Kenyan Literature: A Call for Discourse
Abstract
The nation we call Kenya did not exist a hundred years ago; it consisted for the
most part of independent tribes before the beginning of the twentieth
century. Today, the descendants of these tribes constitute the bulk of the nation’s
population, outnumbering by far descendants of immigrant populations from
Asia and Europe whose ancestors are Arab slave traders, Asian traders and
railway builders, and British colonialists and settlers. Towards the end of the
nineteenth century, the British occupied the country, naming it British East
Africa. According to an article in The Journal of African Travel-Writing, the country
was referred to as the “winter home for aristocrats” and “the brightest gem in
Britain’s cluster of colonies” (111). In 1920 it was declared a colony.