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ABSTRACT
This article examines the strategic initiatives that Sir Philip Mitchell, governor of Kenya, brought to Great Britain’s Indian Ocean imperial and diplomatic policy in the years following the Second World War. Seeking to give strategic shape to his own coastal Islamic sympathies, Mitchell encroached on high-level policy debates with a proposal to reorganise Britain’s Western Indian Ocean around a political directorate to administer the coastal zones from Aden to Tanganyika. Such a cadre, Mitchell argued, would provide a valuable defensive bulwark against nationalist agitation and a ‘civilised’ foundation for local government initiatives. This paper brings together biography, strategic policy and area studies to demonstrate how Africa’s decolonisation shaped and limited the strategic options for Britain’s post-war Indian Ocean policy. Mitchell’s proposal broached a fascinating debate concerning the Indian Ocean as a realm of historical experience and future political construction.
Disclosure Statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1 Farson, Last Chance in Africa, 57.
2 See generally Prestholdt, ‘Politics of the Soil’; Brennan, ‘Lowering the Sultan’s Flag’.
3 Farson, Last Chance in Africa, 54.
4 Ibid., ch. 5.
5 On Mitchell’s life, see Frost, Enigmatic Proconsul; Mitchell, African Afterthoughts. For an incisive if unsympathetic portrait of his life and Kenya governorship (1944–52), see Throup, Origins of Mau Mau, ch. 3.
6 Iliffe, ‘The Spokesman’, 78.
7 Anderson, Histories of the Hanged; Elkins, Britain’s Gulag.
8 Lyttelton, Memoirs of Lord Chandos, 378.
9 Kirk-Greene, Britain’s Imperial Administrators, 213.
10 Throup, Origins of Mau Mau, 55.
11 Ibid., 237.
12 Ibid., 33–34.
13 Ibid., 55.
14 Ibid., 22, 37.
15 Mitchell, African Afterthoughts, xii.
16 ‘Definition of native and position to be assigned to half-castes’, memorandum by Secretary for Native Affairs, P. E. Mitchell, 22 Jan. 1932, Secretariat Minute Papers 18675/I/f.84,Tanzania National Archives, Dar es Salaam.
17 Chande, Islam, Ulamaa , 101–02.
18 Mitchell, African Afterthoughts, 139–46.
19 Ibid., 51–59.
20 Ibid., 91–100.
21 Mitchell to Oldham, 15 April 1926, MSS Afr.s.1829 6/8/f.4, Bodleian Library, Oxford University (hereafter BL).
22 Mitchell to Perham, 6 June 1934, MSS Perham 491/2/f.97. BL.
23 Mitchell to Perham, 14 Feb. 1932, MSS Perham 491/2/f.27. See generally Lavin, ‘Margery Perham’s Initiation’. BL.
24 Mitchell to Lugard, 4 Sept. 1933, MSS Lugard 12/6/f.18. BL.
25 Mitchell to Perham, 15 Jan. 1933, MSS Perham 491/2/f.69. BL.
26 Mitchell to Perham, 8 Oct. 1933, MSS Perham 491/2/f.87. BL.
27 Throup, Origins of Mau Mau, 33.
28 Copy of Mitchell’s 1941 report, ‘Note on General Policy in respect to Moslem peoples inhabiting the country bordering on the Indian Ocean and the Persian Gulf’, enclosed in Scott to Pyman, 3 Sept.1947, 537/2127/f.32, Colonial Office (hereafter CO), United Kingdom National Archives, Kew (hereafter UKNA).
29 Frost, Enigmatic Proconsul, 144–51; Gater to Mitchell, 16 Jan. 1943, CO 967/139, UKNA.
30 Foreign Office to Washington, 30 Sept. 1944, FO 954/7, UKNA; Batterbee to Attlee, 5 Jan.1943, CO 967/137, UKNA.
31 Farson, Last Chance in Africa, 51.
32 Kelly and Kaplan, Represented Communities, 208–13; Frost, Enigmatic Proconsul, 145–68; Farson, Last Chance in Africa, 51–52.
