Timbuktu, one of the world’s first and oldest university

http://afrolegends.com/2009/09/04/timbuktu-the-worlds-first-and-oldest-university/

 

How Many Native African Languages Still Exist In Africa, Frankly I Don’t Know, Do You?

http://www.myafricanow.com/many-native-african-languages-still-exist-africa-frankly-dont-know/

 

100 African Cities Destroyed By Europeans, part IV

http://www.contramare.net/site/en/100-african-cities-destroyed-by-europeans-part-iv/

 

100 AMAZING AFRICAN CITIES THAT WERE COMPLETELY DESTROYED BY EUROPEANS

 

http://www.corespirit.com/100-amazing-african-cities-completely-destroyed-europeans/

Before the scramble for Africa

http://www.slideshare.net/templep79/scramble-for-africa-th

Berlin Conference

The Berlin Conference of 1884–85, also known as the Congo Conference (German: Kongokonferenz) or West Africa Conference (Westafrika-Konferenz),[1] regulated European colonization and trade in Africa during the New Imperialism period, and coincided with Germany's sudden emergence as an imperial power. Called for by Portugal and organized by Otto von Bismarck, first Chancellor of Germany, its outcome, the General Act of the Berlin Conference, can be seen as the formalization of the Scramble for Africa. The conference ushered in a period of heightened colonial activity by European powers, which eliminated or overrode most existing forms of African autonomy and self-governance.[2]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin_Conference

The new scramble for Africa (part 1)

http://thisisafrica.me/new-scramble-africa-part-1/

http://15minutehistory.org/2012/10/24/episode-3-the-scramble-for-africa/

 

Colonization…

 

The scramble for Africa in the late 1800’s through…. The Berlin Conference of 1884–85, also known as the Congo Conference (German: Kongokonferenz) or West Africa Conference(Westafrika-Konferenz) regulated European colonization and trade in Africa during the New Imperialism period, and coincided with Germany's sudden emergence as an imperial power. The Imperial British East Africa Company (IBEAC) was the administrator of British East Africa, which was the forerunner of the East Africa Protectorate, later Kenya.

Kenya was established a British protectorate in 1895 giving Britain complete control and protection over the state of Kenya.  The colonizing of this state began with completely reconstructing the indigenous ways of life. The British appointed new chiefs and got rid of the old traditional leaders (Ochieng).  These new chiefs had complete control over Kenya and possessed administrative, executive, and judicial powers.

http://hj2009per4kenya.weebly.com/colonization.html

This is a Map of Africa before Colonization, Look at what has become of it now!

 

Click above

This is a Map of Africa before Colonization, Look at what has become of it now!

Before Africa was colonized, the continent was characterized by a large degree of pluralism and flexibility. The continent consisted not of closed reproducing entities, equipped with unique unchanging cultures, but of more fluid units that would readily incorporate outsiders (even whites) into the community as long as they accepted its customs, and where the sense of obligation and solidarity went beyond that of the nuclear family

http://www.myafricanow.com/map-of-africa-before-colonisation/

Africa before the scramble: indigenous and alien powers in 1876

Early Sultanate (1858-1885)  Wituland

Click above


 

 

Heligoland Treaty',
 

Another meeting leading to the 'Heligoland Treaty', was held in 1890 to ensure Africa 'The benefits of peace and civilisation' and settled the last disputes which still existed between Britain and Germany who abandoned some places in Kenya, receiving in compensation the Island of Heligoland in the North Sea.

 

A lingering controversy plagued the discussions concerning the area around Taveta claimed by rival German and British explorers and with Germany giving in, this is why it is the only stretch of this border which does not run in a perfectly straight line.

 

There is no historical evidence to support the story that the dividing line went on purpose around Mount Kilimanjaro and that Queen Victoria gave it as a present for the Kaiser's birthday as she already possessed Mount Kenya.

 

An Anglo-German Treaty divided Lake Victoria across the middle and continued the frontier to the eastern border of the Belgian Congo Free State. A last Belgian-German Agreement to share Lake Tanganyika along a North-South line ended the 'orderly' partition.

 

Early Sultanate (1858-1885)  Wituland
 

Temporary land claim by Germany from Lamu to Kiasamyu was in accord with the 1890 Heligoland–Zanzibar Treaty, on 18 June 1890 a British protectorate was declared, and on 1 July 1890 imperial Germany renounced its protectorate, ceding the Wituland to Great Britain to become part of British East Africa.

 

Founded in 1858 by the former ruler of the insular Pate sultanate after several abortive moves to the mainland, the native sultanate of Wituland was a haven for slaves fleeing the Zanzibar slave trade and thus a target of attacks from the Sultanate of Zanzibar (ruled by a branch of the Omani dynasty, under British protectorate). Facing an increase in slaving raids from the Sultanate of Zanzibar, the Sultan of Witu formally requested German protection so that he "finally has relief from the attacks of Zanzibar warriors.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wituland

 

The Ten Miles Coastal strip: An Examination of the Intricate Nature of Land

Question at Kenyan Coast

 

International Journal of Humanities and Social Science

Vol. 1 No. 20; December 2011…176

 

http://www.ijhssnet.com/journals/Vol_1_No_20_December_2011/17.pdf

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Africa_Protectorate

 

How Kenya got The Ten-Mile Coastal Strip

The ownership of Kenya’s coastline has been a matter of contention since the Sultan of Zanzibar officially signed it away in 1963. The claims for secession are often accompanied by the history of the great Zanzibar sultanate which once stretched to what is today the Kenyan coastline.

 

http://owaahh.com/how-kenya-got-the-ten-mile-coastal-strip/

 

 

British Kenya

 

Mombasa had long been known to Europeans, the Portuguese had used it as a trading base for many years. The Sultan of Zanzibar extended his rule over the East African mainland throughout the nineteenth century. The African tribes in East Africa resented this Arab rule but could do little to resist it. The Arab control was tied up very much with the ivory and slave trades.

 

http://www.britishempire.co.uk/maproom/kenya.htm

 

A German Carl Peters, saw the opportunity this offered, and landing at Witu (a German possession), he led an expedition over the Kenya Highlands into Uganda on the excuse that he was going to relieve Emin Pasha (to whom reference was made in chapter 6). This was merely an excuse; two other expeditions had already set out for that purpose, one from the Congo led by Stanley, and one from Zanzibar led by Sir Frederick Jackson on behalf of the Imperial British East Africa Company. Sir Frederick Jackson, as it happened, reached the border of Uganda before Peters but, despite the Kabakd’s request for help Jackson, who had strict orders from the Company not to enter Uganda, refused to commit himself. Instead, hearing that Emin Pasha had already been relieved by Stanley, he set off to the Mt Elgon district to shoot elephants, hoping that the ivory might pay for the expenses of his expedition. On his return to camp Jackson heard of Peters’ visit and decided after all to enter Uganda, in pursuit.

So far as political results were concerned Jackson and Peters might just as well have stayed at home, for the whole question of Uganda’s future had been decided over their heads by the Heligoland treaty of 1890 which definitely assigned Buganda and its neighbouring territories to Britain. Both Jackson and Peters left characteristic descriptions of these events which indicate their different approaches.

 

(EVENTS AS SEEN BY SIR FREDERICK JACKSON)

On March 4th, 1890, we arrived back at Mumia’s [about 30 miles north of Kisumu on Lake Victoria, the headquarters of a powerful African chief, Mumia, and the burial place of Hannington] where a bombshell awaited us—Dr Karl Peters, the notorious German traveller, had passed through Mumia’s a month earlier. He had left the coast with an expedition, ostensibly to relieve Emin Pasha should Stanley fail to do so, and he had crossed into the British sphere and treated the natives in an abominable manner, riding roughshod over the Company’s interests.. He had visited my camp, had opened my letters and read them. The information he received from this outrageous act decided him to push on to Uganda.

He had camped two hours’ journey from Mumia’s, had made a treaty with the Chief Sakwa, had hoisted the German flag on a flagstaff, leaving with the Chief a letter (which he was unable to read so he was ignorant of the contents) declaring the village to be under German protection. In Dr Peters’ amazing book, New Light on Dark Africa, he gives the text of this letter in full; in it he declared the land of Kavirondo to be his possession. When I read the letter to the Chief Sakwa, he was much distressed, as he wished to be under the protection of the British Company, and he implored us to take down the German flag. We then exchanged treaties with him and gave him the Company’s flag.

