‘Now the cry was Communism’: the Cold War and Kenya’s relations with China, 1964–70

ABSTRACT

This article, by exploring the complex interaction among domestic politics, foreign policy, and the Cold War in Africa, analyses Kenya’s relations with Communist China between 1964 and 1970. As newly independent Kenya sought foreign aid and trade opportunities, the Sino-Soviet competition for influence in the ‘Third World’ enabled limited bargaining power for the Kenyan nation, commonly perceived as ‘weak’. Through an analysis of the factional political struggles within the Kenya African National Union (KANU) as well as Oginga Odinga’s overtures to China, this article emphasises the significance of local dynamics and forces in determining the unfolding ‘local’ Cold War.

KEYWORDS:

• Kenya
• China
• Africa
• Cold War
• Oginga Odinga
• Communism
• Kenya African National Union
• foreign policy

Acknowledgments

The author wishes to thank the editor, two anonymous reviewers, Miles Larmer, and Sue Onslow for their helpful comments on earlier drafts of this article. The author also wishes to thank Gregg Brazinsky for his assistance during the research. This paper was first presented at the LSE-GWU-UCSB Graduate Student Conference on the Cold War in London in May 2018.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

¹ “Smuggling of arms denied: members not present to back up claim,” East African Standard, 3 April 1965.

² Exceptions to this rule include: Julia C. Strauss, “The Past in the Present: Historical and Rhetorical Lineages in China’s Relations with Africa,” The China Quarterly 199 (September 2009): 777–95; and Jamie Monson, Africa’s Freedom Railway: How a Chinese Development Project Changed Lives and Livelihoods in Tanzania (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2009).

³ Jeremy Friedman, Shadow Cold War: The Sino-Soviet Competition for the Third World (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2015); Gregg Brazinsky, Winning the Third World: Sino-American Rivalry During the Cold War (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2017). For a growing literature on non-alignment in Africa: “Beyond and Between the Cold War Blocs,” ed. Janick Marina Schaufelbuehl et al., special issue, The International History Review 37, no. 5 (2015): 901–11; Andrew DeRoche, Kenneth Kaunda, the United States and Southern Africa (London: Bloomsbury, 2016); and Matteo Grilli, Nkrumaism and African Nationalism: Ghana’s Pan-African Foreign Policy in the Age of Decolonization (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018).

⁴ Colin Leys, Underdevelopment in Kenya: The Political Economy of Neo-Colonialism, 1964–71 (London: Heinemann, 1975); and Timothy M. Shaw, “International Stratification in Africa: Sub-imperialism in Southern and Eastern Africa,” Journal of Southern African Affairs 2, no. 2 (1977): 145–65.

⁵ John J. Okumu, “Some Thoughts on Kenya’s Foreign Policy,” The African Review 3, no. 2 (1973): 263.

⁶ P. Godfrey Okoth, United States of America’s Foreign Policy toward Kenya 1952–69 (Nairobi: Gideon S. Were Press, 1992), 113.

⁷ Odd Arne Westad, The Global Cold War: Third World Interventions and the Making of Our Times (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007).

⁸ Poppy Cullen, “‘Playing Cold War Politics’: The Cold War in Anglo-Kenyan Relations in the 1960s,” Cold War History 18, no. 1 (2018): 1–17.

⁹ Daniel Branch, Kenya: Between Hope and Despair, 1963–2012 (London: Yale University Press, 2012); and Charles Hornsby, Kenya: A History since Independence (London: I.B. Tauris, 2012).

¹⁰ Jennifer A. Widner, The Rise of a Party-State in Kenya: From ‘Harambee!’ to ‘Nyayo!’ (Berkeley: University of California, 1992).

¹¹ John Howell, “An Analysis of Kenyan Foreign Policy,” The Journal of Modern African Studies 6, no. 1 (1968): 29.

¹² John K Cooley, East Wind over Africa: Red China’s African Offensive (New York: Walker, 1965); Alaba Ogunsanwo, China’s Policy in Africa, 1958–71 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1974); Alan Hutchison, China’s African Revolution (London: Hutchinson, 1975); Bruce D. Larkin, China and Africa, 1949–70: The Foreign Policy of the People’s Republic of China (Berkley: University of California Press, 1971); and Philip Snow, The Star Raft: China’s Encounter with Africa (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1988).

