PREFACE

Colonial Kenya was a place of extraordinary vitality and the story of the sixty-eight years of British rule is probably unique. No other African colony had so intricate a fusion of social and political interests and in few others did nation and nationalism grow up in circumstances of such rapid change in the lifestyle and awareness of the people as a whole. This book is conceived, therefore, not only as an account of Kenya's colonial history, but also as an analysis of development in the country at large – i.e., of those events and tendencies with which the administrative officer was especially concerned. Subject to the exception which I shall mention below, it is an account of colonial days as seen through the eyes of an administrative officer, myself, who came to the country in 1911 and remained to see it independent; and it is well to say at the outset that the administrative officer in Kenya was expected, while devoting most of his attention to his own province or district, to obtain a good working knowledge of the policies and problems of the entire country.

The exception is the account of historical background with which I begin. It was added after the rest of the book had been virtually completed, because it was evident that the achievements of colonial rule in Kenya could not be properly assessed without an examination of what the country was like before the British came and why Britain had proclaimed a Protectorate there at all. There is nothing original about it, but it is written with an understanding enriched by the conversations I had as a young man with coastal Arabs and old stagers who had some recollection of that time. As for the bulk of the book, I have not been limited by the same inexperience, but, while I have always tried to keep the balance true, some allowance must be made for the angle of vision from which particular events were regarded. A very large proportion of my service was spent in the African tribal areas, and consequently I am able to write with more authority about them than I can, for instance, about the White Highlands.

I have been much helped in the writing of certain chapters by various assignments of special duty which I have been fortunate enough to receive in the course of my service. For instance, a treatise which I wrote in 1928 on the tribal system of land tenure resulted in my being appointed to the Kikuyu Land Tenure Committee, and that again to my being sent to the Transkei for a period of comparative study, after which I served as secretary to the Kenya Land Commission of 1932/33. As well as the problem of land tenure, I also took a keen interest in the systems of administration in African lands, with the result that in 1937 I was seconded for a few months from the province of Nyanza to investigate and report on interrelations between African local councils and the central government. Another appointment of special interest I had was when for a few months in 1942 and continuously from the beginning of 1943 until the end of the war, I was seconded for liaison duties with the East Africa Forces overseas. Then, having retired, and returning to Kenya as a settler in 1949, I was given several assignments, the most interesting of which was with the Mau Mau Detainees Appeal Tribunal and the committee on the sociological causes of the outbreak.

These, in a sense, were highlights, but it was the long years spent in the normal business of district and provincial administration that provide the essential background to this book.

S. H. Fazan

c. 1969