 

 

Another meeting leading to the 'Heligoland Treaty', was held in 1890 to ensure Africa 'The benefits of peace and civilisation' and settled the last disputes which still existed between Britain and Germany who abandoned some places in Kenya, receiving in compensation the Island of Heligoland in the North Sea.

A lingering controversy plagued the discussions concerning the area around Taveta claimed by rival German and British explorers and with Germany giving in, this is why it is the only stretch of this border which does not run in a perfectly straight line.

Temporary land claim by Germany from Lamu to Kiasamyu was in accord with the 1890 Heligoland–Zanzibar Treaty, on 18 June 1890 a British protectorate was declared, and on 1 July 1890 imperial Germany renounced its protectorate, ceding the Wituland to Great Britain to become part of British East Africa.

Schneppen’s assertion is based primarily on the terms of the Heligoland-Zanzibar Treaty of 1 July 1890. In the Treaty, Germany and Great Britain agreed on several territorial interests. Germany gave up its claim of Zanzibar Sultanate-which then stretched to what is today the Kenyan coast-in exchange for Heligoland and the coast of Dar es Salaam.

An Anglo-German Treaty divided Lake Victoria across the middle and continued the frontier to the eastern border of the Belgian Congo Free State. A last Belgian-German Agreement to share Lake Tanganyika along a North-South line ended the 'orderly' partition.

 

Africa Partitioned Extract Date: 1902

 

Goans at Lamu 1800-2000 : A story of bandsmen, sailors, clerks and tailors.

Towards the later part of the nineteenth century the Germans and the British were  politically active in the Lamu area. The Germans finally placed the settlement of Witu under German protection, thereby making it independent of the Sultan of Zanzibar. However German aspirations had spread from Witu to nearby Lamu where they established a post office. In 1886 the Germans and British worked out a deal which gave Lamu to the Sultan of Zanzibar who ceded it to the Imperial British East Africa Company (IBEAC) who sent an agent to Lamu in 1888. 

http://www.academia.edu/5288645/Goans_in_Lamu_Kenya._1800-2000

 

Click above

How Kilimanjaro ended up in Tanzania

By MORRIS KIRUGA

There is something odd about the map of Kenya. From Lake Victoria to the Coast, the borderline moves in a straight line that is only broken by a small kink. That unassuming curve would not be significant if it did not conveniently place Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa’s highest peak, on Tanzanian soil.

http://www.nation.co.ke/lifestyle/DN2/How-Kilimanjaro-ended-up-in-Tanzania/-/957860/1914756/-/12yn43n/-/index.html

Italians/French were in Somalia and Ethiopia

Although Italians were in Somalia and Ethiopia, Ethiopia was never ever colonized to the extent that the Italian colonial government took full control of Ethiopia, thus the reason/debate that Ethiopia and Liberia were never colonized. In the 1880s Italy failed to take Abyssinia (as Ethiopia was then known) as a colony. On 3 October 1935 Mussolini ordered a new invasion and on 9 May the following year Abyssinia was annexed by Italy. On 1 June the country was merged with Eritrea and Italian Somalia to form Africa Orientale Italiana (AOI - Italian East Africa. Ruled in the 19th century by the Somali Majeerteen Sultanate and the Sultanate of Hobyo, the territory was later acquired in the 1880s by Italy through various treaties. The European powers (Italy, Great Britain and France) first gained a foothold in Somalia through the signing of various pacts and agreements with the Somali Sultans that then controlled the region, such as Yusuf Ali Kenadid, Boqor Osman Mahamuud and Mohamoud Ali Shire.

 

Colonial competitors: 1839-1897

European interest in Somalia develops after 1839, when the British begin to use Aden, on the south coast of Arabia, as a coaling station for ships on the route to India. The British garrison requires meat. The easiest local source is the Somali coast.

France and Italy, requiring similar coaling facilities for their own ships, establish stations in the northern Somali regions. The French develop Djibouti. The Italians are a little further up the coast at Aseb, in Eritrea. When the European scramble for Africa begins, in the 1880s, these are the three powers competing for Somali territory. Soon they are joined by a fourth rival, Ethiopia, where Menelik II becomes emperor in 1889.

France and Britain, after a brief risk of armed confrontation, agree in 1888 on a demarcation line between their relatively minor shares of the coast. The French region around Djibouti becomes formally known as the Côte Françcaise des Somalis (French Coast of the Somalis, commonly referred to in English as French Somaliland). This remains a French colony until becoming independent as the republic of Djibouti in 1977.

Read more: http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?historyid=ad20#ixzz3wNe7k95l 

 Watch How Europeans Gave Away African Land They Never Owned, Then Expressed Anger When Africans Resisted!
 

http://atlantablackstar.com/2015/01/19/watch-how-europeans-gave-away-african-land-they-never-owned-then-expressed-anger-when-africans-resisted/

The Africa House by Christina Lamb

East Africa 1700-1950

by Sanderson Beck

 

East and Central Africa to 1700

 

The Omanis governing Mombasa were of the Mazrui lineage. The Portuguese occupied Mombasa once more in 1728. The same year the King of Pate agreed to garrison 150 Portuguese soldiers and give Portugal a monopoly on ivory. After the people of Pate refused to build the fort and burned down half of Pate, the King sold the Portuguese a ship to return to Goa. In Mombasa townsmen joined by Musungulos murdered some Portuguese outside the fort in April 1729, taking the outpost fort at Makupa. Other towns rebelled against the Portuguese also, and in November 1729 the Portuguese abandoned Mombasa for good. The Omani Arabs soon arrived and took over Pate and Mombasa.

http://www.san.beck.org/16-12-EastAfrica.html

 

East Africa and the British 1856-1918

When Sa’id died in 1856, his son Majid succeeded him in Zanzibar and was supported by the British in his conflict with his brother Thuwain, who ruled at Muscat and tried to take over Zanzibar in 1859; but a British man-of-war persuaded him to turn back. In 1861 a man-of-war helped suppress the pirates ravaging Zanzibar. That year the British granted the right to hire Indian “coolies.” Also in 1861 Governor-General Canning of India arbitrated the Omani succession dispute by deciding they should rule their separate realms, and Majid should pay Thuwain 40,000 crowns a year. France accepted the agreement the next year.

http://www.san.beck.org/16-12-EastAfrica.html

 

Kenya 1918-50

Edward Northey arrived in January 1919 and became the first governor of Kenya when it was declared a colony in 1920. He ordered the start of African registration, and in October 1919 he authorized officials to assist with labor recruiting for private employers. Northey also implemented the Soldier Settler plan by helping European veterans get land in Kenya on easy terms. Taxes on Africans were raised during and after the war, but Europeans had low taxes. The state even helped employers reduce their wages to Africans. The Indians in Kenya outnumbered the Europeans, but they were not allowed to vote or get land in the “white highlands.” They demanded the vote, free immigration, and an end to segregation. However, the Convention of Associations demanded restricted Asian immigration, only two Asians on the Legislative Council, and residential segregation.

http://www.san.beck.org/16-12-EastAfrica.html

 

British East Africa

by Grant Sinclair

Introduction

British East Africa (BEA) is a British territory which sits astride the equator of the Dark Continent. In 1889, BEA comprises the land which later becomes Kenya and the western part of what will later become Somaliland. Within a few years, the area which now is called Uganda is added to BEA (though it is still considered to be a separate country within it). You may have seen/read of Kenya in Out of Africa (Dineson), Born Free (Adamson), The Green Hills of Africa (Hemingway), King Solomon's Mines (Haggard) and the Flame Trees of Thika (Elspeth Huxley). The nearby country of Rwanda (just south of Uganda) was the site of Gorillas in the Mist.

http://www.heliograph.com/trmgs/trmgs2/bea.shtml

 

Circa 1873: The site at Chitambo, Lake Bangweulu, Zambia, where Scottish explorer Dr David Livingstone's heart lies buried. The portion of the tree carrying the inscription was cut down and is now deposited with the Royal Geographical Society in London. Livingstone (1813 - 1873), first visited Africa as a missionary where he visited fellow Scot Robert Moffat, and married his daughter. He began exploring Africa with his wife, and later with his children too, becoming the first European to see sights such as Victoria Falls. He resigned from the Missionary Society but was appointed British consul for East Africa and led many expeditions to explore east and central Africa including a lengthy journey into the interior where he met a search party, looking for him, led by Morton Stanley. They became friends and travelled together before Livingstone's death in Zambia in 1873. His explorations revolutionized maps of Africa. He also campaigned for the abolition of slavery.

https://library.princeton.edu/visual_materials/maps/websites/africa/stanley/stanley.html

William Mackinnon (middle) with H.M. Stanley and F. de Winton

Sir William Mackinnon

 

During the “Imperialist” era of the nineteenth century Great Britain authorized the creation of four chartered companies and endowed them with extensive political as well as commercial privileges, Sir William Mackinnon’s company “The Imperial British East Africa Company”, chartered in 1888 was one of them.