¹³ Ogunsanwo, China’s Policy in Africa, 1958–71, 4.

¹⁴ “China’s Initiation of the Five Principles of Peaceful Co-Existence,” PRC Ministry of Foreign Affairs, http://www.fmprc.gov.cn/mfa_eng/ziliao_665539/3602_665543/3604_665547/t18053.shtml (accessed 10 January 2016).

¹⁵ Larkin, China and Africa 1949–70, 26.

¹⁶ Cooley, East Wind over Africa, 11.

¹⁷ “中国对外文化联络委员会交际司以及湖南、广西外事办公室接待肯尼亚非洲民族联盟尼安萨省支部总书记奥论德访华工作简报” [Brief on the reception by China’s External Cultural Contact Commission and Hunan and Guangxi External Affairs Offices of the KANU Nyanza General Secretary], 27 February 1964, Doc 108-01001-02, China’s Foreign Ministry Archive, Beijing (hereafter CFMA),

¹⁸ “中国对外文化联络委员会接待肯尼亚总统肯雅塔之长子彼德.肯雅塔访华计” [Plan for China’s External Cultural Contact Commission to receive a visit by Peter Kenyatta], 30 April 1964, Doc 108-00463-06, CFMA.

¹⁹ “Ministerial Delegation from Kenya Visiting China via Soviet Union,” 1964, DO 213/214, The National Archives, Kew (hereafter TNA).

²⁰ “Airgram from Nairobi to Department of State,” 4 May 1964, RG 59, Box 2391, 1964–66, National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, Maryland (hereafter NARA).

²¹ “Airgram from Nairobi to Department of State,” 21 May 1964, RG 59, Box 2391, 1964–66, NARA.

²² “奥金加·奥廷加团长的讲话” [Speech by Head of Delegation Oginga Odinga], 《人民日报》(hereafter People’s Daily), 7 May 1964; and “Ministerial Delegation,” 1964, DO 213/214, TNA.

²³ “Airgram from Nairobi to Department of State,” 7 May 1964, RG 59, Box 2391, 1964–66, NARA.

²⁴ Ibid.

²⁵ “Technical Assistance Agreement with the PRC,” 1964, ABM/2/3133/91/011, Kenya National Archives (hereafter KNA), Nairobi.

²⁶ “中国驻肯尼亚大使王雨田同农业部长麦克凯齐、国务部长穆隆比、工程、交通和动力部长姆挖永姆巴的谈话记录” [Minutes of meeting between Chinese Ambassador Wang Yutian and Kenyan Minister of Agriculture McKenzie, Minister of State Murumbi, and Minister of Engineering, Transport and Power Mwamyumba], 1964, Doc 108-00472-12, CFMA.

²⁷ “Ministerial Delegation from Kenya Visiting China via Soviet Union,” 27 May 1964, DO 213/214, TNA.

²⁸ Ibid.

²⁹ “Technical Assistance Agreement with the PRC,” 1964, ABM/2/3133/91/01, KNA.

³⁰ “Conversation with the Kenyan Ambassador in Moscow,” 5 June 1964, RG 59, Box 2396, NARA.

³¹ “Ministerial Delegation from Kenya Visiting China via Soviet Union,” 27 May 1964, DO 213/214, TNA.

³² “Meeting Minutes,” 3 June 1964, AE/19/70, KNA.

³³ John D. Esseks, “Soviet Economic Aid to Africa: 1959–72,” in Chinese and Soviet Aid to Africa, ed. Warren Weinstein (New York: Praeger Publishers, 1975), 89.

³⁴ See note 32.

³⁵ Esseks, “Soviet Economic Aid to Africa: 1959–72,” 90.

³⁶ “USSR and Chinese Aid – National Trading Company,” 5 November 1964, AE/19/70, KNA.

³⁷ Ibid.

³⁸ “Airgram from Nairobi to Department of State,” 21 May 1964, RG 59, Box 2391, NARA.

