From trusteeship to development: how class and gender complicated Kenya's housing policy, 1939–1963

Colonial rule required the control of territory, nowhere more than in cities. In the early twentieth century, colonial policy in Kenya and the rest of East and Southern Africa had only grudgingly accommodated Africans in urban areas. After 1939 policy changed, not only in response to poor local conditions and social unrest but also because London's new colonial development policy made a place for African workers in towns. From 1940, new housing and colonial policies acknowledged the importance of the discourses of class and gender. Administrators stabilised an African working class by building better municipal housing, and then sought to fashion a middle class by promoting home ownership. They began to promote housing for families, having recognised that African women could help to make their men at home in the city, and to educate children to become good citizens. The evolution of Kenya's housing policy illuminates the characteristic pressures, calculations, and responses of colonial rule that were being played out internationally in the late colonial period.     

Pastoralist iron production on the Laikipia Plateau, Kenya: wider implications for archaeometallurgical studies

Recent research conducted on the Laikipia Plateau in Kenya highlighted several shortfalls in the existing models for understanding and interpreting past iron production technologies. The research was undertaken in order to assess variability in past pastoralist iron production techniques – the first such archaeometallurgical exploration in the region. In all, seven furnaces and one iron production refuse area were excavated across two discrete sites separated by only 3 km: Mili Sita and Cattle Dip, both dating to the second half of the second millennium AD. The recovered archaeometallurgical materials – slag, furnace wall, and tuyères – were analysed using a combination of optical microscopy, SEM-EDS and ED-XRF.The results revealed that the technologies in question were complex and sophisticated, and their reconstruction and interpretation required some special considerations. The exploitation of titania-rich black sand was observed to bear a major influence on the resulting slag compositions at both sites, and use of these specific materials resulted in consistently efficient smelting episodes, demonstrating the technical competence and skill of the past smelters. However, although the slag compositions and microstructures of all the samples were markedly similar between the two sites, striking stylistic variation was apparent in the furnace design. This raised questions not only about the organisation and identity of the smelters who were working in this area at this time, but also of the reliability of assuming that similar slag compositions – peculiar as these might be – reflect similar technological (or sociotechnical) systems (cf. Pfaffenberger, 1992). A further problem encountered was that the consequently ulvite-rich slag was comprised of five, not three, major constituents – titania and lime in addition to iron oxide, alumina and silica. This meant that the operating parameters of these smelting episodes could not be easily interpreted using the usual models, which tend to be based around the assumption of fayalitic slag.As such, this paper will discuss to what extent consistency in technological style, in a broad, sociocultural sense, can be inferred through slag analysis, as well as the need for the formulation of wider reaching models that encompass the full scope of technical variation in iron production.     

Gendered mobilities and immobilities: Women’s and men’s capacities for agricultural innovation in Kenya and Nigeria

Abstract

Social norms surrounding women’s and men’s mobility in public spaces often differ. Here we discuss how gendered mobilities and immobilities influence women’s and men’s capacities to innovate in agriculture. We analyze four case studies from Western Kenya and Southwestern Nigeria that draw on 28 focus group discussions and 32 individual interviews with a total of 225 rural and peri-urban women, men and youth. Findings show that women in both sites are less mobile than men due to norms that delimit the spaces where they can go, the purpose, length of time and time of day of their travels. Overall, Kenyan women and Nigerian men have better access to agricultural services and farmer groups than their gendered counterparts. In Southwestern Nigeria this is linked to masculine roles of heading and providing for the household and in Western Kenya to the construction of women as the ‘developers’ of their households. Access and group participation may reflect norms and expectations to fulfill gender roles rather than an individual’s agency. This may (re)produce mobility pressures on time constrained gendered subjects. Frameworks to analyze factors that support women’s and men’s agency should be used to understand how gendered mobilities and immobilities are embedded in community contexts and affect engagement in agricultural innovation. This can inform the design of interventions to consider the ways in which norms and agency intersect and influence women’s and men’s mobilities, hence capacity to innovate in agriculture, thus supporting more gender transformative approaches.     