 

Sir William Mackinnon a scot and a maritime trader who was well established with trading routes with India and later focused mainly on Africa, he built his very own first commercial Railway line in Kenya. He also invested and with others built Mackinnon-Sclater road throughout Kenya…….

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_William_Mackinnon,_1st_Baronet

Click above

Photos, Guns, Africa, Stanley, & Kalulu

http://siarchives.si.edu/blog/photos-guns-africa-stanley-kalulu

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalulu

 

Row over statue of 'cruel' explorer Henry Morton Stanley

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/congo/7908247/Row-over-statue-of-cruel-explorer-Henry-Morton-Stanley.html

 

Letter from Kinshasa: on the trail of Henry Morton Stanley

 

http://www.newstatesman.com/world-affairs/2014/09/letter-kinshasa-trail-henry-morton-stanley

 

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The search for the source of the Nile

 

These are famous African Explorers that accompanied famous European Explorers that you never hear of, just as when   “The search for the source of the Nile”  these distinguished figures in Sidi Mubarak Bombay, Ulimengo, IImas, Khamsin, Baruti, Mkate, Uledi Mapengo, Uledi (Grant’s servant) Manua, Sadiki, Umbari, Farhan, Mektub, Maburuki, Mtamani, Frij, Sangoro, Juma, Jacon Wainwright, Sambo, Chowpereh,  Robert Feruzi, Majawara, Uledi Susi, Chuma, MakatubuDualla Idris, Jumbe kimameta….

There were women too…Sikujua, Kahala, M’Essu, Faida…Sera’s wife and many many more were the illustrious people who gave all for their masters but sadly little does the world know about them.


 

Although historians have not widely highlighted these visitors and the flourishing trade, its extensive evidence found on the East African Coast, known as Zeng or Zenj as well as Azania, deep inland, and as far south as the ruins in Zimbabwe, is highly indicative of commerce long time before its colonial occupation.

 

The presence of Indians in East Africa is well documented in the Periplus of the Erythrean Sea or Guidebook of Red Sea by an ancient Greek author written in 60 AD. The ancient Indian work the Puranas also mention the East African coast as well interior of Kenya as far as Lake Victoria, which was known as ’ Nil (Nile?) Sarover,’ Lake Nil, and knew the source the of ‘Nil’ Nile.

 

Additionally there were thousands of indigenous people living on the shores before it was named Lake Victoria. Credit is never ever given to Sidi Mubarak Bombay who showed Speke the source of the Nile. Finally, Speke went on to write many books as well as translate of works such as the Kama Sutra.

 

One of the most famous stories in African history is the story of the search for the beginning of the River Nile.

Read the cartoon below to find out what all the fuss was about:

 

One of the British explorers, Richard Burton was asked to go on a trip to Africa to find out where the River Nile began in 1856. There was a race to find out more about it. Richard was very clever and spoke 29 languages!

John Speke was born in 1827. He joined the army in 1844 and was soon sent to India. While he was in India he was also asked to go on the trip to Africa.

John Speke and Richard Burton
John Speke was born in 1827. He joined the army in 1844 and was soon sent to India. While he was in India he was also asked to go on the trip to Africa.
nile F9SearchfortheNile.pdf
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Sidi Mubarak Bombay in 1860
One of the men they hired was called Sidi Mubarak Bombay. Sidi was a very brave man who was often at the front of the group leading the way with his gun.
sidi HHAfrica_SidiMubarakBombay.pdf
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Explorers
When Speke returned to Tabora, Burton was waiting for him and was not pleased. Burton had wanted to find the lake himself and was not pleased that Speke had found it first, the men had a huge argument.
sisi BombayAfricansPartTwo.pdf
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Travels in the interior districts of Africa: performed under the direction and patronage

http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/181868#page/22/mode/1up

 

British East Africa

Kenya (Nov 26th 1892, The Illustrated London News)

 

On Oct. 8, the Right Rev. F. Tucker, Bishop of Equatorial Africa, left Freretown, in Mombasa Harbour, for his long and toilsome journey inland to Uganda, the important native kingdom on the north-west shores of Lake Victoria Nyanza, over which the British East Africa Company has of late years exercised a certain degree of control. Mr. Henry Francis Gordon, agent of the Church Missionary Society in charge of its establishments at Mombasa, has favoured us with sketches of the town and harbour ; of the scene on that occasion, when the Company’s steam launch, towing the boats, conveyed Bishop Tucker and his party across the water, cheered by a large assemblage of people on the beach at Freretown.

The situation of Mombasa, a commercial seaport of some value, ceded by the Sultan of Zanzibar to English possession a few years ago, should be observed in explan­ation of the first of these views. The land shown to the left hand is the island on which the town, with about 50,000 inhabitants, and the ancient Portuguese fort are built, only a small portion of the town being seen in this view. Beyond the point marked by a black-and-white post lies the channel separating the island from the mainland shore at Freretown, where five large white houses, belonging to the Church Missionary Society, are distinctly observed : these are, enumerated from left to right, the ladies' house, the Bishop’s house, the secretary’s house and office, the diocesan cashier’s house, and the printing-office. Behind them rise the hills and distant mountains of the interior, across which Bishop Tucker must travel several hundred miles westward from Rabai, the starting-point of his inland journey', to the eastern shore of the great lake.

PUBLISHED IN 1954 BY THE COLONIAL OFFICE AND THE CENTRAL OFFICE OF INFORMATION.
WHAT KIND of a man. is a mission¬ary ? Livingstone and Stanley were agreed on that. “He must”, said Livingstone, “be more than just a man going about with a Bible under his arm.” “ It is the practical Christian tutor”, wrote Stanley, “ who can teach people how to become Christians, cure their diseases, construct dwellings, understand and exemplify agriculture, and turn his hand to anything, like a sailor—that is the man who is wanted.” And such were the men, Protestant and Catholic, British, French, and German, who devoted their lives to bringing Christianity to the Africans, and improving their welfare.
Publication1krapf a.pdf
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The Battle of Adwa: When Ethiopia crushed Italy!

The Battle of Adwa (29 February-1 March 1896) is of huge significance for Africa in that the decimation of the continent could not be completed. Ethiopia turned out to be the last man standing.

 

http://www.therealafrican.com/2017/03/the-battle-of-adwa-when-ethiopia-crushed-italy/

 

 

Africa: States of independence - the scramble for Africa  

Mr Edward Rodwell

A prolific writer of his time who worked for the Mombasa Times, owned his own press called Rodwell Press in Mombasa, Mr Edward Rodwell known as “The Watchman” had quite a few Coast Causerie published. Here is one which stands out:

This is the story of Mr Mathew Wellington, the person who helped to carry Livingstone’s Body to the Coast.

LIVINGSTONE IS LOST

Then came a call from Africa. Livingstone was lost. Volunteers were called from the C.M.S. natives. A search party was to be formed. Who would go? All volunteered, and Matthew was one of the chosen. A year later found him at Bagamoyo. The evening before the relief expedition was due to set forth a ragged tired figure staggered into camp.

It was Stanley. He had left Livingstone a month previously. Soon after, on Stanley’s advice an all-native expedition set out They took four months to reach Ujiji. With songs the party entered the shady grove where Livingstone had wearily waited. Livingstone wept when the natives arrived. Two weeks later they set off on the backward trail. But Livingstone was weak with dysentery.

The hostile natives refused to sell food. Weeks grew into months. The faithful fellows realised they were carrying Livingstone to his grave. At last they reached a friendly village, where they built a hut for their master. One night they saw him on his knees beside his rough bed. The next morning he was dead.

A native dispenser embalmed the body and Matthew made a hollow cylinder in which to carry the corpse. The story of the last journey to the coast is one of dangers and troubles, but eventually the faithful bearers laid the body of Dr. Livingstone at the feet of the British consul at Zanzibar. Those bearers were heroes in the truest sense.

I visited old Matthew once or twice before he died. He lived in a native house at Freretown. He was very feeble and broken down, although it was easy to see that he had been a powerful man in his time. I could get only little glimpses of his life and experiences; the recollections of his slave days and his subsequent association with Dr. Livingstone.

