The 1918 Resident Native Labourers Ordinance (RNLO)
Settler differences over squatter stock
‘Kifagio’
Squatter resistance
Squatter production in the inter-war years
The sanctity of the White Highlands versus squatter assertion: from squatters to wage labourers
Squatter insecurity
Squatters and litigation
Notes
Three: Social Organisation among Squatters
Elders’ councils (ciama)
Official opposition to the kiama
Circumcision
The struggle for education
KISA and Karinga schools
Self help among squatters: the quest for education
Kikuyu Private Schools Association
The missions
Notes
Four: The Crisis: Decline in Squatter Welfare 1938–48
The 1937 Resident Native Labourers Ordinance: provisions and implications
Olenguruone
The Olenguruone scheme
Resistance at Olenguruone
The Olenguruone oath
Notes
Five: Politics of Protest: Mau Mau
Post-war political mobilisation
KCA and KAU mobilisation
Militant politics among the squatters
The social basis of Mau Mau in the White Highlands
The rise of violence
Mau Mau food supplies: the women’s war
Mau Mau and the control of the Rift Valley
The return of Kikuyu squatters to the White Highlands
Notes
Six: The Post Mau Mau Period: The Independence Bargain and the Plight of the Squatters, 1955–63
The Kenya Land Freedom Army
Liberal European politics
Land and politics
The peasantisation of the White Highlands
Notes
Biographical Notes on Key Informants
Acknowledgements
I am greatly indebted to the many people and institutions that have been helpful in the course of preparing this work. The study began as a Ph.D. dissertation for the University of Nairobi. I would like to thank my two supervisors, Prof. Godfrey Muriuki and Dr Atieno-Odhiambo for their constructive and stimulating criticism of the drafts. Prof. Ahmed I. Salim kindly joined hands with Prof. Muriuki during Dr Atieno-Odhiambo’s absence on sabbatical leave and offered valuable help.
The United States Agency for International Development funded the initial two-year grant while the University of Nairobi awarded me a one-year grant between December 1977 and November 1978. Both grants went a long way towards financing the research.
The members of the Department of History, Kenyatta University College, deserve special thanks for sharing my teaching load while I completed the dissertation. I am especially grateful to them for shouldering my departmental duties while I took a Rhodes Fellowship at Somerville College, Oxford, between 1982 and 1985, during which time I completed the research necessary for the revision and restructuring of the thesis and its conversion into this book. I would also like to thank the Rhodes trustees for funding the fellowship that has enabled me to write this book. Somerville College was my home away from home and I am grateful for the support and welcome that its staff and Principal, Miss Daphne Park, extended to me.
The staff of several libraries were very supportive during the various stages of this work. Librarians at the Kenya National Archives, the McMillan library and the University of Nairobi libraries in Kenya deserve many thanks. I spent long periods at Rhodes House library and at the Institute for Commonwealth Studies library. In both places the staff were most helpful. The Public Records Office library rendered good service.
Dr John Lonsdale deserves special thanks. He read all the draft chapters of this book and offered invaluable advice and support. David Throup and David Anderson made useful suggestions on earlier drafts. Mrs Selina Cohen sub-edited and typed the whole manuscript. I am very grateful for her patience and good work.
I wish to thank my various informants who willingly took time off for the interviews. The data thus gathered has been vital in the writing of this book. I am grateful to Lady Pamela Scott, Penina Nyawira and the late Selina Lyndall, who provided me with accommodation at different times of my fieldwork research. I would also like to thank Jane Nandwa, Gill Short, Tom Forrest, Niamh Hardiman and Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem for their encouragement. My family has patiently supported me, always. To them I say ‘thank you’. However, the responsibility for any errors or distortions is entirely mine.
List of Abbreviations
| AAD | African Affairs Department |
| AIM | African Inland Mission |
| AR | Annual Report |
| CMS | Church Missionary Society |
| CN | Central Nyanza – including the Kisumu Londianiarea |
| CNC | Chief Native Commissioner |
| CO | Colonial Office documents held at Public Records Office, Kew Gardens, London |
| CSM | Church of Scotland Mission |
| DAR | District Annual Report |
| DC | District Commissioner |
| DO | District Officer |
| EAISR | East Africa Institute of Social Research |
| EALB | East Africa Labour Bureau |
| EAPH | East African Publishing House |
| EAS | East
|