Sir Philip Mitchell and the Indian Ocean, 1944–49

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.     

Making the Loyalist Bargain: Surrender,Amnesty and Impunity in Kenya's Decolonization, 1952–63

ABSTRACT

In fighting Mau Mau rebels in Kenya between 1952 and 1956, the British armed and deployed an African militia, known as the Kikuyu Home Guard. This article considers the role played by these allies in the counter-insurgency war, looking specifically at amnesty and surrenders. The British held secret talks with Mau Mau leaders in 1954, and again in 1955, to organize rebel surrenders. The politics of surrenders split the Mau Mau movement, and also raised massive opposition amongst white settlers. Amnesty and impunity were inducements to Mau Mau surrenders, but were offered primarily to prevent disaffection and desertion among loyalist Kikuyu African militia allies who feared prosecution for abuses and atrocities carried out during counter-insurgency operations. Loyalist Africans also feared the consequences of rebels returning to their home communities. Amnesty and promises of impunity thus shaped the character of Kenya's counter-insurgency campaign and the decolonization that followed. This was determined by the need for the British to secure the continued support of African allies up to Kenya's independence in 1963, and beyond.     

Process-based models for port evolution and wreck site formation at Mombasa,Kenya

Mombasa Island, settled for almost 2000 years, played a central role in the development of the central seaboard of East Africa, emerging by the 16th century as a centre of sustained port dominance. Marine geoarchaeological surveys were conducted in Mombasa Harbour in 2001 (i) to quantify the nature and extent of the submerged archaeological resource, (ii) to investigate site formation and preservation potential of historic shipwrecks, and (iii) to explore the natural evolution of the Old Port and adjacent basins in the context of hydrodynamic and sedimentary processes. Backscatter and single-beam echo-sounder data were acquired, interpreted and diver-truthed using surface-demand and SCUBA systems. It is proposed that sustained scour processes, resultant from the interaction of ebb and flood tidal currents with bedrock ridges, control the bathymetric evolution of Mombasa Harbour, negating requirement for mechanical dredging. The submerged archaeological resource in the area comprises fish traps and shipwrecks. Physical processes govern shipwreck site formation, with scour and bed-migration dominant, ultimately leading to structural instability and site degradation. The wreck of Santo António de Tanná (1697) has been subject to gravitational collapse and mass down-slope movement of material, concentrating wreck structure and material along the portside stern third of the vessel.     

Spotted hyena (Crocuta crocuta) den use and taphonomy in the Masai Mara National Reserve,Kenya

Hyena taphonomy is of great importance to studies of hominid evolution, since these carnivore taxa have the highest potential both to produce large osseous assemblages and to modify existing hominid-accumulated assemblages throughout the Old World. The three extant hyena species (brown: Parahyaena brunnea; striped: Hyaena hyaena; and spotted: Crocuta crocuta) are all significant bone collectors and modifiers. Spotted hyenas generally have the lowest potential to accumulate osseous remains, and the rate of accumulation varies based upon the type of den. The present research examines the remains accumulated by spotted hyenas in Masai Mara Cave, Masai Mara National Reserve, Kenya. The contents of this den were collected twice by the authors, with an 11-year span interceding. The taphonomic signatures of spotted hyena interaction with bone are presented, including species and skeletal element representation, breakage patterns, tooth marks, tooth puncture, edge polish, and gastric corrosion. Other taphonomic factors examined include rodent gnawing and weathering stage. The cave den assemblage was accumulated at a rate of 30.4 identified specimens and a minimum of 4.1 prey individuals per year. In addition, the osseous remains accumulated by spotted hyenas at multiple burrow dens within the Reserve were examined for taxonomic representation and multiple taphonomic parameters. Rates of accumulation at this type of den tend to be very low, due to differential usage by spotted hyenas and the more ephemeral nature of earthen dens.