33 Mitchell to Stanley, 23 Sept. 1943, CO 83/235/5/f.12, UKNA. Indians were then ‘approaching a majority’—the 1936 census found 97,661 Fijians, 85,002 Indians, 4,038 Europeans and about 5,000 ‘others’. Census numbers in CO 83/235/5/f.2, UKNA.
34 Extract from Information Report for Colony of Fiji, March–Sept. 1943, CO 83/237/3/f.9, UKNA.
35 Mitchell to Stanley, 19 Jan. 1944, CO 83/243/1/f.1, UKNA.
36 Mitchell to Stanley, 21 Jan. 1944, CO 83/236/1/f.5, UKNA.
37 Mitchell to Stanley, 13 Oct. 1943, CO 83/236/15/f.11, UKNA.
38 Mitchell to Stanley, 26 July 1943, CO 967/137, UKNA.
39 Berman, Control and Crisis, 286–88, quotation at 288.
40 Rosberg and Nottingham, Myth of ‘Mau Mau’, 198–200.
41 Throup, Origins of Mau Mau, 55; Mitchell to Hall, 20 Dec. 1945, CO 967/62, UKNA.
42 Mitchell Diaries, 18 Feb. 1946, BL.
43 Ibid., 16 Feb. 1947.
44 Ibid., 1 July 1946.
45 Ibid., 30 Sept. 1946.
46 ‘Note by Sir Philip Mitchell for Under Secretary of State during his visit to Kenya, August 1946’, CO 537/2127/f.1, UKNA.
47 Minute of T. B. to Martin, 5 Dec, 1946, CO 537/2127, UKNA.
48 Hall to Cohen, 12 April 1947, CO 537/2127/f.16, UKNA.
49 Mitchell to Cohen, 1 Oct. 1946, CO 537/2127/f.3, UKNA.
50 Mitchell to Cohen, 7 March 1947, CO 537/2127/f.7, UKNA.
51 Mitchell to Cohen, 1 Oct. 1946, CO 537/2127/f.3, UKNA.
52 Mitchell to Cohen, 15 April 1947, CO 537/2127/f.21, UKNA.
53 See generally CO 537/4706A, UKNA; quotation at Glenday to Mitchell, 31 Jan. 1948, enclosed in Glenday to Cohen, 16 July 1948, CO 537/4706A/f1, UKNA.
54 Scott to Fox, 19 Aug. 1948, CO 537/4706A/f.5, UKNA. See also Brennan, ‘Lowering the Sultan’s Flag’.
55 Mitchell to Creech Jones, 8 Oct. 1946, CO 967/62, UKNA.
56 Speech entitled ‘The land we live in’ by Philip Mitchell, enclosed in Mitchell to Creech Jones, 5 Oct. 1946, Creech Jones Papers, MSS Brit. Emp.s. 332 7/3/f.43. BL.
57 Creech Jones to Mitchell, 17 Oct. 1946, CO 967/62, UKNA.
58 Throup, Origins of Mau Mau, 50–51.
59 Mitchell to Creech Jones, 25 Oct, 1946, CO 967/62, UKNA.
60 [Local government]: circular dispatch from Creech Jones to the African governors, 25 Feb. 1947, CO 847/35/6, UKNA.
