QUICK DELIVERY
Swift dispatch
-10%
My Roots
KShs2,200.00 KShs1,500.00
A Historical and Cultural Analysis of Women Land Rights in Kisii Count, Kenya, 1895- 1970
KShs2,000.00 KShs1,800.00
In most societies in different parts of the world, there are gender inequalities in access to productive resources such as land, and other social, economic, and environmental resources that are critical for people’s sustenance. However, in many instances, not much research has been conducted on those critical gender issues and perceived unfairness in the ownership, access, and utilization of critical societal resources, particularly, in Africa in general, and Kenya in particular.
In this regard, the need to improve access to land and strengthen women’s land rights in Africa provided the main rationale for undertaking this research, with specific reference to the Gusii of Western Kenya. In particular, the book examines the changing and/or evolving responses of women over time to land access, ownership, control, and usage. Further, the book analyzes the relationship between indigenous land tenure systems and gendered relations; and the effects of colonial land policies on gendered relations. It also examines gender rights with respect to land access and ownership in the post-colonial period in Kisii.
Overall, this study provides pertinent information on the following critical issues. What was the relationship between pre-colonial land tenure systems and gender relations in Kisii? What were the effects of colonial and post-colonial land policies on gender relations in Gusii? How did Gusii women respond to gendered land rights and ownership in the pre-colonial, colonial, and post-colonial periods?
Shipping
Reviews (0)
Vendor Info
Vendor Information
- Store Name: Nsemia Inc Publishers
- Vendor: Linda Kiboma
- No ratings found yet!
More Products
Experiences of Women Students with Disabilities in Kenyan Universities: Disability in Society, Gender and & Higher Education Challenges
This work is a systematic analysis of the subject of disability and society as encountered in institutions of higher learning in Kenya. Experiences of women students with disabilities in Kenyan universities demonstrates that marginalization of people with disabilities is an insidious reality in virtually all societies. Across Africa, dialogue on discrimination against individuals with disability has for a long time been silenced resulting into minimal participation and representation of this population in the political, social, cultural, and economic and development initiatives in the continent. Only a few texts have examined the question of disability and the status of people with disabilities in Africa and more so, with reference to gender and higher education. Filing this gap, this book discusses the experiences of women students with disabilities in university education in Kenya. It analyzes the challenges these women face and how they deal with those challenges. There is evidence of ableim in Kenyan higher education institutions and in the society as a whole. Individuals, government and societal institutions should work together to address ableism and promote an inclusive society.
What others say
Disability is not inability. This cutting edge text reveals that although women students with disabilities in Kenyan universities face numerous challenges, they are determined to succeed. The desire to lead a better life is the glue that gives these women the determination to challenge their subjugated positions in society. This book provides important recommendations for policy, practice and research which Kenya and other African nations can learn from to change things for the better. It is an important and timely read to be enjoyed by everyone. - Chris Atuti, Toronto, Canada.
This book brings us in touch with the lives of women, and their struggles, so as to inspire the collective need to address disability in more thought-provoking ways. Skillfully, Bathseba depicts the complexity of living with disability through her ethnographic account of twenty women students in Kenyan universities. Through this unique research and analysis, the reader comes to know that every experience of disability needs to be understood as a fully social, political, and historical, not to mention valid, way of being-in-the-world. Bathseba has produced a book that is a must read for anyone interested in exploring education as it is interwoven with the meanings of race, gender, class and disability in and through the Kenyan context - Dr. Tanya Titchkosky Associate Professor, Associate Chair, and Graduate Coordinator, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto.
This book is an outstanding sociological exploration of gender, disability and higher education in the African context. The women's stories come alive in this brilliant and sensitive interpretation of challenges and accomplishments of women students with disabilities in Kenyan universities. By giving voice to those who are rarely heard, Bathseba contributes to a comprehensive understanding of the student experience. - . Sandra Acker, Professor Emeritus, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto.
Basic Education in Kenya: A Reality Check
Professor Onderi is an educationist who has served as high school teacher and principal, director of a University Campus and don in the School of Education as well as County Education Board (CEB) chairman for ten years, among other responsibilities.
Professor Onderi has written in his area of specialty and expressed himself in the language and style that resonates with the whole spectrum of basic education stakeholders. This book is an incisive commentary on topical and contemporary issues in education and is worth the attention of everyone interested in current trends in education. - Mrs. Hellen Mabese Luhangala, Chief Principal
When I got a chance to read the manuscript of this book from cover to cover, I did so with a lot of interest. As a journalist, literary writer, parent and Board of Management (BoM) member in an upcountry school, I wanted to have a better understanding of this critical area of education. This book is an easy, educative and informative read.