The Rev. W. J. Rampley wrote his history in a small volume, and I will quote mainly from that. Chemgwimbe, to give Matthew his Yao name, lost his father and mother when he was a tiny lad. They were captured by slavers. When Chemgwimbe had grown into a youth he too was sold into captivity in exchange for a roll of cloth. Packed on a dhow with two or three hundred other unfortunates he journeyed to Zanzibar.

He was then resold to an Arab, and on another dhow set sail for Arabia. Chemgwimbe remembered vividly the misery and horrors of the journey. The memory still disturbed his dreams in his old age. But providence had an eye on the lad. For the dhow was captured by the cruiser Thetis. The slaves were released, and eventually found themselves in Bombay.

There the C.M.S. looked after them. Chemgwimbe embraced the Christian religion and changed his name to Matthew Wellington. He stayed in Bombay for nearly eight happy years.

BWANA BWANA!

Well, to be brief, Old Matthew, spent his last days near this island, just on the other side of Nyali bridge. A few friends raised a fund for him to ease him in his old age. In 1927 he was invited to a party on the Island. The Old man in faltering language describes the scene described the days of slavery, and the mighty trek.

The Rev. Rampley describes the scene. He says that there was something pathetic in the spectacle of the white haired man stepping from the pages of history and telling a modern generation of the trials and sufferings of one world’s greatest men. In the evening a film was shown.

It depicted the life of Livingstone. When the doctor appeared Matthew was moved to tears and concluding flash of Livingstone kneeling by his bedside in the hut at Ilala was too much for the old chap. He called out ‘Bwana, bwana’ and was unrestrainedly overcome. Those near the old man were not a little moved when they saw him droop in his chair. The weather beaten cheeks wet with tears more than confirmed what he had so often told of Livingstone’s last days. And that is the story of an old hero, whose hand I have taken and shaken, and am humbly proud to have done so.

*Nyali bridge in Mombasa is famous, as it was a floating pontoon bridge linking Mombasa Island to the Kenyan mainland. This is the area where the famous Frere Bell still stands. Also On Oct. 8, 1892 the Right Rev. F. Tucker, Bishop of Equatorial Africa, left Freretown, in Mombasa Harbour, for his long and toilsome journey inland to Uganda, the important native kingdom on the north-west shores of Lake Victoria Nyanza, over which the British East Africa Company has of late years exercised a certain degree of control.

David Livingstone, the famous Scottish missionary and explorer, was born on 19 March 1813 and died at Ilala in the centre of Africa in May 1873. On hearing of his death A. P. Stanley, Dean of Westminster (no relation to Henry Morton Stanley who "found" Livingstone) wrote to the President of the (Royal) Geographical Society offering burial in Westminster Abbey.

http://www.westminster-abbey.org/our-history/people/david-livingstone

 

‘Brought by faithful hands over land and sea’ Jacob Wainwright arriving at Southampton with David Livingstone’s coffin and trunk, 16th April 1874, on the way to Livingstone’s funeral in Westminster Abbey.

LEADER OF BOER TREK TO KENYA 1908, JAN A. JANSE VAN RENSBURG 

http://www.oocities.org/athens/rhodes/1266/historical-Kenya.htm

STARTING IN BUSINESS IN KISII by Richard Gethin
A Mr Richard Gethin, a pioneer with his fantastic accounts his footsteps, of his first business venture in Kisii and tells us of his travels around that area, the people he dealt with, the businessman he met, buying donkeys and much more. Any Pun told in this interesting tale was of early 1900’s and not intentional, therefore it should not be taken seriously as these are historical accounts told by a man who left his words with us.
STARTING IN BUSINESS IN KISII.pdf
Adobe Acrobat document [65.7 KB]

The Church of England in Kenya

The Church of England in Kenya (1932).

COME thirty-three years ago a small and unpretentious building was erected on the ground now occupied by the Church Missionary Society. This was St. Stephen’s, the first English Church to be established in the Kenya Highlands, and the meeting point of English Church worshippers in Nairobi. Through the years, as the number of Europeans increased, and the need for greater scope became apparent, development and progress have been steady, and to-day the Church of England is a vital and recog­nised force throughout Kenya Colony, with the Cathedral of the Highlands, Nairobi— which is also a parish church— and Mombasa Cathedral, as the two great centres in which the traditions of religious life in the home country are upheld and maintained, and in which, together with St. Mark’s Church, Nairobi, regular services are held, every week.

 

There are smaller churches in outlying districts of Kenya, and the work is being carried on by four Chaplains, with most valued and useful help from the Church Missionary Society. There are Churches at Nakuru. Eldoret, Kitale, Kisumu and at several other centres, and, to come nearer Nairobi, at Kiambu, Thika and Limuru, where services were held monthly. Churches in less important centres are being built as funds and opportunity allow. Very little imagination is required to visualise the amount of travelling which is undertaken by the Chaplains in order to carry on the services. In connection with the Chap­laincies, it is an interesting and significant fact that church-goers in the smaller com­munities meet cheerfully the double obligation of guaranteeing funds for building new churches and paying the Chaplains’ stipends. With a view to closer co-operation, the

Padres of the up-country Chaplaincies meet every quarter to discuss general diocesan affairs. A glance at the diary published weekly in the East African Standard, shows that in farming districts, where there are no churches, services are held in private houses. Throughout the country the happiest relationship exists between the several religious denominations, and to-day, in the larger centres, a strong and ^determined effort is being made to establish a United Church.

While ministering to the spiritual needs of English Church men and women in Kenya, the children are well cared for. Religious knowledge and sound traditions are fostered bv regular visits to the European schools, and special children’s services are held in various districts, notably in Nairobi, where, in one district, the children have their own church. This is probably the only children’s church in Africa. On certain occasions during the year United Children’s Services are held, when children of all denominations meet, and by doing so contribute their little quota to the desired establishment of a United Church.

It must not be forgotten, in any record of English Church work in Kenya Colony that the churches generallv are un-endowed, and are therefore entirely dependent on voluntary effort and contribution. Perhaps the greatest possible proof of the widespread interest in, and goodwill towards, the Church in Kenya has been the magnificent response given, in contributions and service, to the appeal for funds for the extension of the Cathedral of the Highlands in Nairobi, and for the new organ which is to be erected in the South Tower. In little over four years the sum of £6,000 has been realised, and to-day the extension is completed, and the organ is installed.

From the few facts recorded in these notes, it will be realised that the Church of England, in the youngest of Britain's Colonial Dependencies, is a vital and com­pelling force in the life of the European community, fulfilling a great purpose nobly and well.

 

By the time Mombasa Memorial Cathedral was consecrated on May 31st 1905, it had cost well above £4,400 to put up so that today we can celebrate over a century of Christianity and the day Arab met English in a magnificent piece of architecture.

https://www.kenyageographic.com/ack-mombasa-memorial-cathedral-mosque/

A term, in its widest sense, including all the territory under British influence on the eastern side of Africa between German East Africa on the south and Abyssinia and the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan on the north. It comprises the protectorates of Zanzibar, Uganda and East Africa.

 

http://dita2indesign.sourceforge.net/dita_gutenberg_samples/dita_encyclopaedia_britannica/html/entries/entry-d1e15801.html

 

Institute of Development Studies Working papers

 

INSTITUTE FOR DEVELOPMENT STUDIES UNIVERSITY OF NAIROBI Working

 

Paper No78;

THE SPATIAL DYNAMIC SOFTRADE AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT IN KENYA DURING THE EARLY COLONIAL PERIOD UPTO 1915

 

 By P.A.Meraon

 

 http://erepository.uonbi.ac.ke/bitstream/handle/11295/6503/wp78-324875.pdf?sequence=3

History of Kenya

A Historic Overview of Kenya
‘Almost certainly our first apelike ancestors emerged in Africa, and few places offer as rich a fossil record as this region'

Dr Meave Leakey, Head of Palaeontology, The National Museum of Kenya

http://www.african-horizons.com/safari_web_web/uk/destination_info.awp?information=14

 

The term of the grant of a Farm was 999 years. Public auction or tender governs allotment, as in the case of town plots, subject to Government upset price. The annual rent was 20 cents per acre (1/- per 5 acres) subject to revision in 1945, when the charge was at the rate of one per cent, of the unimproved value of the land.