61 Cohen, British Policy in Changing Africa, 32.
62 Haqqi, Colonial Policy of Labour Government, 109.
63 See especially Pearce, The Turning Point, 132–61.
64 Mitchell Diaries, 25 Aug. 1946, BL.
65 Ibid.,, 8 May 1947.
66 Mitchell to Creech Jones, 30 May 1947, CO 847/35/6/f.88, UKNA.
67 Mitchell Diaries, 10 Nov. 1947, BL.
68 See especially Pearce, The Turning Point, 177–79.
69 Hargreaves, Decolonization in Africa, 107–08.
70 Mitchell Diaries, 15, 16 Nov. 1947, BL.
71 Ibid., 29,30 Aug. 1946.
72 Ibid., 21 Nov. 1947.
73 Mitchell to Cohen, 7 March 1947, CO 537/2127/f.7, UKNA.
74 Mitchell to Stanley, 16 June 1945, CO 533/536/13/f.1, UKNA; Mitchell to Hall, 2 Oct. 1946, CO 533/536/14/f.7, UKNA.
75 Berman, Control and Crisis, 319.
76 Kent, British Imperial Strategy, 129–30; Hargreaves, Decolonization in Africa, 93.
77 Creech Jones to Champion, 17 March 1947, CO 537/2127/f.6, UKNA.
78 Creech Jones to Champion, 21 March 1947, CO 537/2127/f.9, UKNA.
79 Mitchell Diaries,, 10 April 1949, BL; see also Frost, Enigmatic Proconsul, 110–11.
80 Ibid., 22 April 1947.
81 Ibid., 23–25 April 1947.
82 Villiers, Sons of Sinbad, 117.
83 Mitchell Diaries,, 11 May 1947, BL.
84 Farson, Last Chance in Africa, 57, 355.
85 Mitchell Diaries,, 22 July 1946.
86 Mitchell to Creech Jones, 21 Jan. 1947, CO 537/2129/f.12, UKNA.
87 Mitchell Diaries, 3 May 1947, BL.
88 Ibid., 7 Aug. 1947; Brown to Burgess, 13 Aug. 1947, CO 537/2297/f.6, UKNA; Andrew, Defence of the Realm, 356–58.
89 Spencer, James Beauttah, 80.
90 CO 537/3589, UKNA; Aiyar, Indians in Kenya, 152–54; Patel, Unquiet, 139–43.
91 Mitchell Diaries, 16, 20, 24, 27 Jan., 9, 11, 12, 20, 24 Feb. 1948, BL.
92 Mitchell to Creech Jones, 24 Feb. 1948, CO 537/3629/f.8, UKNA. What follows is taken from this despatch.
93 Reilly report on Zanzibar, 15 April 1948, BW 90/101 UKNA.
94 Ibid.
95 Petition of Mbarak Ali Hinawi to Colonial Secretary, no date (c. Nov. 1948), CO 537/4706A/f.11, UKNA.
96 Cohen to Mitchell, 2 Dec. 1949, CO 537/4706A/f.13, UKNA.
97 Louis, British Empire in the Middle East, 285–88; Poynton to Mitchell, 5 June 1948, CO 537/3514/f.70, UKNA, emphasis in original.
98 Mitchell to Poynton, 29 June 1948, CO 537/3514/f.75, UKNA. See Louis, British Empire in the Middle East, 108; Hyam, ‘Introduction’, lviii.
99 Mitchell Diaries, 2 Sept. 1949.
100 Despatch from Governor of Aden on proceedings of Western Indian Ocean Conference held at Aden on 13–15 Oct., 1949, enclosed in Champion to Creech Jones, 25 Jan. 1950, CO 537/5911/f.2, UKNA.
101 Mitchell to Lloyd, 17 June 1949, CO 967/59/f.1, UKNA.
102 Lloyd to Mitchell, 6 Aug. 1949, CO 967/59, UKNA.
103 Mitchell to Chief Secretary, 10 Dec. 1950, OP/1/546/f.120, Kenya National Archives (hereafter KNA), Nairobi.
104 Minute of Mitchell, 24 March 1951, OP/1/546/f.155, KNA.
105 Mitchell Diaries, 11 Jan. 1949, BL; minutes in CO 967/170, UKNA.
106 Cooper, Africa since 1940, 38–65.
107 Kaplan, Monsoon, 309.
108 Prestholdt, ‘Locating the Indian Ocean’, 452.