rule nonetheless provided the country with a substantial degree of stability during the first decade and a half of Kenya's independent existence. (Bliss)
Kenyatta was firm and managed to suppress any uprisings from other ethnic groups with little problems. He was fondly known as the Mzee which means old man in Swahili despite the firm grip he held one the country. “Kenyatta was recognized at the time of his death in mid-1978 as Mzee, “the wise old one,” not only by his own people but by a wide sarray of world leaders”(Geography and History of Kenya). Kenya remained a one party, democratic country due to Kenyatta’s policies. Kenya had a parliament which, constantly contested government policies, free elections, and freedom of press with a few restrictions on reporting. Most of the European and Asian populations left during this time as the government forced them to leave during their Kenyanization process of the country. Kenya developed as a capitalist country and began to grow and modernize under the direction of the a few African entrepreneurial people who were connected to the political leaders. As the economy developed and the country become stable people began to put more confidence in the government and markets. However, things did not go well for long as internal corruption created inequalities as the rich became richer and the poor became poorer causing some political opposition.
Kenyatta also tried to foster relations with the neighboring countries, as there were many commonalities between cultures and ethnicities in the region. However this proved to be a challenging task especially with Tanzania and Uganda. The three countries tried to form the East African Community by unifying the political and economic aspects, but these plans eventually fell through especially with the difficulties Idi Amin, ruler of Uganda, caused.
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“However, in Uganda the government was overthrown by Idi Amin in 1971 and the heads of state ceased to meet, as the president of Tanzania, Julius Nyerere, refused to meet Idi Amin” (East African Community). The countries are still hopeful that something may happen in the future.
As the president got older, he became more displaced from his country and people and the responsibilities of running the government were taken over by Kenyatta’s advisors, and vice president Daniel arap Moi. There was quite a bit of corruption and internal strife within the government fighting for power. Factions and divisions began to form within the KANU organization and brought down the Kenyatta prominence that Kenya once saw. Kenyatta died in 1978 and Daniel arap Moi took over his presidency in August that year.
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Kenyatta’s death brought a lot of fear and unease to Kenya, as many believed that a civil war would break out between the Luo and Kikuyu tribes in as an opening of power could potentially become an opportunity for another tribe to gain control of the country, furthermore Moi was part of the Kalenjin tribe which scared the Kikuyu tribe which had been in power because of Kenyatta. But the change in successors was very peaceful and Moi continued Kenyatta’s work. Although Kenya was already a one party sate, Moi made it official in the 1980s. Soon afterwards, the Kenyan air force tried to take him out of power, but this was put down by the Kenyan troops. In the 1990s Moi responded to any threats by throwing any critics or opposition in jail. This was met by a lot of criticism by the international community and so in order to change these policies countries offering Kenya aid put pressure on Moi to hold elections. Kenya’s first real election was held in 1992 that Moi easily won, but it set the stage for political change in Kenya.
The primary opposition party missed its chance during the 1992 election and still could not create a large following for the 1997 election. Although Moi did not have the majority vote, there were so many opposing political parties that they could not oust him out of office.
In both elections, they lost to KANU even though their share of total votes was more than KANU's. In the 1997 presidential election, for instance, about 14 opposition political parties, combined, had 59% share of total votes. Moi and KANU won with 41% share of total votes (Kenya Politics).
The parties came together in the 2002 and all coalesced into one opposition with one candidate, Mwai Kibaki who is attempting to reform the country and rid the government of corruption as well as unify the different factions.
With so many varying ethnic groups under one country, there are many different people vying for their individual interests, which cause conflicts and power struggles. The different influences that impacted the country over the years played a large role in transforming and complicating the interactions further. In addition, although the powerful minorities who ruled the country seemed to suppress any uprisings, their firm grip not only buried resentment, but also created more strife within the country. All this history and experience has led to a country with more than thirty different ethnicities trying to play a role in government in order to advocate for their own interests. This has caused growing prejudice within the country as internal corruption within the country has caused growing concerns among the tribes. Thus, the histories of the past have shaped the interactions of the country today.
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Bibliography
African Studies Group.
Blis, Timothy F.
Demographics of Kenya.
East African Community.
East African Living Encyclopedia. African Studies Center. University of Pensylvannia.
Geography and History of Kenya.
Giga, Azmina. Interview. May 2004
Jomo Kenyatta.
Kenya: General Data.
Kenya in Brief.
Kenya Politics.
World: Africa Namibia sells ivory. BBC News. February 1999.
Présentation générale de l'expédition.
Rhinehart, Robert. COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD, Kenya: Chapter 1A.
Development Bureau, Inc. 1991
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(Kenya in Brief)
(East African Community)
(Demographics of Kenya)
(Jomo Kenyata)
(Kenya: General Data)
(African Studies Group)
(Présentation générale de l'expédition)
(BBC News)
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