Click the star to add/remove an item to/from your individual schedule.
You need to be logged in to avail of this functionality.
Log in
- Convenor:
-
Daniel Branch
(Exeter University)
- Stream:
- History, politics and urban studies
- Location:
- Khalili Lecture Theatre
- Start time:
- 12 September, 2006 at
Time zone: Europe/London
- Session slots:
- 1
Short Abstract:
none
Long Abstract:
Forty years ago the Kenya's People Union (KPU) emerged from the rubble of nationalist consensus. The euphoria of independence, attained in 1963, and the temporary convergence of political aspirations had given way to discontent with the trajectory of post-colonial politics. In its challenge to Kenyatta's conservatism, the KPU sought the support of the discontented citizens of the independent state. It found followers amongst debt-ridden farmers forced to bear the cost of resettlement on land formerly owned by settlers; within the villages of the Central Highlands where the wounds of the Mau Mau war of the previous decade were slow to heal; and from the constituency of the party's figurehead, Oginga Odinga, along the shoreline and within the hinterland of Lake Victoria. The KPU and its followers questioned what uhuru, independence, actually meant in a Kenyan context.
While not specifically concerned with the KPU itself, this panel is an attempt to consider the importance of the issues the party represented within Kenyan politics in the 1960s before its demise in 1969. The papers do this by exploring rural development in Luoland, the urban politics of Nairobi and the continuing tensions between Mau Mau and loyalists in the Central Highlands. Collectively, the panel seeks to locate the debates of the 1960s in a much longer context, stretching from the colonial period to the present.
No space for further proposals.
Accepted papers:
Session 1David Anderson (University of Aberdeen)
Paper long abstract:
In the emergence of nationalist politics in colonial Kenya between the mid-1950s and independence in 1963, Nairobi was the home of the Legislative Council and the base for party organization. This paper begins by considering the urban influences upon the formation of KANU and KADU, Kenya’s first two national political parties, and then goes on to examine the subsequent political life of the Nairobi electorate over nearly half a century. The voting patterns of this urban electorate will be reviewed, spanning the elections of 1962 to 2002, but with emphasis upon the crucial decade immediately following independence.
E.S. Atieno Odhiambo (Rice University)
Paper long abstract:
The Luo nation has had an uneasy relationship with state independence . In the perception of many Luo citizens, the Independence era has witnessed an inexorable decline in the academic, intellectual, political and social fortunes of the Luo, to the extent therefore that her elevated status during the colonial period is something to be wistful about, and the source of genuine soul searching. This is particularly the case during the anxious months of January when the results of the public examinations are normally released by the state: the refrain of being perennially near the bottom of the meritocratic pyramid is cause for many sleepless nights. The 'standard narrative', in the words of Lisa Morrison is that there is a conspiracy to keep the Luo out of the academic running, itself a symptom of the deeper malaise that affects Luo society. This 'standard narrative' often defies reason by appealing to the victimhood that the Luo nation receives in large doses from their nemesis the Kikuyu, who are seen to monopolize political power and opportunity, and who act to prevent Luo society from taking charge of its own destiny. In part this paper seeks to redress this equation by asking the Luo nation to take up her own burdens and bear its own cross in the uncertain world epitomized by the unspoken challenges of an HIV/AIDS -ridden world.
Daniel Branch (Exeter University)
Paper long abstract:
While the Mau Mau rebellion and its causes have attracted considerable scholarly attention and its importance to post-colonial Kenya frequently noted, few efforts have been made to discuss the legacies of the conflicts on local politics. Focused upon Nyeri district during the 1960s and early 1970s, this paper demonstrates the importance of the divide between former Mau Mau fighters and their loyalist adversaries for understanding political competition. Far from the past being hidden from public view, the contested histories of Mau Mau provided a prism through which later developments were understood.