| dc.description.abstract | This is a study of the evolution, adaptation
and subordination of the Kikuyu squatter community
in the Nakuru District of the then White Highlands
of Kenya in the period between 1900 and 1963. The
study portrays the conflicts and contradictions of
a colonial situation in which the major protagonists
were the squatters, European settlers, the colonial
state and the emergent leadership among the African
national elite.
Kikuyu squatters comprised the majority of
resident African labourers in the European settler
farms in the White Highlands. Through a series of
financial and political legislations, the colonial
government hoped to convert the squatter community
into a cheap and malleable labour force. The thesis
depicts squatter articulation within such a hostile
capitalist environment. The central hypothesis of
the study is that the squatters were not a passive
or malleable appendage to the colonial system;
In their response to the colonial situation, the
squatters resisted coercion and subordination.
They established a socio-economic sub-system that
operated within, and to some extent in competition
with, the plantation economy. The dynamics of
squatter initiative are portrayed in their social
and economic activities In the White Highlands.
The study also depicts the dual settler-government
assault on the integrity of the squatter community
and its self-assertion, a salient reminder that they
were operating within the context of colonial
oppression.
The study commences with a critical analysis of
the imperial and colonial background against which
the squatter community emergedo This introductory
chapter establishes that the social, economic and
political structure of Colonial Kenya was committed
to create a privileged and dominant European settler
enclave, while relegating a subordinate role to
Africans, especially the labourers. However, the
multiplicity of factors that precipitated the emergence
of the squatter community also generated extensive
squatter initiative in their response to colonial
exploitation. The thesis describes the salient
features of this initiative as it operated within
the frame-work of the settler economy. To this end,
the study analyses the evolution of the squatter
community, its economic and social aspirations,
and how it sought to articulate and realize its
needs. This process entailed both subtle calculations
and the evasion of repressive official legislations.
The thesis also analyses the interaction
between squatter initiative and the avowed aim of
The study also depicts the dual settler-government
assault on the integrity of the squatter community
and its self-assertion, a salient reminder that they
were operating within the context of colonial
oppression.
The study commences with a critical analysis of
the imperial and colonial background against which
the squatter community emergedo This introductory
chapter establishes that the social, economic and
political structure of Colonial Kenya was committed
to create d privileged and dominant European settler
enclave, while relegating a subordinate role to
Africans, especially the labourers. However, the
multiplicity of factors that precipitated the emergence
of the squatter community also generated extensive
squatter initiative in their response to colonial
exploitation. The thesis describes the salient
features of this initiative as it operated within
the frame-work of the settler economy. To this end,
the study analyses the evolution of the squatter
community, its economic and social aspirations,
and how it sought to articulate and realize its
needs. This process entailed both subtle calculations
and the evasion of repressive official legislations.
The thesis also analyses the interaction
between squatter initiative and the avowed aim of
the colonial state to mould the squatters into d
cheap source of labour. Squatter resistance to
repressive colonial labour Jaws is shown to have
stimulated increased settler clamour for more
stringent measures. These came to a peak with
the enactment of the Resident Native labourers
Ordinance of 1937 which completely dislocated the
squatter community. As well as reducing squatter
acreage and livestock considerably, the Ordinance
also rendered thousands of squatters redundant.
The thesis highlights the pivotal role played by
these dispossessed and discontented squatters, in
the events that led to the outbreak of the Mau Mau
movement. More importantly, it portrays a squatter
perspective to the complex Mau Mau movement.
In their support of the revolt, the Kikuyu
squatters hoped to attain economic and political
independence by appropriating the White Highlands.
In the final analysis, the thesis examines the
manner in which the process of decolonization,
which was hatched by Britain and supported by
the elite nationalist leaders, robbed the squatters
of their goal | en |