 

British "Encouragement" of African Labour

 

"The colonial state introduced settler and corporate production as the mainstay of the colonial economy. The state forcibly seized land, livestock and other indigenous means of production from certain regions, communities and households on behalf of the settlers and corporate interests. By the mid-1930s about one-fifth of all usable land in Kenya was under the exclusive control of the settlers. In addition, the state provided the settlers and corporate capital with the necessary infrastructural, agricultural and marketing services and credit facilities. And above all, the state sought to create, mobilize and control the supply of African labour for capital. The state itself, of course, also required massive supplies of labour to build and maintain the colonial economic infrastructure and the administrative bureaucracy.

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Colonialism_in_Kenya

THE HISTORY OF CONSTRUCTION IN KENYA

 

PART ONE: The First Buildings, The Imperialist and Jews of Nairobi

PART TWO: How the Indians came to build Kenya

PART THREE: History of Cement Industry in Kenya

PART FOUR: Historical Development of Construction Contracting in Kenya

PART FIVE: The Rise of the National Construction Corporation in Kenya

PART SIX: The Fall of the National Construction Corporation

http://building.co.ke/part-history-construction-kenya/  

 

The British Empire in Kenya.

Click for Link on Kenya History

 

 

Click on Photo for History of Kenya

 

 

 

Flag of the Colony of Kenya

Anthem
God save the King/Queen
Capital Nairobi
Languages English
Government Colonial administration
Monarch
 -  1920–1936 George V
 -  1936 Edward VIII
 -  1936–1952 George VI
 -  1952–1963 Elizabeth II
Commissioner or Governor  
 -  1920–1922 (first) Maj-Gen Sir Edward Northey
 -  1937–1939 ACM Sir Robert Brooke-Popham
 -  1963 (last) Malcolm John MacDonald
Historical era 20th century
 -  Established 23 July 1920
 -  Independent as Kenya
12 December 1963
Currency East African shilling

 

In the early 1880s, European powers began rushing to obtain unclaimed territories within areas of interest in Africa. One of these areas, the Sultanate of Zanzibar and the interior of Eastern Africa, caught the attention of both Germany and Britain. Hoping to resolve this common interest in a peaceful manner, in 1886, Germany and Britain signed a treaty in which they agreed upon what lands they would exclusively pursue. Germany would lay claim to the coast of present day Tanzania and Britain retained access to the area in which Kenya and Uganda lie.

 

The sultan formally presented the town in 1898 to the British. It soon became the capital of the British East Africa Protectorate and is the sea terminal of the Uganda Railway, which was started in 1896. Many workers were brought in from British India to build the railway, and the city's fortunes revived. On 1 July 1895, it became part of Britain's Kenya protectorate (the coastal strip nominally under Zanzibari sovereignty).

 

Mombasa became the capital of the coastal Protectorate of Kenya in 1920. On December 12, 1963 it became part newly independent Kenya.

 

Kenya Colony, formally the Colony and Protectorate of Kenya, was part of the British Empire in the territory of present-day Kenya. It was established when the former East Africa Protectorate was transformed into a British crown colony in 1920. Technically, "Colony of Kenya" referred to the interior lands, while a ten-mile coastal strip (ostensibly on lease from the Sultan of Zanzibar) was the "Protectorate of Kenya".

 

However, the two were controlled as a single administrative unit. Mombasa, the largest city in 1921, had a population of 32,000 at that time.

 

Indians in the Kenya Colony[1] objected to the reservation of the Highlands for Europeans, and bitterness grew between the Indians and the Europeans. The population in 1921 was estimated at 2,376,000, of whom 9651 were Europeans, 22,822 Indians, and 10,102 Arabs.

The colony came to an end in 1963 when independence was agreed with the British. After independence, the former colony became known as Kenya.

 The History of the Kenya Police 1885- 1960

A Research Report by Hans- Martin Sommer, N M K1

FORT JESUS MUSEUM MOMBASA Department of Coastal Archaeology and Department of Coastal Sites and Monuments

THE HISTORY OF THE KENYA POLICEWITH A FOCUS ON MOMBASA

One of the first police officers in the force was Kapur Singh who had previously served in India. He came originally from a small village near Amritsar and he had joined the Police Force there.
First he was posted to Baluchistan and then in 1895 he was seconded from India to work in the Kenya Police.
Kapur Singh became greatly respected, not only because of his high rank in the Police Force of the Protectorate for many years. After his retirement he returned back to India and died there.

His son Satbachan Singh also served in Nairobi, he was transferred and worked in many other places.

 

http://www.academia.edu/4406247/History_of_the_Police_in_Kenya_1885-1960

Salim Road & Wardle's Corner

Traffic police (no traffic lights in those days). The string around their necks down to the belt held a distinct whistle for sounding out instructions and controlling traffic. Tarboosh on a KAR soldier holds no emblem but does in the case/s of Policemen.

Policemen with the white distinctive fluorescent sleeves worn for traffic controlling purposes

The Police whistle was one of the first pieces of equipment specifically made for the police to try and make communications easier between officers. Despite the fact that they haven’t been used operationally in at least 40 years, the police whistle has remained one of the most powerful symbols of law and order to this day. Even now, we still have the term ‘Whistleblower‘, meaning to expose some sort of injustice or corruption which was previously hidden from the public.

 

Odhiambo Levin Opiyo

· 7 October 2019 · 

 

In 1887, the IBEA company seeking protection for its properties in Mombasa, recruited Indians who had already established their presence at the coast as policemen.

Not only were the first Kenya policemen Indians, but the initial police related statutes as well. The Penal Code, the Criminal Procedure Act and the Kenya Police Act were all borrowed from India.

As the railroad moved inland, the IBEAC began recruiting Africans for police duty. By this time the Asians had already carved out a very important niche in the force .

They had a virtual monopoly over the entire clerical aspect of the Police. In 1906 for instance, all police records in Nairobi were kept in Urdu by the Indian police-writers.

By the end of 1927, the Kenya Police clerical staff was made up of 4 Europeans, 1 African and 54 Asians. During WWII, the number of Europeans increased to 16 but Asian personnel jumped to 116.

Away from clerical jobs, the number of Africans in regular service was quite significant. In 1938 there were 112 Europeans, 32 Asians and 1887 Africans. And in 1948, 232 Europeans, 56 Asians and 4682 Africans.

In order to function effectively, the Kenya Colony administration needed more African policemen. Prior to 1911, Africans were recruited and trained at local centres. But after the Inspector General became dissatisfied with the procedure, a Police Training Depot was established in Nairobi

There every recruit was forced to undergo a six months course whose purpose was to introduce African recruits to European standards so that they would function efficiently in settled areas.

According to a British instructor, the African, "had to be trained in a new form of living ..to acquire new convictions, or alternatively, something to balance the lack of these and make him dependable in upholding principles which he can accept but does not appreciate."

During this training period a considerable number of African recruits left the force because they were homesick for their villages and former lifestyle, or because they failed to meet British standards.

Annual reports showed that in 1926, out of 470 African recruits 284 left, and In 1930 out of 723 recruits, 470 left.

But even those who managed to complete their training still presented a challenge to the Commissioner of Police as most of them always chose to take early retirement. In 1926 50% of the force had less than 5 years service. By 1930 this had increased to 65%.

When an African constable was asked why he was retiring, he inevitably replied "nimechoka." This made the Commissioner of Police to lament, "It nearly breaks my heart to get that word choka thrown at me."

There are a number of reasons that made Africans to leave. One was that unlike Asians and Europeans , Africans were not eligible for a pension, and salary increment were poor.

One of the most significant questions was whether the recruitment of Africans into the Kenya police was influenced by a tribal bias. The force had few Kikuyus and many Luos, Luhyas and Kambas. In 1920s Commissioner Roy G.B Spicer noted that the Kamba responded to any call for recruits in a huge number. And that the force was overburdened by the WaKavirondo. He considered Kamba, Luos and Luhya as the backbone of the police.

This was because the British tended to evaluate Africans for service on the basis of whether they came from martial or honest tribes.

There was also the question of literacy which they considered as a major factor in the recruitment of policemen. In 1926 they realised that literate or semi educated recruits were more problematic compared to the illiterate ones. An annual report released in 1936 stated that there was a concerted effort to recruit "suitable Africans from the more backward tribes in the Colony."

And a 1942 report stated that evidence indicated that illiterate made a better policeman than did literate African, and that the " policy of recruiting literates should be pursued with great caution."

In 1949 the annual report indicated that illiterate recruits and the "best material", were mostly from the Kipsigis, Nandi and a small percentage of Kamba. Literates were mainly from Luo, Luhya and Kamba.

