Achille Mbembe describes three types of violence that colonial sovereignty relies on: “the founding violence of conquest; the legitimating violence of transforming conquest into moral authority; and the ordinary and banal violence necessary for the maintenance of colonial sovereignty” (Thobani, 2007, p. 38). The colony of Kenya was formed in 1920 from British East Africa. In their official story, the colonizers concealed the extent of their violence by describing the lands they would occupy as ‘uninhabited.’

 

As the settlers arrived in the early twentieth century, peoples from all the ethnic groups resisted colonization and many resisters were killed. In 1922 when local men attempted to organize to fight for better conditions, the colonizers violently banned African associations or curtailed their activities (Maathai, 2007). In 1923, 1927, 1930 and 1931, the British government pledged its support for the Dual Policy that stated that “both the interests of the European and the African could be developed complementarily but that, in the event of a clash between the two, the interests of the African should be paramount” (Wallbank, 1938, p. 524). This policy was never implemented in the colony of Kenya where European interests were paramount. This led to unrest and discontent among the Africans as well as criticisms leveled against the colonizers in the British Press and in the House of Parliament”(Wallbank, 1938, p. 524).

 

In describing Sir Charles Elliot’s vision for the colony of Kenya, Colonel Richard wrote:

”He amazed me with his views on the future of East Africa….He intends to confine the natives to reserves and use them as cheap labour on farms. I suggested that the country belonged to Africans and that their interests must prevail over the interests of strangers. He would not have it, he kept on using the word ‘paramount’ with reference to the claims of Europeans. I am confident that in the end the Africans will win and that Eliot’s policy can only lead to trouble and disappointment” (Karanja, 2009, p. 42)

 

Constructing White Superiority

 

In the colonial empires, Europeans devised ways to exert their authority and manage the colonies. Colonial solidarity aimed at uniting all peoples of White races emerged in the early twentieth century. There was a move towards creating a hierarchy of white superiority by “distilling a Homo Europeaus of superior health, wealth and intelligence as a white man’s norm” (Stoler, 1997, p. 357). To create an illusory picture of white superiority, the colonies became exclusionary. Poor, unproductive, aging and insane Whites were denied entry, institutionalized or deported (Stoler, 1997; McCulloch, 1995). In Kenya, White immigration excluded working class and artisan Whites and settlers came primarily from upper- middle-class and landed-gentry backgrounds (McCulloch, 1995, p. 4; Campbell, 2007), aging Europeans were retired early and Europeans with alcohol addictions were secluded out of sight in regular hospitals, infectious diseases hospitals or mental hospitals.

 

Constructing African Inferiority

 

The construction of the superior, intelligent White person went hand in hand with the construction of the racialized person as deficient, savage and in need of civilization. It was in the colonizers interests to portray indigenous peoples as deficient so that they could deny them access to a higher education, confine them to menial jobs and exploit their labour as settlers did in colonies in Asia, the West Indies and North America.

 

“Let me for a few minutes confine myself to Kenya. Here the missionary, the settler and the colonial governor came as three imperial massives of western monopoly-capital. The settler grabbed the land and exploited African labour. The governor protected him with political oppression of Kenyans and with the gun. And the missionary stood guarding the door as a colonial spiritual policeman.” (Ngugi wa Thiongo, 1981, p. 102)

 

The scientist had a role in legitimizing this hierarchical structure. Eugenics in colonial empires provided “a medical and moral basis for anxiety over white prestige” (Stoler, 1997, p. 356). Eugenics and ethno-psychiatry became valuable tools in protecting white superiority as scientists constructed theories that cast indigenous people as deficient and therefore ‘uneducable.’

 

Campbell, Chloe. (2007). Race & Empire: Eugenics in Colonial Kenya. Vancouver: UBC Press

Karanja, J. (2009 ). The Missionary Movement in Colonial Kenya: The Foundation of Africa Inland Church Gottingen: Cuvillier Verlag

Maathai, W. (2007). Unbowed: A Memoir. Toronto: Random House

McCulloch, J (1995). Colonial Psychiatry and ‘the African Mind’. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Stoler, A. (1989). Making Empire Respectable: The Politics of Race and Sexual Morality in 20th CenturyColonial Cultures. American Ethnologist, 16(4), pp. 344-373

Thobani, S. (2007). Exalted Subjects-Studies in the Making of Race and Nation in Canada. Toronto: University of Toronto Press

Wallbank, T.W. ( 1938). British Colonial Policy and Native Education in Kenya. The Journal of Negro Education, 7(4),521-532

Wa Thiongo, N. (1981 ). Writers in Politics. New Hampshire: Heinemann Educational Books.