³⁹ “Airgram from Nairobi to Department of State,” 23 May 1964, RG 59, Box 2391, NARA.

⁴⁰ Ibid.

⁴¹ “Internal Political Balance Sheet,” 6 August 1965, RG 59, Box 2392, NARA.

⁴² “肯目前形势和我们的看法” [Current situation in Kenya and our view thereof], 1 July 1964, Doc 108-00465-02, CFMA.

⁴³ Ibid.

⁴⁴ “Ministerial Delegation from Kenya Visiting China via Soviet Union,” 1964, DO 213/214, TNA.

⁴⁵ William Attwood, The Reds and the Blacks: A Personal Adventure (London: Hutchinson, 1967), 242.

⁴⁶ “An Evening with Oginga Odinga,” 21 July 1964, RG 59, Box 2392, NARA.

⁴⁷ Priya Lal, African Socialism in Postcolonial Tanzania (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015), 42–3.

⁴⁸ Daniel Speich, “The Kenyan Style of ‘African Socialism’: Developmental Knowledge Claims and the Explanatory Limits of the Cold War,” Diplomatic History 33, no. 3 (2009): 451.

⁴⁹ Ahmed Mohiddin, African Socialism in Two Countries (London: Croom Helm, 1981), 68.

⁵⁰ Mohiddin, African Socialism, 89.

⁵¹ Branch, Kenya: Between Hope and Despair, 1963–2012, 54.

⁵² “Arms Smuggling,” 5 April 1965, RG 59, Box 2391, NARA.

⁵³ “Assassination of Pinto: Brains and Organizer of Odinga Forces,” 5 March 1965, RG 59, Box 2391, NARA.

⁵⁴ Branch, Kenya: Between Hope and Despair, 1963–2012, 45.

⁵⁵ ‘Chicoms’ stands for Chinese Communists in US official documents. “Odinga Presents Views on National and International Problems; Pinto Urges more US Contact with Odinga,” 24 December 1964, RG 59, BOX 2392, NARA.

⁵⁶ Ibid.

⁵⁷ Anne Thurston, A Path Not Taken: The Story of Joseph Murumbi (Nairobi: The Murumbi Trust, 2015), 214; “Assassination of Pinto,” 5 March 1965, RG 59, Box 2391, NARA.

⁵⁸ “Assassination of Pinto,” 5 March 1965, RG 59, Box 2391, NARA.

⁵⁹ “Smuggling of arms denied: members not present to back up claim,” East African Standard, 3 April 1965.

⁶⁰ “Source of ‘Forgery’ Now Known by Chinese,” East African Standard, 2 April 1965.

⁶¹ “Why there Has Been no Conclusive Confrontation Between Kenyatta and Odinga; the Relationship Between the Two Leaders,” 21 May 1965, RG 59, Box 2391, NARA.

⁶² Widner, The Rise of a Party-State in Kenya, 32.

⁶³ “Cold War the Danger to African Unity,” East African Standard, 5 April 1965; and “Socialism to Solve Problems – Minister,” East African Standard, 5 April 1965.

⁶⁴ “在途经肯尼亚和埃塞俄比亚的领空时 周总理分别致电问候两国领导人” [Premier Zhou greets leaders of Kenya and Ethiopia], People’s Daily, 6 June 1965; and “在访问坦桑尼亚后飞过各国领空时 周总理致电问候肯尼亚等国领导人” [Premier Zhou greets leaders of Kenya etc.], People’s Daily, 10 June 1965.

⁶⁵ Vincent Simiyu (Professor, Department of History & Archaeology, University of Nairobi), in discussion with author, November 2016.

⁶⁶ “Chinese Communist Embassy Site Provoked Kenyatta’s Suspicions; Other Aspects,” 13 August 1965, RG 59, Box 2394, NARA.

⁶⁷ “肯尼亚当局采取不友好行动无理要求我记者离境” [Kenyan authorities demand our journalist to leave the country without reason], People’s Daily, 5 August 1965.

⁶⁸ George Roberts, “Politics, Decolonisation, and the Cold War in Dar es Salaam c. 1965–72” (PhD diss., University of Warwick, 2016), 38.

