The Struggle For Independence Between Deep Rooted African Culture And The Force Of European Civilization Mission

The Kenyan feminist and environmental activist, Wangari Maathai, explores the legacy of colonialism and oppression in her native country through her moving 2006 memoir, Unbowed. Maathai explains that over the course of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Africa experienced a massive influx of white settlers. In an effort to solidify control over recently acquired colonies, many European powers had encouraged large numbers of their ethnically white citizens to make a new home on the African continent. As a result, thousands of native Africans were displaced. Maathai’s ancestors, the Kikuyu and Maasai peoples were among them. The majority of these forced dislocations took

There was a great question asked by numerous individuals in the eighteenth century with what happens to people’s lives when their country is a colony of another country. This was very important to Americans when they were being ruled by Great Britain, and even to this day it remains important when countries find themselves controlled by more powerful outsiders. But what is colonialism? Colonialism occurs when one nation takes control of another. Kenya’s experience as a colony of Great Britain gives us more of an idea of what being colonized meant both to the people being controlled and to those who control them. Although it seems hard to believe, Kenya was created by the Europeans and generally this had a positive on effect on Kenyans because it began development.

Under the British Empire, Kenya was affected negatively, because it had a large impact on its and culture. In Document 5, it shows individuals who lead Kenya, including the first president of Kenya, Jomo Kenyatta and Tom Mboya, Independence activist wearing suits similar to clothings that Europeans wore. It made Kenyans feel that what they were wearing was unfashionable and bizarre so they changed how they dressed. Colonization had a huge impact on Kenya’s culture. European Colonization influenced Kenya negatively different way, by making people convert their religion.

This is an insult to their religion. They resent the English command and they are angered by their disrespectful ways. They also believed they had a chance to beat the British army if they were united which is why they responded in this manner. Another piece of evidence from Ndansi Kumalo describing the African resistance is illustrated when he claims that “There was much bitterness because so many of our cattle were [...] taken away from us; we had no property [...]. [...] But we meant to fight to the last feeling that even if we could not beat them we might at least kill a few of them and so have some sort of revenge.” In this quote, one can comprehend that he promotes violence through his message and encourages the Africans to fight the British. He most likely responds to imperialism in this way because he is despises the way the Africans are treated. He hated how the British men would molest the African females, take away their cows, and force them to carry their objects like slaves. He doesn’t like the treatment and he believes that the only way to stop this treatment is to declare a

The representation of anti-colonialist struggles and post-independence milieu stem from the creation of artificial Africas, that perpetuates prejudices, and stock narratives throughout dominate media and film. The Kitchen Toto follows the journey of Mwangi, the son of a preacher who is killed for opposing an independence movement. The film portrays African’s as malicious, corrupt, and in need of colonial saving by depicting the Mau Mau, the independence group who killed Mawangi’s father, in a negative light. They are shown in the night with machetes, forcing people to swear allegiance, and killing their countrymen without sufficient reasoning. A Good Man in Africa depicts Africans as malicious, corrupt, and in need of colonial help as well. During a presidential election, the favored candidate, Sam Adekunle is attempting to get the land back that Britain conned his father from. His tactics come off as corrupt, and malicious; in actuality, Britain is attempting to keep control the Kinjanja’s economy. This story is representative of neocolonialism, and reflects Nigeria’s struggle to profit from their oil reserves after they were declared free from Britain. Anti-colonialist struggles and post-independence milieu are presented as malicious, corrupt, and in need of colonial saving through narrative strategies in The Kitchen Toto, and A Good Man in Africa.

Colonialism in Kenya changed the Kenyans beliefs because europe was in control of Kenya they established rules that were against their religious beliefs and their norms. In exchange for raw materials, cash crops(coffee, tea, etc.), diamonds, and gold the Europeans gave the Kenyans and Africans their Christian religion, a “superior” government, and (to the Europeans) a more developed civilization.

Elikins book, which reveals the long-disguised facts of Britain’s destruction of colonial Kenya, is methodologically intriguing. In this response, I am going to talk about his usage of testimony and his comparative perspective of the British genocide and the Holocaust.

In Jessica Posner’s and Kennedy Odede’s Find Me Unafraid, there is a part of Kennedy’s narrative that details the unrest associated with the political election in Kenya. He speaks of how many people within the Luo and Kikuyu tribes were turning to violence, killing one another, even innocent children, as a way to show their frustration with the unjust system they were born into. From forced circumcision to burning down homes with families inside to slashing people with machetes, lives were being taken in gruesome ways, in the name of justice. Reading about a tragedy, one so similar to what was seen in Rwanda a decade earlier, led to the question, “What was the most influential cause of the Luo-Kikuyu massacres after the 2007 election?”. I plan to explore whether the massacres were simply a result of unhappiness about Mwai Kibaki becoming president or if there were deeper, more substantial causes of the massacre.