The Police Commissioner went on to add that the uneducated had greater qualities of reliability, manliness sense of responsibility and discipline, while the educated were unwilling to start at the bottom and expected preferential treatment.

During this period the number of Kipsigis and the Nandi grew considerably. According to the British, apart from being good fighters, they were also illiterate, which made them good policemen.

Changes reflecting this attitude were also introduced. Promotion was to be based on loyalty, proved personality and power of command unlike before when promotion was based on literacy. A number of policemen who were not educated were promoted to the positions of Sub-Inspectors and placed over the literate ones.

 

Kenya Regiment / Combined Cadet Force

Indian Army (Military art prints) CLICK ON PHOTO

Click on Photo

Welcome to the East African Women's League Website

EAWL TODAY (“A Member’s View of the East Africa Women’s League”)

A Commitment to Help

The East Africa Women’s League was inaugurated in 1917 and is now celebrating over 90 years of voluntary service to the whole community.

http://eawl.org/index.html

 

MOMBASA CLUB

http://www.mepsoldboys.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/The-Early-Years-of-the-Mombasa-Club.pdf

Mombasa Club
The-Early-Years-of-the-Mombasa-Club.pdf
Adobe Acrobat document [927.7 KB]

Mombasa Club

In a previous article in History in Africa the rules and regulations of the Mombasa Club, dating from 1903 or earlier, were laid out (Frankl 2001). Since that article was written, the original Mombasa Club Rules, a booklet of sixteen pages printed in Mombasa and dated 1899, has come to light in the Public Record Office at Kew. One of the three signatories to that document was Rex Boustead, Proprietor. Edward Rodwell (1988:20) asked “Who was Rex Boustead?” This paper attempts to answer that question.

Altogether there were six Boustead children, of whom Rex was the last born. The Bousteads, originally from Cumrenton in Cumberland, were connected with Ceylon from the early nineteenth century. Rex's paternal grandfather, John Boustead St., was paymaster of the Ceylon Rifles Regiment for more than half a century. Rex's father, John Boustead Jr. (1822-1904)—his occupation is given as “Army Agent” in Rex's birth certificate—was an only son, the second of five children. He married Augusta Phoebe Twenty man (1824-1911) at St Mary's Walthamstow in 1853; between 1854 and 1863 she gave birth to six children. John Boustead Jr. had several estates in Ceylon, and it is clear from his will that he was a moderately wealthy man, for he left £6662, a not inconsiderable sum in 1904.

All the children of John Boustead junior were born in England, all married, and all died in England. Of the boys, all except Rex went to Harrow School. John Melvill (known as “Jack”), the oldest brother (who had east African connections), was born on 31 March 1854, at Walthamstow.

http://www.mepsoldboys.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/The-Early-Years-of-the-Mombasa-Club.pdf

 

Norway to Zanzibar as the Lark Flies:

The Norway Connection

(1

http://www.swahiliweb.net/ziff_journal_3_files/ziff2006-08.pdf

LIST OF FARMERS, HORSES EXHIBITORS , SCHOOL EXHIBITORS, EXHIBITORS of PIGS, SHEEP EXHIBITORS, CATTLE EXHIBITORS….. from the Official Catalogue of the Royal Show 1956

LIST OF FARMERS, HORSES EXHIBITORS , SCHOOL EXHIBITORS, EXHIBITORS OF PIGS, SHEEP EXHIBITORS, CATTLE EXHIBITORS….. from the Official Catalogue of the Royal Show 1956
LIST OF FARMERS, HORSES EXHIBITORS , SCHOOL EXHIBITORS, EXHIBITORS OF PIGS, SHEEP EXHIBITORS, CATTLE EXHIBITORS….. from the Official Catalogue of the Royal Show 1956
Royal Agriculture Show 1956.docx
Microsoft Word document [39.5 KB]

World War 1

Click Photo for Link

The East African Campaign was a series of battles and guerrilla actions which started in German East Africa and ultimately affected portions of Mozambique, Northern Rhodesia, British East Africa, Uganda, and the Belgian Congo. The campaign was effectively ended in November 1917.[9] However, the Germans entered Portuguese East Africa and continued the campaign living off Portuguese supplies.

The strategy of the German colonial forces, led by Lieutenant Colonel (later Generalmajor) Paul Emil von Lettow-Vorbeck, was to drain and divert forces from the Western Front to Africa. His strategy failed to achieve these results after 1916, as mainly Indian and South African forces, which were prevented by colonial policy from deploying to Europe, conducted the rest of the campaign.[10][11] Nevertheless, the Germans fought for the whole of World War I, receiving word of the armistice on 14 November 1918 at 7:30 a.m. Both sides waited for confirmation, and the Germans formally surrendered on 25 November. German East Africa ultimately became two League of Nations Class B Mandates, Tanganyika Territory of the United Kingdom and Ruanda-Urundi of Belgium, while the Kionga Triangle

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_East_Africa

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_African_Campaign_%28World_War_I%29

 

http://gweaa.com/ww1-ea-study-pack

 

http://www.thehistorypress.co.uk/index.php/updates/belgium-and-east-africa-1914-1918/


World War 2

Click on Photo for Link.

The East African Campaign was a series of battles fought in Horn of Africa during World War II by the British Empire, the British Commonwealth of Nations and several allies against the forces of Italy from June 1940 to November 1941.

Under the leadership of the British Middle East Command, British allied forces involved consisted not only of regular British troops, but also many recruits from British Commonwealth nations (Sudan, British Somaliland, British East Africa, the Indian Empire, South Africa, Northern Rhodesia, Southern Rhodesia, Nyasaland, British West Africa, as well as the British Mandate of Palestine). In addition to the British and Commonwealth forces, there were Ethiopian irregular forces, Free French forces, and Free Belgian forces. The Italian forces included Italian nationals, East African colonials (Eritreans, Abyssinians, and Somalis), and a small number of German volunteers (the German Motorized Company). The majority of the Italian forces were East African colonials led by Italian officers.

Fighting began with the Italian bombing of the Rhodesian air base at Wajir in Kenya, and continued, pushing the Italian forces through Somaliland, Eritrea, and Ethiopia until the Italian surrender after the Battle of Gondar in November 1941.

 Revealed: the bonfire of papers at the end of Empire

DG was a code word to indicate papers were for British officers of European descent only

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2013/nov/29/revealed-bonfire-papers-empire

Shipwrecks and Salvage / STEAM IN EAST AFRICA EAST AFRICAN RAILWAYS EAR 1893-1976 PICTORIAL HISTORY TRAIN

Nairobi Railway Museum

The railway museum is situated at the north-west end of Nairobi station and can be seen from the Uhuru Highway where it crosses the main line. The museum was established in 1971 by the then East African Railways and Harbours Corporation to preserve and display relics and records of the railways of East Africa from their inception to the present day. In addition to the collection of steam locomotives and rolling stock, there is a large display of smaller exhibits and models.

The Museum is still rail-connected, allowing restored locos access to the main line for working steam excursions.

With the privatisation of Kenya Railways, the Museum and exhibits have been transferred to the guardianship of the National Museum of Kenya. The curator of the museum is now Maurice Barasa, an anthropologist by training and who brings expertise in museum management. His father was a stationmaster on Kenya Railways, so he has a family connection with his new duty. He is keen to see more steam tourist trains and will have meetings with Rift Valley Railways in due course, about making formal arrangements for steam operation and promotion.

 

 

http://www.greywall.demon.co.uk/rail/Kenya/nrm.html

Amazing Expedition footage / British East Africa / 1919 – Stock Video http://footage.framepool.com/en/shot/415654932-mombasa-british-east-africa-colonial-time-british-crown-colony

MOMBASA- Gateway into Kenya 1953

Revealed: the bonfire of papers at the end of Empire

DG was a code word to indicate papers were for British officers of European descent only

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2013/nov/29/revealed-bonfire-papers-empire

 

Why do archive files on Britain’s colonial past keep going missing?

