| dc.description.abstract | This dissertation is set out to investigate and to assess the
Tugen economic transformation between 1895 - 1963. First, it is
important to note that the Tugen live mainly in present day
Baringo District in the Rift Valley Province of Kenya. According
to Tugen oral traditions, they came to their present abode from
three directions: Sumo (the area around Mount Elgon), Koilegen
(the area around Mount Kenya), and Suguta (the area around Lake
Turkana). By the 1800s, they had settled in the Tugen hills from
where they began to expand eastwards until they were halted by
the White Settlers around Lake Solai in the 1900s. Tugenland is
divided into three ecological zones, namely: the Mosop (the
highlands), Soin (the lowland plains), and Kurget (the area
between the highlands and the lowland plains). These ecological
zones greatly affected the pre-colonial Tugen economy and,
eventually, the impact of colonial rule.
Before British rule took shape, the Tugen economy was organized
along traditional lines. Agriculture, for example, used
traditional methods, and the crops the Tugen planted were only
two, millet and sorghum. With the coming of the British, new
crops and new methods of agriculture were introduced.
Although Arab and Swahili traders had introduced the Tugen to
regional trade as early as the 1860s, regional trade was not as
important as the local trade;during the pre-colonial period.
Local Tugen trade was organized and opera ted through barter
because the money economy was not yet known by the Tugen people.
The Tugen exchanged their livestock for honey, grain and other
goods. During the colonial era, the money economy replaced the
barter system. By the 1940s Tugen were fully participating in
the money economy and even challenging Indian shopkeepers by
establishing their own shops.
In the field of animal husbandry, the Tugen resisted attempts by
the colonial government to reduce their stock. Eventually some
Tugen adopted paddock-grazing methods, and finally towards the
end of the colonial period imported livestock breeds such as
Jersey and Sahiwal were introduced among the Tugen. They were
therefore able to increase their milk production because the new
breeds were capable of producing more milk than the traditional
livestock. As regards labour patterns, the colonial era saw a
Tugen exodus outside their homes to work in government offices,
on the White Settlers farms, and in railway construction.
Initially Tugen were reluctant wage labourers, only working long
enough to acquire enough cash to pay their taxes, but eventually
they were forced into it by famines and other natural disasters.
Two major factors were responsible for the transformation of the
Tugen economy: the general circumstances of colonial rule,
including government policies, and missionary/western education.
Colonial circumstances accelerated the pace of economic
development by opening up new opportunities for the Tugen to
trade and to practise agriculture- using western methods.
Education, particularly aqricultural education, and the influence
of educated Tugen transformed the agricultural sector so that by
the time the colonial era closed in 1963, very few Tugen remained
who were still practising traditional methods | |