- Mr. Joshua Araka, Journalist and Literary Writer, Nyamira
Basic Education in Kenya: A Reality Check is a treasure whose publication coincided with the gradual roll-out of the Competence Based Curriculum (CBC) in Kenya. The book offers crucial insights that are central to the betterment of CBC. The areas tackled in this book will indeed trigger a more proactive mindset amongst head teachers, teachers, Board of Management (BoM) members, Parents’ Association (PA) members, and every other stakeholder for them to play their roles more diligently. - Mr. Ben Orwasa, Director at Teachers’ Service Commission (TSC)
This book is a reservoir of new knowledge. It brings to the fore pertinent issues in Basic Education in a simple, chronological and convincing manner, and at the same time lifts an individual to the highway of thoughts relating to what works and what doesn’t work as contemplated in the existing laws, policies and other legal documents within which basic education operates. This book will offer good company to students and dons in the Schools of Education, researchers, academicians, scholars, school managers and administrators, parents, and sponsors, among other stakeholders of basic education in Kenya. - Dr. Teresa Atieno Datche, Chief Principal
The Village Pariah by Imali J. Abala
The Village Pariah, narrated in verse, dramatizes the story of Rosie Kasovo, a beautiful and lonely woman from Ngoroke village. Abandoned by her husband shortly after their marriage when he secures a job in the city, her striking beauty unwittingly becomes her double-edged sword, inviting relentless scrutiny from the people of Ngoroke. Every action she takes falls under their watchful gaze. Despite her sincere efforts to contribute positively to the common good of the community, her deeds are met with skepticism. As the accusations and betrayal against her mount, one question remains: will Rosie be able to emerge from this ordeal unscathed, or will she crumble under the weight of her village’s judgment?
What Others Say
The Village Pariah is a remarkable book illustrating how beauty was once believed to guarantee happiness and a seamless life, yet for Rosie, a Logooli woman, it has become a barrier, a pariah wall, isolating her from the community. Strangely, the fate of the entire village appears intertwined with hers, their destinies woven into the fabric of their relentless gossip. Into this tangled web steps Eliab, a man lacking noble standing but propelled by the villagers’ whispered truths, determined to confront her. If his impulsive action can mend their afflictions, both tangible and perceived and liberate the unfortunate souls ensnared by her charm, then so be it. - Alfred Nyagaka Nyamwange, English/Literature Teacher and Deputy Principal at Bon’gota Secondary School.
EkeGusii Made Simple: The ‘abc’ of EkeGusii Ekiere
EkeGusii Made Simple introduces the reader to the language spoken by the AbaGusii of Kenya. It covers basics such as the letters of the alphabet (ching’amumu) - vowels (ching’atoki) and consonants (amamumu) - parts of speech (ebiumuntwa bi’enkwano), numbers (chimbaro) and the counting system (kobara). The reader will benefit from basic vocabulary relating to things such as the household, parts of the body (ebimo) and typical items used in a homestead. There are also basic conversational elements, such as greetings (amakwanio) and some forms of communication, in addition to family and community relations (amairi ao ao) and genealogies (chinderia).
The reader will also benefit from elements of Gusii culture, such as names (amarieta ao ao) and naming systems, the poetry (emeino) of AbaGusii. Other aspects include seasons (chingaki) and their relations to activities of the time, and much more.
The regional variation of the language is underlined, as well, to ensure that the reader appreciates the variety and richness of the language. In doing so, the author underlines the correctness and validity of the variations.
There are few titles that offer such a broad introduction to the EkeGusii such as this one.
What Others Say
“A great step towards a noble task from which many have been and are afraid to start. I love your brave plunge. God bless.” – Dr. Alfred Nyamwange, Author and Teacher.
Oral Poetry in Africa :The Abagusii of Kenya
Oral Poetry in Africa: The Abagusii of Kenya highlights characteristics of African
oral traditions with particular focus on the oral poetry of the Abagusii of Kenya. It
shows that oral poetry in the Abagusii community covered every facet of life. The
community’s social-political and economic life, history, values, norms and customs
were stored in the oral poetry, in addition to proverbs, riddles and folktales. Notably,
oral poetry coloured the entire life of Omogusii and was sung during birth, initiation,
marriage and death ceremonies. This book documents the oral poetry of the
community in its original form, and in various versions that were practised or sung in
different parts of the region inhabited by the community. Further, the book discusses
the context in which this poetry was sung and explains some of the cultural practices,
norms, and customs that surround or motivated the composition of the poetry.