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/dec/27/archive-files-britain-colonial-past-government

 

British colonial files released following legal challenge

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-17734735?SThisFB&fbclid=IwAR3kB0nFRNOKU3qLJyWLgl-OJ71BmOvmYdTfC3EbF1_dlUtzP2MBK4Gtgmg

 

 

Caroline Elkins

 

The scramble for Africa in the late 1800’s

 

The Berlin Conference of 1884–85, also known as the Congo Conference (German: Kongokonferenz) or West Africa Conference(Westafrika-Konferenz) regulated European colonization and trade in Africa during the New Imperialism period, and coincided with Germany's sudden emergence as an imperial power. If one looks at the whole concept of Colonialism, Great Britain authorized the creation of four chartered companies and endowed them with extensive political as well as commercial privileges. The first of these, the British North Borneo Company, chartered in 1881, was significant mainly because it was a forerunner; its history is associated with no great events. The African companies, on the other hand provided much of the energy for British expansion in western, southern and eastern Africa, the Royal Niger being the third in 1886.The British South African Company, so closely identified with the career of Cecil Rhodes, was chartered in 1889. In each of these cases, the initiative was clearly that of the private entrepreneurs who sought governmental recognition, all these were deeply affected by British foreign policy toward Germany.

Basically in the words of Hilaire Belloc “Whatever happens, we have got The Maxim gun", and they have NOT! This is apparent and reverberates over and over, to this very day…..look around and see what today's spurious politicians are up to in the name of their country and reflect on what we are talking about here…NO DIFFERENCE AT ALL!

 

The Imperial British East Africa Company (IBEAC) was the administrator of British East Africa, which was the forerunner of the East Africa Protectorate, later Kenya.

 

Kenya was established a British protectorate in 1895 giving Britain complete control and protection over the state of Kenya. The colonizing of this state began with completely reconstructing the indigenous ways of life. The British appointed new chiefs and got rid of the old traditional leaders (Ochieng). These new chiefs had complete control over Kenya and possessed administrative, executive, and judicial powers.

The term of the grant of a Farm was 999 years. Public auction or tender governs allotment, as in the case of town plots, subject to Government upset price. The annual rent was 20 cents per acre (1/- per 5 acres) subject to revision in 1945, when the charge was at the rate of one per cent, of the unimproved value of the land.

 

http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?historyid=ad21

 

Kenya History

 

http://www.kenyarep-jp.com/kenya/history_e.html

 

http://www.kenyaembassy.com/aboutkenyahistory.html

 

KENYA TIMELINE

 

http://crawfurd.dk/africa/kenya_timeline.htm

 

 

British "Encouragement" of African Labour

 

"The colonial state introduced settler and corporate production as the mainstay of the colonial economy. The state forcibly seized land, livestock and other indigenous means of production from certain regions, communities and households on behalf of the settlers and corporate interests. By the mid-1930s about one-fifth of all usable land in Kenya was under the exclusive control of the settlers. In addition, the state provided the settlers and corporate capital with the necessary infrastructural, agricultural and marketing services and credit facilities. And above all, the state sought to create, mobilize and control the supply of African labour for capital. The state itself, of course, also required massive supplies of labour to build and maintain the colonial economic infrastructure and the administrative bureaucracy.

 

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Colonialism_in_Kenya

 

 

 

Fifty years ago, an optimistic and proud Britain emerged from the Second World War still with an Empire and a leading role in world affairs. But within a few years everything would change. In Africa, the rise of nationalism brought British power to its knees. In the struggle to retain influence and authority, the British government that had a decade earlier stood firm against tyranny now became the tyrant.

In Kenya, the bitter and violent Mau Mau rebellion against British rule saw the death of thirty-two white settlers. But more than 1800 African civilians, over 3000 African police and soldiers, and 12,000 Mau Mau rebels were killed. In the war’s full seven-year course, Britain sent more than 1000 of her African subjects to the gallows, and at the peak of the struggle held more than 70,000 Africans in detention camps without trial. Colonial Kenya was a police state, as chillingly brutal as any other.

Histories of the Hanged is the brilliantly told and shocking true story of Britain’s first war on terror - a story of mass killings, of collective punishments and property seizures, of human rights abuses and a brutal battle conducted under the banner of an assumed colonial superiority. Portrayed at the time as a conflict between whites and blacks, civilisation and savagery, it was in fact a thoroughly bureaucratised conflict that pitted Kenya against itself and from which few emerged with credit. David Anderson draws on eye-witness accounts to put the record of the British government on trial: from the court records of the Mau Mau trials, the gripping and desperate testimonies of the freedom fighters and their victims reveal the story of the sinister and dirty war that lay at the heart of one of the most contentious events in Britain’s recent past.

From Britains Gulag….by Carline Elkins

Well, now let us look at the other lot from the Muthaiga Club…

Kenya’s new aristocrats shared Lord Delamere’s ambition to create a plantocracy modelled on the American South. Like the colonial officers, they were united by their cultural and social values. Many of them were old Etonians, or from similar public –school backgrounds and accustomed to a life not of working but overseeing the work of those around them.

And they expected all levels of the British colonial government to support them in this vision.

Kenya’s big men quickly established a leisurely lifestyle aspired to by all Europeans in the colony. On their estates or farms or in European neigh-borhoods in Nairobi, every white settler in the colony was a lord to some extent, particularly in relationship to the African population. They all had domestic servants, though the wealthier families would have dozens. Some servants would have but a single responsibility, like tending a favorite rose garden or, as in the case of Karen Blixen, carrying the lady’s favorite shawl and shotgun. They enjoyed game hunting and sport facilities, with the Nairobi racetrack and polo grounds being one of the most popular European social spots in town. Beyond such gentrified leisure, these privileged men and women lived an absolutely hedonistic lifestyle, filled with sex, drugs, drink, and dance, followed by more of the same. In Nairobi, where some settlers lived a full-time urban, professional life, they congregated in the Muthaiga Club, also known as the Moulin Rouge of Africa. They drank champagne and pink gin for breakfast, played cards, danced through the night, and generally woke up with someone else’s spouse in the morning. At the Norfolk Hotel, better known as the House of Lords, settlers rode their horses into the Lord Delamere Bar, drank heavily, and enjoyed Japanese prostitutes from the local brothel. Outside of Nairobi part of the highlands became the notorious Happy Valley, where weekend house guests were often required to exchange partners, cocaine and morphine were distributed at the door, and men and women compared their sexual notes when the debauchery was over. The colony’s settlers were notorious worldwide for their sexual high jinks, and the running joke in Britain became, “Are you married or do you live in Kenya?

The large landholding settlers were also a political force to be reckoned with, even in the early days of the colony. Settlers influenced colonial decision making using their political ties back in London—many fathers, brothers, and uncles sat in the House of Lords—as well as because of the economic promise they represented to the colony. From the start settlers made strident demands on the British colonial government and were quite successful in gaining concessions that placed their own interests above those of the African population. They insisted upon and were granted low- interest loans, reduced freight charges, and government subsidies for their crops; they pushed for and won an extension of their land leases in the highlands—from 99 to 999 years. Most important, they gained access to the central institutions of the colonial government in Nairobi when their representatives—like Delamere and later other notables like Ferdinand Cavendish-Bentinck and Michael Blundell-became members of the Kenya Legislative Council. Here they had direct role in the formation of the colony's laws and regulation.   

Click above

Emergence of the Third World

 

Jomo Kenyatta at the 5th Pan-African Congress in England which he helped organize - 1945
He would return to Kenya the next year (after almost 15 years out of the country, achieving a high level of Western education) ... to advocate for the return of the white farms to the Kikuyu tribesmen and for Kenyan independence.

 

http://www.kingsacademy.com/mhodges/03_The-World-since-1900/10_The-3rd-World/10_The-3rd-World.htm

This map was compiled by an African, a Spanish Moor, he was captured by Christian Pirates, his work was later bastardized by Christians, still in captivity, with the Spanish Moor sent to the Pope in Rome.
The map, from an authentic piece of work, is now purely imaginative as one can see, as far as the hinterland is concerned and the inclusion of mythical cathedrals on mythical lakes (the lakes first introduced by Ptolemy) is no doubt inspired by his eagerness to please the authorities in Rome. A translation of the inscription straddling the Nile reads: “Here, far and wide, rules the great prince, Priest and Lord—most powerful king in all Africa.” a reference to Prester John. This map was published in Antwerp in 1570 as part of a world gazetteer by Abraham Ortelius.

Before Columbus: How Africans Brought Civilization to America

By Garikai Chengu

Global Research, October 07, 2015

12 October 2014

 

Editor’s note: This article was originally published in 2014.

On Monday [October 13 2014], America’s government offices, businesses, and banks all grind to a halt in order to commemorate Columbus Day. In schools up and down the country, little children are taught that a heroic Italian explorer discovered America, and various events and parades are held to celebrate the occasion.


