Download or read book Kenya written by Charles Hornsby and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2013-03-01 with total page 1102 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since independence from Great Britain in 1963, Kenya has survived five decades as a functioning nation-state, holding regular elections; its borders and political system intact and avoiding open war with its neighbours and military rule internally. It has been a favoured site for Western aid, trade, investment and tourism and has remained a close security partner for Western governments. However, Kenya's successive governments have failed to achieve adequate living conditions for most of its citizens; violence, corruption and tribalism have been ever-present, and its politics have failed to transcend its history. The decisions of the early years of independence and the acts of its leaders in the decades since have changed the country's path in unpredictable ways, but key themes of conflicts remain: over land, money, power, economic policy, national autonomy and the distribution of resources between classes and communities.While the country's political institutions have remained stable, the nation has changed, its population increasing nearly five-fold in five decades. But the economic and political elite's struggle for state resources and the exploitation of ethnicity for political purposes still threaten the country's existence. Today, Kenyans are arguing over many of the issues that divided them 50 years ago. The new constitution promulgated in 2010 provides an opportunity for national renewal, but it must confront a heavy legacy of history. This book reveals that history.
Download or read book Dance of the Jakaranda written by Peter Kimani and published by Akashic Books. This book was released on 2017-02-07 with total page 345 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “This funny, perceptive and ambitious work of historical fiction by a Kenyan poet and novelist explores his country’s colonial past and its legacy.” —The New York Times Book Review, Editors’ Choice Set in the shadow of Kenya’s independence from Great Britain, Dance of the Jakaranda reimagines the special circumstances that brought black, brown and white men together to lay the railroad that heralded the birth of the nation. The novel traces the lives and loves of three men—preacher Richard Turnbull, the colonial administrator Ian McDonald, and Indian technician Babu Salim—whose lives intersect when they are implicated in the controversial birth of a child. Years later, when Babu’s grandson Rajan—who ekes out a living by singing Babu’s epic tales of the railway’s construction—accidentally kisses a mysterious stranger in a dark nightclub, the encounter provides the spark to illuminate the three men’s shared, murky past. With its riveting multiracial, multicultural cast and diverse literary allusions, Dance of the Jakaranda could well be a story of globalization. Yet the novel is firmly anchored in the African oral storytelling tradition, its language a dreamy, exalted, and earthy mix that creates new thresholds of identity, providing a fresh metaphor for race in contemporary Africa. “Destined to become one of the greats . . . This is not hyperbole: it’s a masterpiece.” —The Gazette “A fascinating part of Kenya’s history, real and imagined, is revealed and reclaimed by one of its own.” —Minneapolis Star Tribune “Kimani’s novel has an impressive breadth and scope.” —Los Angeles Review of Books “Highlighted by its exquisite voice, Kimani’s novel is a standout debut.” —Publishers Weekly “Lyrical and powerful.” —Kirkus Reviews
Download or read book The Politics of the Independence of Kenya written by K. Kyle and published by Springer. This book was released on 1999-04-07 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As with his critically acclaimed book on Suez, Keith Kyle revisits as a scholar ground that he first covered as a print and television journalist. After three introductory chapters covering the years 1895-1957, the core of the book examines in lively detail how Kenya moved from Mau Mau trauma to national freedom. The immediacy of the eye-witness, which older readers will remember from television reports, is now combined with the fruits of reflection and meticulous archival research to create a unique authoritative study of this vital period for Kenya, for Africa and for the British Empire.
Download or read book We Do Not Have Borders written by Keren Weitzberg and published by Ohio University Press. This book was released on 2017-07-25 with total page 397 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Though often associated with foreigners and refugees, many Somalis have lived in Kenya for generations, in many cases since long before the founding of the country. Despite their long residency, foreign and state officials and Kenyan citizens often perceive the Somali population to be a dangerous and alien presence in the country, and charges of civil and human rights abuses have mounted against them in recent years. In We Do Not Have Borders, Keren Weitzberg examines the historical factors that led to this state of affairs. In the process, she challenges many of the most fundamental analytical categories, such as “tribe,” “race,” and “nation,” that have traditionally shaped African historiography. Her interest in the ways in which Somali representations of the past and the present inform one another places her research at the intersection of the disciplines of history, political science, and anthropology. Given tragic events in Kenya and the controversy surrounding al-Shabaab, We Do Not Have Borders has enormous historical and contemporary significance, and provides unique inroads into debates over globalization, African sovereignty, the resurgence of religion, and the multiple meanings of being African.