The ethnicization of politics began when European colonial powers transformed race and tribe into a static entity for the colonial legal project (Mamdani, 2002). Much like the Bantustans completely ethnicized society in apartheid-era South Africa (Handley, 2015), ethnicity became important for the colonial “divide and conquer” strategy throughout the continent. Administrating a large African populace could only be completed through a differentiation of ethnic identities. Unfortunately, most African states maintained this systematic segregation of peoples through decolonization and the post-colonial era. The patrimonial elites that inherited power in the post-colonial government could use this strategy to ensure a longer political rule (Hagg & Kagwanja, 2008). The result of segregation in Kenya recently transformed into political turmoil. Where Kenya is an example of an emerging democracy in the African context, ethnicity is viewed with trepidation (Jung, 2000). The proclaimed “2007-2008 Kenya Crisis” exemplifies the notion of ethnic tension. In this paragraph, I

The British colonization of Kenya destroyed the culture and economy of the native people, but it established a democratic government and left Kenya a more modernized country.[1] During the 1880’s through 1914, the start of WWI, was an age of imperialism. One place that felt victim to this imperialism was Africa. At this time Africa was a wholly unmodernized continent. The reason the Europeans went after Africa was the introduction of the idea of social Darwinism and the “white man’s burden”. Social Darwinism is the belief that only the strongest and the most cunning can make it to the top of the social ladder, and it was the White Man’s Burden to step in for these undeveloped countries

Max Johnson PLSC 315 11/4/14 Outline: Comparison of the Resistance against British Rule in India and Kenya My two cases for comparison are the Indian Independence movement led by Mahatma Gandhi against British rule, and the Mau Mau Uprising in Kenya, also against rule by the British Commonwealth. The two uprisings occurred in the mid-1900s, with the Indian Independence movement taking place before and during World War II, and the Mau Mau uprising occurring after the war. The predominantly nonviolent Indian Independence Movement resulted in success and Indian self-rule, whereas the violent uprising in Kenya failed in its immediate goal of the removal of British authorities.

Though Kenya’s impoverished and underdeveloped conditions were certainly not highlighted in the film, I believe it is important to observe. These conditions are best displayed by the state of the primary school. In the film, students were forced to sit 5 students to a desk and were crammed into a tiny room. Moreover, the Kenyans were highly grateful for the concept of free education. This highly contrasts the state of American schools, which are typically well funded. Americans are used to the concept of free education, so much so, that people now desire free higher education. I believe this theme is important to note because it is the key difference between the Kenyan and American

In 1954 Louis (Seymour Bazett) Leakey wrote Defeating Mau Mau an examination of the Mau Mau, and how the organization works from initiation to infrastructure, and the fact that Mau Mau is losing as a political movement aimed to drive out the white man and win self-government. After the construction of the Lunatic Express British colonization of Kenya skyrocketed, causing a division between white, well capitalized ranches Vs. small scale farmers. Tension between blacks and white grew due to the uneasy equilibrium, causing motivation for uneducated, poor, landless kenyans to fight the colonialist. Jomo Kenyatta help forum Kenya African Union (K.A.U.), the first effort to create a colony-wide African political organization which turned into the Kikuyu Central Association (K.C.A.), which led to the freedom fighters known as Mau Mau rebellions who fought the colonialist. The Mau Mau Emergency ends in defeat by the British Loyalist with brutal concentration camps. Leakey includes seven goals the Mau Mau aimed to achieve, one of the goals being to destroy christianity. Leakey describes various methods of propaganda, one of the most effect vises being subliminal hymns. Hymns would contain catchy melodies, with lyrics that would prepare Kikuyu people to take the Mau Mau oath. Within the context, Leakey repeatedly identifies religion as the primary reason for Mau Mau popularity(expansion?) in the Kikuyu community.

African continent has been surrounded in many conflicts since the end of Second World War (WW2), partly due to colonization, struggle for power, strive for self governance, wars of liberations, abolition of apartheid among others. The Africans all along had been waiting for an opportunity to air their views and fight back the colonial rule. There was a latent heat in Africa that was waiting to ignite conflicts in those areas that Africans were being oppressed. It is important therefore to think that latent conflict is ongoing in varying degrees of intensity, whether or not the issues are clearly formulated. This approach best describe the African phenomenon where the causes of conflicts are many and complex, including poor governance, poverty, drought, famine, competition for scarce resources, and identity-based rivalries resulting to an adverse impact on economic development in the region. The impact of violent conflict has manifested itself psychologically, physically, and economically, going beyond the material and affecting the lives of thousands of women, children, and men. AU therefore, came at a time when it was most desired. The African continent needed a powerful organ that cans unit different regions, races, tribes and people from different religious background and creed. AU has become the best hope that the African continent is hanging

Thus, Ngugi resort to use mythological figures in order unite and liberate the Kenyans, also he uses such figures to fossilize the Mau Mau in Kenyan's mind and to feel proud of their revolution. Neatly, Ngugi enlists and compares Mau Mau members to Prometheus (who defied to steal the fire from other gods to pave the liberation's way). No wonder Ngugi considers Mau Mau fighters as symbols of resistance because they suffered for getting freedom and liberation. (Ngugi. Detained1981: 111)