It has now become common knowledge amongst academics that Christopher Columbus clearly did not discover America, not least because is it impossible to discover a people and a continent that was already there and thriving with culture. One can only wonder how Columbus could have discovered America when people were watching him from America’s shores?
Contrary to popular belief, African American history did not start with slavery in the New World. An overwhelming body of new evidence is emerging which proves that Africans had frequently sailed across the Atlantic to the Americas, thousands of years before Columbus and indeed before Christ. The great ancient civilizations of Egypt and West Africa traveled to the Americas, contributing immensely to early American civilization by importing the art of pyramid building, political systems and religious practices as well as mathematics, writing and a sophisticated calendar.


The strongest evidence of African presence in America before Columbus comes from the pen of Columbus himself. In 1920, a renowned American historian and linguist, Leo Weiner of Harvard University, in his book, Africa and the discovery of America, explained how Columbus noted in his journal that Native Americans had confirmed that “black skinned people had come from the south-east in boats, trading in gold-tipped spears.”


One of the first documented instances of Africans sailing and settling in the Americas were black Egyptians led by King Ramses III, during the 19th dynasty in 1292 BC. In fact, in 445 BC, the Greek historian Herodotus wrote of the Ancient Egyptian pharaohs’ great seafaring and navigational skills. Further concrete evidence, noted by Dr. Imhotep and largely ignored by Euro-centric archaeologists, includes “Egyptian artifacts found across North America from the Algonquin writings on the East Coast to the artifacts and Egyptian place names in the Grand Canyon.”


In 1311 AD, another major wave of African exploration to the New World was led by King Abubakari II, the ruler of the fourteenth century Mali Empire, which was larger than the Holy Roman Empire. The king sent out 200 ships of men, and 200 ships of trade material, crops, animals, cloth and crucially African knowledge of astronomy, religion and the arts.
African explorers crossing the vast Atlantic waters in primitive boats may seem unlikely, or perhaps, far fetched to some. Such incredible nautical achievements are not as daunting as they seem, given that
numerous successful modern attempts have illustrated that without an oar, rudder or sail ancient African boats, including the “dug-out,” would certainly have been able to cross the vast ocean in a matter of weeks.


As time allows us to drift further and further away from the “European age of exploration” and we move beyond an age of racial intellectual prejudice, historians are beginning to recognize that Africans were skilled navigators long before Europeans, contrary to popular belief.


Of course, some Western historians continue to refute this fact because, consciously or unconsciously, they are still hanging on to the 19th-century notion that seafaring was a European monopoly.


After all, history will tell you that seafaring is the quintessential European achievement, the single endeavor of which Europeans are awfully proud. Seafaring allowed Europe to conquer the world. The notion that black Africans braved the roaring waters of the Atlantic Ocean and beat Europeans to the New World threatens a historically white sense of ownership over the seas.
When most people think about ancient Mexico, the first civilizations that come to mind are the Incas, Aztecs and the Maya. However, during the early 1940′s archaeologist uncovered a civilization known as the Olmecs of 1200 BC, which pre-dated any other advanced civilization in the Americas.


The Olmec civilization, which was of African origin and dominated by Africans, was the first significant civilization in Mesoamerica and the Mother Culture of Mexico.


Olmecs are perhaps best known for the carved colossal heads found in Central Mexico, that exhibit an unmistakably African Negroid appearance. Ancient African historian Professor Van Sertima has illustrated how Olmecs were the first Mesoamerican civilization to use a written language, sophisticated astronomy, arts and mathematics and they built the first cities in Mexico, all of which greatly influenced the Mayans and subsequent civilizations in the Americas. “There is not the slightest doubt that all later civilizations in [Mexico and Central America], rest ultimately on an Olmec base,” once remarked Michael Coe, a leading historian on Mexico.


Africans clearly played an intricate role in the Olmec Empire’s rise and that African influence peaked during the same period that ancient Black Egyptian culture ascended in Africa.


A clear indicator of pre-Columbus African trans-Atlantic travel is the recent archaeological findings of narcotics native to America in Ancient Egyptian mummies, which have astounded contemporary historians. German toxicologist, Svetla Balabanova, reported findings of cocaine and nicotine in ancient Egyptian mummies. These substances are known to only be derived from American plants. South American cocaine from Erythroxylon coca and nicotine from Nicotiana tabacum. Such compounds could only have been introduced to Ancient Egyptian culture through trade with Americans.


Similarities across early American and African religions also indicate significant cross-cultural contact. The Mayans, Aztecs and Incas all worshipped black gods and the surviving portraits of the black deities are revealing. For instance, ancient portraits of the Quetzalcoatl, a messiah serpent god, and Ek-ahua, the god of war, are unquestionably Negro with dark skin and wooly hair. Why would native Americans venerate images so unmistakably African if they had never seen them before? Numerous wall paintings in caves in Juxtlahuaca depict the famous ancient Egyptian “opening of the mouth” and cross libation rituals. All these religious similarities are too large and occur far too often to be mere coincidences.


Professor Everett Borders notes another very important indication of African presence, which is the nature of early American pyramids. Pyramid construction is highly specialized. Ancient Egypt progressed from the original stepped pyramid of Djosser, to the more sophisticated finished product at Giza. However, at La Venta in Mexico, the Olmecs made a fully finished pyramid, with no signs of progressive learning. Olmecian and Egyptian pyramids were both placed on the same north-south axis and had strikingly similar construction methods. Tellingly, all of these pyramids also served the same dual purpose, tomb and temple.
Ancient trans-Atlantic similarities in botany, religion and pyramid building constitute but a fraction of the signs of African influence in ancient America. Other indicators include, astronomy, art, writing systems, flora and fauna.


Historically, the African people have been exceptional explorers and purveyors of culture across the world. Throughout all of these travels, African explorers have not had a history of starting devastating wars on the people they met. The greatest threat towards Africa having a glorious future is her people’s ignorance of Africa’s glorious past.


Pre-Columbus civilization in the Americas had its foundation built by Africans and developed by the ingenuity of Native Americans. Sadly, America, in post-Columbus times, was founded on the genocide of the indigenous Americans, built on the backs of African slaves and continues to run on the exploitation of workers at home and abroad.


Clearly, Africans helped civilize America well before Europeans “discovered” America, and well before Europeans claim to have civilized Africa. The growing body of evidence is now becoming simply too loud to ignore. It’s about time education policy makers reexamine their school curriculums to adjust for America’s long pre-Columbus history.


Garikai Chengu is a scholar at Harvard University. Contact him on garikai.chengu@gmail.com

              

http://www.globalresearch.ca/before-columbus-how-africans-brought-civilization-to-america/5407584

 

http://raceandhistory.com/historicalviews/ancientamerica.htm

 

http://atlantablackstar.com/2015/01/23/10-pieces-of-evidence-that-prove-black-people-sailed-to-the-americas-long-before-columbus/

 

Pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact theories

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For the prevailing model(s) describing the geographic origins and early migrations of humans in the Americas see Settlement of the Americas.

For more details on Native American genetic heritage, see Genetic history of indigenous peoples of the Americas.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pre-Columbian_trans-oceanic_contact_theories

 

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Great achievements in science and technology in ancient Africa

By Sydella Blatch
  
Despite suffering through the horrific system of slavery, sharecropping and the Jim Crow era, early African-Americans made countless contributions to science and technology (
1). This lineage and culture of achievement, though, emerged at least 40,000 years ago in Africa. Unfortunately, few of us are aware of these accomplishments, as the history of Africa, beyond ancient Egypt, is seldom publicized.

Sadly, the vast majority of discussions on the origins of science include only the Greeks, Romans and other whites. But in fact most of their discoveries came thousands of years after African developments. While the remarkable black civilization in Egypt remains alluring, there was sophistication and impressive inventions throughout ancient sub-Saharan Africa as well. There are just a handful of scholars in this area. The most prolific is the late Ivan Van Sertima, an associate professor at Rutgers University. He once poignantly wrote that “the nerve of the world has been deadened for centuries to the vibrations of African genius” (
2).

http://www.asbmb.org/asbmbtoday/asbmbtoday_article.aspx?id=32437

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The African, and Muslim, Discovery of America – Before Columbus

Dr. Abdullah Hakim Quick

(Adopted with permission from the book, Deeper Roots, Muslims in the Americas and the Caribbean from before Columbus to the Present, DPB Printers and Booksellers, Cape Town, South Africa. As reported in his book, Dr. Abdullah Hakim Quik is a scholar with African American and Caribbean roots. He has traveled extensively to over 50 countries in the Caribbean, Central America, Africa and the Middle East.

http://historyofislam.com/contents/the-classical-period/the-african-and-muslim-discovery-of-america-before-columbus/