World War 1 and Colonialism in Kenya: Perspectives through Historiography and Literary Imaginaries

ABSTRACT

During World War I, what is today Kenya was part of the British East African Protectorate. Direct fighting took place within the region as the neighbouring Tanzania was a German colony. The cultural and economic repercussions of the war transformed the social landscape and colonial approach to the administration of the region. Historically, the war period between 1914 and 1918 coincided with the acceleration of British colonial intrusion into Kenya and a close control of the different aspects of the local communities’ political, social, and economic day-to-day operations. It was also marked by the transformation of large parts of present-day Kenya into white settlements. Moreover, during the war, mostly male members of the various Kenyan communities were conscripted into military service and forcefully pressed into the British war service. The war memories in works of Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, M. G. Vassanji and Margaret Ogola revolve around the sense of being caught in unknown crossfire, the inhumanity of conscription, causalities and other horrors of the war, and the irreplaceable loss of the most productive community members in the war.

KEYWORDS:

• broken families, colonialism
• conscription
• conquest
• memory
• pacification
• punitive expeditions
• trauma
• World War I
• reparations

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 Hodges, Kariokor, 89. Recorded reminiscences of war by a former porter during WWI.

2 Hodges, Kariokor, 89. Referring to the Nyasaland carriers’ lot during WWI.

3 Hodges, Kariokor, 107. Recorded reminiscences of war by Odandayo Mukhenye Agweli from the Kenyan village of Bunyala. Agweli was 72 years when interviews were done between 1969 and 1970.

4 Hodges gives several illustrations of the application of these humiliating forms of punishment. He shows that in most cases, these punishments were in excess of the levels prescribed by the Ordinance; and that most probably unauthorized British officials were more likely to be mete out these punishments (Kariokor, 191–195).