Download or read book Indians in Kenya written by Sana Aiyar and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2015-04-06 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Working as merchants, skilled tradesmen, clerks, lawyers, and journalists, Indians formed the economic and administrative middle class in colonial Kenya. In general, they were wealthier than Africans, but were denied the political and economic privileges that Europeans enjoyed. Moreover, despite their relative prosperity, Indians were precariously positioned in Kenya. Africans usually viewed them as outsiders, and Europeans largely considered them subservient. Indians demanded recognition on their own terms. Indians in Kenya chronicles the competing, often contradictory, strategies by which the South Asian diaspora sought a political voice in Kenya from the beginning of colonial rule in the late 1890s to independence in the 1960s. Indians’ intellectual, economic, and political connections with South Asia shaped their understanding of their lives in Kenya. Sana Aiyar investigates how the many strands of Indians’ diasporic identity influenced Kenya’s political leadership, from claiming partnership with Europeans in their mission to colonize and “civilize” East Africa to successful collaborations with Africans to battle for racial equality, including during the Mau Mau Rebellion. She also explores how the hierarchical structures of colonial governance, the material inequalities between Indians and Africans, and the racialized political discourses that flourished in both colonial and postcolonial Kenya limited the success of alliances across racial and class lines. Aiyar demonstrates that only by examining the ties that bound Indians to worlds on both sides of the Indian Ocean can we understand how Kenya came to terms with its South Asian minority.
Download or read book Cartography and the Political Imagination written by Julie MacArthur and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Encompassing history, geography, and political science, MacArthur's study evaluates the role of geographic imagination and the impact of cartography not only as means of expressing imperial power and constraining colonized populations, but as tools for the articulation of new political communities and resistance.
Download or read book Kenya A Natural History written by Steve Spawls and published by T & AD Poyser. This book was released on 2013-04-16 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For its size, Kenya probably has the most diverse range of habitats of any country in Africa, if not the world. Within its borders there are alpine peaks, montane forests, high plateaux, savannas, lowland forests, coastal woodlands and wetlands, and a string of varied lakes in the Great Rift Valley. The range of wildlife to be found in the region is correspondingly diverse. this book explores the wildlife and habitats in great detail and gives a thorough overview of Kenya's natural history.
Download or read book Kenya Historical Review written by and published by . This book was released on 1977 with total page 438 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Kenya written by Daniel Branch and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2011-11-15 with total page 497 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On December 12, 1963, people across Kenya joyfully celebrated independence from British colonial rule, anticipating a bright future of prosperity and social justice. As the nation approaches the fiftieth anniversary of its independence, however, the people's dream remains elusive. During its first five decades Kenya has experienced assassinations, riots, coup attempts, ethnic violence, and political corruption. The ranks of the disaffected, the unemployed, and the poor have multiplied. In this authoritative and insightful account of Kenya's history from 1963 to the present day, Daniel Branch sheds new light on the nation's struggles and the complicated causes behind them.Branch describes how Kenya constructed itself as a state and how ethnicity has proved a powerful force in national politics from the start, as have disorder and violence. He explores such divisive political issues as the needs of the landless poor, international relations with Britain and with the Cold War superpowers, and the direction of economic development. Tracing an escalation of government corruption over time, the author brings his discussion to the present, paying particular attention to the rigged election of 2007, the subsequent compromise government, and Kenya's prospects as a still-evolving independent state.
Download or read book Culture and Customs of Kenya written by Neal W. Sobania and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2003-06-30 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Kenya, a land of safaris, wild animals, and Maasai warriors, perfectly represents Africa for many Westerners. This peerless single-source book presents the contemporary reality of life in Kenya, an important East-African nation that has served as a crossroads for peoples and cultures from Africa, the Middle East, and East Asia for centuries. As such, it is a land rich in cultural and ethnic diversity, where unique and dynamic traditions blend with modern influences. Students and general readers will be engrossed in narrative overviews highlighting Kenyan history, as well as the beliefs, vibrant cultural expressions, and various lifestyles and roles of the Kenyan population. A chronology, glossary, and numerous photos enhance the narrative. Kenya today struggles with nation building. Its society comprises the haves and the have-nots and faces the challenges of the trend toward urbanization, with its attendant disruption of traditional social structures. For Kenyans, the preserving of traditional cultures is as important as making the statement that Kenya is a modern nation. Chapters on the land, people, and history; religion and worldview; literature, film, and media; art and architecture; cuisine and traditional dress; gender roles, marriage, and family; and social customs and lifestyle are up to date and written by a country expert. A chronology, glossary, and numerous photos enhance the narrative.