The advent of colonialism had ‘corrupting’ influence on the original poetry, more so
with the adoption of English words and phrases. This kind of poetry has not been left
out.
Aside from the general poetry and the book also captures emeino, the Abagusii
classical oral poetry. While the general poetry utilized improvisation as a technique in
its presentation and performance, the classical poetry was a fixed form that demanded
to be sung in its original form. Unlike the general poetry that, in its ephemerality,
invited additions and subtractions from the text, classical poetry was permanent in
text with no room for improvisation.
Oral Poetry in Africa: The Abagusii of Kenya is meant for students of oral literature
at university level. However, it can also be used by researchers of African oral
literature, culture, anthropology, history and sociology. Indeed, it is also good for the
general reader who is interested in the culture of Abagusii and African people, in general
Scholarly Research: Writing and Publishing into Journals & Bookss
Scholarly Research: Writing and Publishing into Journals and Books captures the value, process and publication of research findings. The core thesis is that conducting research is uniquely significant as it is one of the age-old means of responding to the diverse questions that face humanity. Indeed, systematic, objective, and rigorous research form the basis of most cutting-edge discoveries in the history of mankind.
Conducting research is one step in the knowledge construction enterprise; dissemination is the other. Unless research results are disseminated, their significance is considerably undermined. Dissemination ensures that claims made by a researcher are interrogated, shaped, and re-interpreted by peers which forms the basis of additional scholarly discourse and calls for further research, ad infinitum. Dissemination also ensures that research findings reach policy makers and inform policy formulation.
While findings from research can be disseminated through a number of outlets, this book focuses on academic publishing in books and journals. It describes the core principles in academic research and its reporting, guided by time-tested conventions that have evolved in the field over time.
We discuss, as a foundation, what scholarly research is and explore writing for scholarly publication in the form of journals and books. It is hoped that this work will generate intellectual conversations, amongst our research peers and beyond, especially with regard to the broad concept of epistemology in practice.
Related products
The Flame of Freedom by Raila Odinga and Sarah Elderkin (Original)
The Flame of Freedom chronicles the remarkable journey of one of Africa’s leading politicians and statesmen.
Raila Odinga’s life-story mirrors the triumphs and tragedies of Kenya’s struggle to entrench multi-party democracy and the rule of law into the fabric of the State.
The book is a testament to his courage, determination and sacrifice in the cause of peace, development and public service.
Unbowed by Wangari Maathai
Born in a rural Kenyan village in 1940, Wangari Maathai was already an iconoclast as a child, determined to get an education even though most African girls then were uneducated. In her remarkable and inspiring autobiography, she tells of her studies with Catholic missionaries, earning bachelors and master's degrees in the United States, and becoming the first woman both to earn a PhD and to head a university department in Kenya.
She tells of her numerous run-ins with the brutal government of Daniel arap Moi and of the political and personal reasons that compelled her, in 1977, to establish the Green Belt Movement, which spread from Kenya across Africa, and which helps restore indigenous forests while assisting rural women by paying them to plant trees in their villages.
Maathai's extraordinary courage and determination helped transform Kenya's government into the democracy in which she now serves as Deputy Minister for the Environment and Natural Resources and as a Member of Parliament. Eventually her achievement was internationally recognized in the Nobel Peace Prize, awarded in recognition of her 'contribution to sustainable development, human rights, and peace'.
In Unbowed, we are in the presence of a hugely charismatic yet humble woman whose remarkable story carries with it an inspiring message of hope. Hers is an extraordinary story, spanning different worlds and changing times, and revealing what the courage, determination, tenacity and humour of one good woman can achieve; how as small a thing as planting a seedling and watering it can made all the difference in the world.
Kenya Between Hope and Despair 1963-2011 by Daniel Branch
On December 12, 1963, people across Kenya joyfully celebrated independence from British colonial rule, anticipating a bright future of prosperity and social justice. As the nation approaches the fiftieth anniversary of its independence, however, the people's dream remains elusive.
During its first five decades Kenya has experienced assassinations, riots, coup attempts, ethnic violence, and political corruption. The ranks of the disaffected, the unemployed, and the poor have multiplied. In this authoritative and insightful account of Kenya's history from 1963 to the present day, Daniel Branch sheds new light on the nation's struggles and the complicated causes behind them.
Branch describes how Kenya constructed itself as a state and how ethnicity has proved a powerful force in national politics from the start, as have disorder and violence. He explores such divisive political issues as the needs of the landless poor, international relations with Britain and with the Cold War superpowers, and the direction of economic development.
