Communal Labor in Colonial Kenya - by O Okia (Hardcover)

About the Book

"This book describes the growth and development of communal forced labor in Kenya from 1912-1930. During the early period in Kenya's colonial history the British administration employed various forms of forced labor to make Africans work on the building of infrastructure, like roads and bridges, and also for European settlers on their plantations. This type of forced labor was defined and justified as a continuation of traditional duties that Africans would normally owe to their chiefs. Under communal labor, the state in Kenya exploited African labor in ways that often contradicted its traditional mandate. Previous studies of forced labor in colonial Kenya have tended to describe communal labor as milder form of coercion. This book offers a fresh interpretation by exploring the negative impacts of communal labor and the various African reactions to this coercive labor regime"--

Book Synopsis

This book advances research into the government-forced labor used widely in colonial Kenya from 1930 to 1963 after the passage of the International Labor Organization's Forced Labour Convention. While the 1930 Convention intended to mark the suppression of forced labor practices, various exemptions meant that many coercive labor practices continued in colonial territories. Focusing on East Africa and the Kenya Colony, this book shows how the colonial administration was able to exploit the exemption clause for communal labor, thus ensuring the mobilization of African labor for infrastructure development. As an exemption, communal labor was not defined as forced labor but instead justified as a continuation of traditional African and community labor practices. Despite this ideological justification, the book shows that communal labour was indeed an intensification of coercive labor practices and one that penalized Africans for non-compliance with fines or imprisonment. The use of forcedlabor before and after the passage of the Convention is examined, with a focus on its use during World War II as well as in efforts to combat soil erosion in the rural African reserve areas in Kenya. The exploitation of female labor, the Mau Mau war of the 1950s, civilian protests, and the regeneration of communal labor as harambee after independence are also discussed.

About the Author

Opolot Okia is Professor of African History at Wright State University, USA. He is the author of Communal Labor in Colonial Kenya: The Legitimization of Coercion, 1912-1930 (Palgrave Macmillan, 2012) and was previously a Fulbright Scholar at Makerere University in Uganda and Moi University in Kenya.