Download or read book Indian Doctors in Kenya 1895 1940 written by A. Greenwood and published by Palgrave Macmillan. This book was released on 2014-01-14 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This ground-breaking book offers unique insights into the careers of Indian doctors in colonial Kenya during the height of British colonialism, between 1895 and 1940. The story of these important Indian professionals presents a rare social history of an important political minority.
Download or read book Britain s Gulag written by Caroline Elkins and published by Random House. This book was released on 2023-09-21 with total page 437 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Only a few years after Britain defeated fascism came the Mau Mau uprising in Kenya - a mass armed rebellion by the Kikuyu people, demanding the return of their land and freedom. The draconian response of Britain's colonial government was to detain nearly the entire Kikuyu population of 1.5 million and to portray them as sub-human savages. Detainees in their thousands - possibly a hundred thousand or more - died from exhaustion, disease, starvation and systemic physical brutality. For decades these events remained untold. Caroline Elkins conducted years of research to piece together this story, unearthing reams of documents and interviewing several hundred Kikuyu survivors. Britain's Gulag reveals, for the first time, the full savagery of the Mau Mau war and the ruthless determination with which Britain sought to control its empire.
Download or read book Politics of the Womb written by Lynn Thomas and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2003-08-20 with total page 317 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In more than a metaphorical sense, the womb has proven to be an important site of political struggle in and about Africa. By examining the political significance—and complex ramifications—of reproductive controversies in twentieth-century Kenya, this book explores why and how control of female initiation, abortion, childbirth, and premarital pregnancy have been crucial to the exercise of colonial and postcolonial power. This innovative book enriches the study of gender, reproduction, sexuality, and African history by revealing how reproductive controversies challenged long-standing social hierarchies and contributed to the construction of new ones that continue to influence the fraught politics of abortion, birth control, female genital cutting, and HIV/AIDS in Africa.
Download or read book A History of Kenya written by William Robert Ochieng' and published by . This book was released on 1985 with total page 188 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book An Economic History of Kenya written by William Robert Ochieng' and published by East African Publishers. This book was released on 1992 with total page 480 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Controversial Chiefs in Colonial Kenya written by Evanson N. Wamagatta and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2016-04-21 with total page 207 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Senior Chief Waruhiu wa Kung’u is one of colonial Kenya’s most controversial chiefs. His name has gone down in history as a traitor who was assassinated because he sold his country to the British colonizers. This book is the untold story of the controversial life of Senior Chief Waruhiu who served the colonial government for thirty years. He believed his white superiors’ authority was God-given and to disobey them was tantamount to disobeying God himself. That was why he was considered loyal, obedient, dependable, responsible, efficient, and a tower of strength. Chief Waruhiu’s violent death dealt his reputation a devastating blow, as it provided his critics with a basis to portray him as a traitor who sold out to the colonizers. Although Waruhiu believed that the Africans were not yet ready for self-government—and that they could not attain it through violence—that did not make him a traitor. Other chiefs also believed that and yet were not labeled as traitors. However, this did lead to him being considered a very pro-government and pro-European chief who was opposed to the aspirations of his people and he, as a result, deserved to be killed. Although it is believed that Waruhiu was killed by Mau Mau, there is no evidence to support that claim. The white settler community gained a lot from Waruhiu’s murder as it paved the way for it to get what it had been demanding for a long time—a declaration of a state of emergency and the arrest and detention of African leaders. It is very likely that some leaders of the white settlers, working together with government officials, were probably behind Waruhiu’s murder. The police, the prosecution, and the court seemed determined to make the murder charges against the accused suspects stick in spite of glaring discrepancies and contradictions in the evidence against them. Above all, the prosecution failed to prove beyond any reasonable doubts that Waweru and Gathuku killed Waruhiu. Thus, the mystery of who killed Waruhiu and those behind his murder still remains unresolved and the perpetrators of the murder may never be known.