⁶⁹ “Memorandum to United States Arms Control and Disarmament Agency: Conversation with Jeremiah Nyagah,” 20 August 1965, RG 59, Box 2394, NARA.

⁷⁰ Roberts, “Politics, Decolonisation, and the Cold War in Dar es Salaam c. 1965–72,” 37.

⁷¹ “奥廷加对肯形势看法及对我要求” [Odinga’s take on the Kenyan situation and his requests to us], 20 September 1965, Doc 108-01117-01, CFMA.

⁷² Ibid.

⁷³ Marxist-Leninist-Maoist Revolutionary Study Group, Chinese Foreign Policy during the Maoist Era and Its Lessons for Today, 2007, https://www.marxists.org/history/erol/ncm-5/cpc-policy.pdf (accessed 12 September 2017).

⁷⁴ Barbara Barnouin and Changgen Yu, Chinese Foreign Policy during the Cultural Revolution (London: Kegan Paul International, 1988), 66; and Wang Qinmei, “中非关系中的一个曲折起伏” [Twists and turns in Sino-African relations], in Peking University African Studies Series: China and Africa (Beijing: Peking University Press, 2000), 59.

⁷⁵ Long Xiangyang, “1966–69年中国与非洲关系初探” [An initial investigation of Sino-African relations, 1966–69], in Peking University African Studies Series, 79.

⁷⁶ Wang, “Twists and Turns in Sino-African Relations,” 65–7.

⁷⁷ Branch, Kenya: Between Hope and Despair, 1963–2012, 58.

⁷⁸ Hutchison, China’s African Revolution, 119.

⁷⁹ Branch, Kenya: Between Hope and Despair, 1963–2012, 59.

⁸⁰ Godfrey Muriuki (Professor, Department of History & Archaeology, University of Nairobi), in discussion with author, November 2016.

⁸¹ “Press Interview of Vice President Oginga Odinga,” 5 October 1965, RG 59, Box 2394, NARA.

⁸² Friedman, Shadow Cold War, 148.

⁸³ Branch, Kenya: Between Hope and Despair, 1963–2012, 59.

⁸⁴ “Principal Points March 15 Statement by Governing Party KANU,” 16 March 1967, RG 59, Box 1970, NARA; and “Reaction to Plans for Revolutionary Chinese Communist Diplomatic Activity,” 22 March 1967, RG 59, Box 1970, NARA.

⁸⁵ Barnouin and Yu, Chinese Foreign Policy during the Cultural Revolution, 5.

⁸⁶ Friedman, Shadow Cold War, 151.

⁸⁷ “Kenya Answers China Note: Peking Protest over ‘Hostility of Ministers,’” East African Standard, 13 July 1966.

⁸⁸ Ibid.

⁸⁹ East African Standard was the leading English language newspaper in Kenya at the time.

⁹⁰ “Editorial: Chinese Crackers,” East African Standard, 14 July 1966.

⁹¹ Wang, “Twists and Turns in Sino-African Relations,” 66.

⁹² “Editorial (Saturday Essay): The Sayings of Confucius,” East African Standard, 16 July 1966.

⁹³ “Editorial: Chinese U.N. Membership,” East African Standard, 24 August 1966.

⁹⁴ “China Aid Policy,” 26 August 1964, AE/19/70, KNA.

⁹⁵ “Incident at Communist Chinese Embassy in Nairobi,” 12 February 1967, RG 59, Box 1970, NARA.

⁹⁶ “我驻肯尼亚大使馆正告肯尼亚政府” [Our embassy in Kenya warns Kenyan government], People’s Daily, 4 February 1967.

⁹⁷ “Reaction to Plans for Revolutionary Chinese Communist Diplomatic Activity,” March 22, 1967, RG 59, Box 2255, NARA.

⁹⁸ “Envoy Who Attacked Kenya Told to Go: Ambassador Recalled from Peking,” East African Standard, 30 June 1967.

⁹⁹ “Sedition in Kenya Must Stop – Mr. Moi Warning to Chinese,” East African Standard, 3 August 1967.

¹⁰⁰ “Kenya Bans Literature from Foreign Languages Press of Peking,” 27 October 1967, RG 59, Box 1970, NARA.

