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Y320: From Colonialism to Independence: The British Empire 1857–1965

Depth study: Nationalism in Kenya 1945–1965 — nationalism, Mau Mau and independence

  • 3 things to know
  • Unit group 3

Overview

Recall questions on Kenya in 1945, nationalist organisation, settlers and Indians, the causes of Mau Mau and oathing, the Emergency and counter-insurgency, Kenyatta’s trial, changing British policy, Lancaster House, independence and interpretations of Mau Mau.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Your recallNot started
Numbers

What was the problem posed by the settlers?

Key term

Explain the causes of the Mau Mau rebellion.

Evaluation

How many people died in the Emergency, and why are the figures disputed?

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    Describe Kenya's political and economic position in 1945.

    Model answer

    It was a Crown colony in which some seven million acres of the best farmland were reserved for around thirty thousand European settlers, Africans were confined to crowded reserves or worked as squatters on settler farms, the Asian community dominated commerce, and the Legislative Council contained elected European and Indian members but only a single nominated African, Eliud Mathu, appointed in 1944.

  2. 2

    Why did African nationalism grow in Kenya after 1945?

    Model answer

    Nearly a hundred thousand Kenyans had served in the war and returned expecting reward, the Atlantic Charter and the collapse of European prestige in Asia raised expectations, wartime price controls and post-war settler expansion worsened land hunger in the Kikuyu reserves, Nairobi's population and its unemployment grew rapidly, and mission-educated Africans found every avenue of advancement blocked.

  3. 3

    Trace the growth of African political organisation before 1952.

    Model answer

    Harry Thuku's East African Association protested against pass laws and wages until his deportation in 1922, the Kikuyu Central Association carried on the land campaign from 1924 and was banned in 1940, and in 1944 the Kenya African Union was formed as the first colony-wide body, taking Kenyatta as president in 1947.

  4. 4

    What was the problem posed by the settlers?

    Model answer

    A community of only tens of thousands held the best land, dominated the Legislative Council and the export economy, and demanded self-government on the model of Southern Rhodesia; London had declared in 1923 that African interests must be paramount, but successive governments were reluctant to face the settlers down, and only after the Emergency did figures such as Michael Blundell accept multiracial politics.

  5. 5

    What was the position of the Indian population in Kenya?

    Model answer

    Around a hundred thousand Asians formed the trading and clerical middle stratum; they had fought in the 1920s for equal representation and access to the Highlands and been rebuffed, and Asian trade unionists such as Makhan Singh and Asian lawyers gave African nationalism organisational and legal help, yet African resentment of Asian commercial dominance made the community's position after independence insecure.

  6. 6

    Explain the causes of the Mau Mau rebellion.

    Model answer

    Kikuyu squatters were being evicted from the Rift Valley as settlers mechanised, the reserves could not absorb them, agricultural rules on terracing and destocking were resented as interference, the Olenguruone resettlement scheme bred mass oathing from the early 1940s, Nairobi held a large unemployed and radicalised population, and the failure of constitutional politics to move the land question persuaded younger militants that only force would work.

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