¹⁰¹ Barnouin and Yu, Chinese Foreign Policy during the Cultural Revolution, 2.

¹⁰² “Envoy Who Attacked Kenya Told to Go,” East African Standard.

¹⁰³ “KANU March on the Embassy: Protest Note Refused by Chinese Diplomats,” East African Standard, 22 August 1967.

¹⁰⁴ “Peking Envoy ‘Tried to Plant Note,’” East African Standard, 22 August 1967.

¹⁰⁵ “我大使馆就肯尼亚副总统亲自出马反华向肯政府提出最强烈抗议” [Our embassy strongly protests the Anti-China actions of the Kenyan Vice President], People’s Daily, 23 August 1967.

¹⁰⁶ “Kenya Warns China ‘Stop Hooligan or Face the Consequence,’” East African Standard, 24 August 1967.

¹⁰⁷ “Kenya Warns China: We Will Hit Back,” East African Standard, 24 August 1967.

¹⁰⁸ Larkin, China and Africa, 1949–70, 174.

¹⁰⁹ “Conversation with Mr. Theophilus A. Koske, Kenya Ambassador to Peking,” 4 July 1967, RG59, Box 2257, NARA.

¹¹⁰ “Editorial: Sabotage from Peking,” East African Standard, 24 August 1967.

¹¹¹ “China and Kenya Trade Hostages,” 18 October 1967, RG 59, BOX 1970, NARA.

¹¹² “Trade with China,” 1966, KETA/7/17, KNA.

¹¹³ Ibid.

¹¹⁴ “Airgram from Nairobi to Department of State,” 20 June 1964, RG 59, Box 2391, 1964–66, NARA.

¹¹⁵ “Annual Policy Assessment – Kenya II FAM 212.3–5,” 17 August 1968, RG 59, Box 2255, NARA.

¹¹⁶ “Research Memorandum: Kenya: Will the Establishment Survive?” 9 December 1968, RG 59, Box 2257, NARA.

¹¹⁷ Okoth, “US Foreign Policy Impact on Kenya’s Domestic and Foreign Policies,” 173.

¹¹⁸ Branch, Kenya: Between Hope and Despair, 74.

¹¹⁹ “Research Memorandum,” 9 December 1968, RG 59, Box 2257, NARA.

¹²⁰ “Meeting of Vice President Moi of Kenya with President Nixon,” 3 May 1969, RG 59, Box 2256, NARA.

¹²¹ Mboya’s assassin Nahashon Njoroge asked the police after his arrest: ‘Why don’t you go after the big man?’, a famous statement that raised suspicions that Mboya’s shooting was a political assassination.

¹²² Attwood, The Reds and the Blacks, 218–36.

¹²³ “National Assembly Debate on Kenya’s Foreign Policy,” 2 April 1967, RG 59, Box 2255, NARA.

¹²⁴ “KANU Statement on The Reds and the Blacks,” 21 May 1967, RG 59, Box 2256, NARA.

¹²⁵ “The Reds and the Blacks – A Kenyan’s View,” 2 July 1967, RG 59, Box 2257, NARA.

¹²⁶ Ibid.

¹²⁷ “The Attwood Book,” 8 November 1967, RG 59, Box 2257, NARA.

¹²⁸ “Political Note #6,” 19 July 1969, RG 59, Box 2255, NARA.

¹²⁹ “Political Note #8,” 9 August 1969, RG 59, Box 2255, NARA.

¹³⁰ Ibid.

¹³¹ Between 1966–9, KPU received most support amongst the Luo people in Nyanza province.

Additional information

Funding

This research is part of a doctoral project funded by the China Scholarship Council-University of Oxford Scholarship. This work has been supported by travel grants from the Beit Fund, The Keble Association, and the British Institute in Eastern Africa.

Notes on contributors

Jodie Yuzhou Sun

Jodie Yuzhou Sun 孙遇洲 is a DPhil candidate in History at the University of Oxford. Her doctoral project is entitled “‘Brotherly Strangers’: Historicising and Disaggregating Kenya and Zambia’s Relations with China (1961–2000)’. Her main research interests are China-Africa relations, modern African history, and the Cold War.