Tracing an escalation of government corruption over time, the author brings his discussion to the present, paying particular attention to the rigged election of 2007, the subsequent compromise government, and Kenya's prospects as a still-evolving independent state.
Shades of Benga The Story of Popular Music in Kenya 1946-2016
Brief Summary
Shades of Benga: The Story of Popular Music in Kenya delves into the foundations of modern Kenyan music, examining external influences from the English waltz to Afro Cuban Rumba and how they helped mould new music styles across Africa. Rumba was brought to Eastern Africa via the itinerant Congolese musicians Edouard Masengo and Jean Bosco Mwenda who’s intricate guitar-picking styles largely shaped the present Kenyan sound, with the Benga playing a dominant role.
Although dozens of works have been published over the years on various characteristics of popular music in Kenya – from conventional folk to hip hop – none captures the history of music and its players as authoritatively as Shades of Benga: The Story of Popular Music in Kenya. An informed study of some literary publications and academic papers on music immediately reveals that the writers, who frequently tend to be foreign ‘experts’, do not seek the opinions of pioneer musicians who helped shape the various genres of music.
Their research is largely based on information obtained from sources that are readily available on the Internet but often not easily verifiable. As we wrote this book, we made every possible effort to engage with practitioners directly involved in creating and shaping benga in order to ensure that their collective voice remains the sole critical factor to placing the music in its proper perspective while simultaneously giving the other genres in Kenya their correct definition. We undertook the arduous task of meticulously putting together the content that would faithfully recount the remarkable story of the development of our music in a manner previously not attempted.
In an effort to make this 678-page book an easy read as well as eye catching, Shades of Benga: The Story of Popular Music in Kenya features over 400 pictures.
"
ISBN:6164001943132
Author:Ketebul Music
The Wretched Africans: A Study of Rabai and Freretown Slave Settlements by Joe Khamisi
Brief summary
The Wretched Africans: A Study of Rabai and Freretown Slave Settlements.
This book is about the 19th century slave trade in Eastern and Central Africa. No one in the history of humankind has suffered the indignity, abuse and pain of slavery than the African. Over many centuries, millions of Africans were uprooted from their quaint villages in the interior of the "Dark Continent" and taken into slavery.
They were exported to the Americas, Asia, Arabia and a dozen other countries around the globe, to work in plantations, in the pearl industry, and as soldiers and domestic workers. Boys were castrated and made eunuchs and girls were sexually abused and forced into harems. Unfortunately, the African slave narrative - written mostly by Western historians and missionaries - has been contemptibly distorted to portray Europeans as the gallant saviors, the notorious slave traders as swaggering heroes, and the African captives as wretched victims of a horrible but regrettably inevitable human phenomenon of the time.
The truth has been loftily garbled or masked and the role of liberated Africans vastly under-represented. The Wretched Africans peels of what is beneath the Arab slave trade, unravels the racism and abuse meted against Africans by European explorers and missionaries, and lays bare the heroism and resilience of the African captives. It memorializes Africans who died in caravan trails, at sea and those who found freedom in slave settlements around the world. It is a must read for historians, researchers, students and the general public wanting to understand the truth about what happened to an estimated eleven million people taken captive from the east coast of Africa to the new world and beyond.
Imperial Reckoning The Untold Story of Britains Gulag in Kenya by Caroline Elkins
Brief Summary
Britain fought in the Second World War to save the world from fascism. But just a few years after the defeat of Hitler came the Mau Mau uprising in Kenya - a mass armed rebellion by the Kikuyu people, demanding the return of their land and freedom. The draconian response of Britain's colonial government was to detain nearly the entire Kikuyu population of one-and-a half-million - to hold them in camps or confine them in villages ringed with barbed wire - and to portray them as sub-human savages.
From 1952 until the end of the war in 1960 tens of thousands of detainees - and possibly a hundred thousand or more - died from the combined effects of exhaustion, disease, starvation and systemic physical brutality. Until now these events have remained untold, largely because the British government in Kenya destroyed most of its files. For the last eight years Caroline Elkins has conducted exhaustive research to piece together the story, unearthing reams of documents and interviewing several hundred Kikuyu survivors.
Britain's Gulag reveals what happened inside Kenya's detention camps, as well as the efforts to conceal the truth. Now, for the first time, we can understand the full savagery of the Mau Mau war and the ruthless determination with which Britain sought to control its empire.
ISBN:9780805080018
Author: Caroline Elkins
The trial of Dedan Kimathi by Ngugi wa Thiongo and Micere Githae Mugo
The Trial of Dedan Kimathi, written in collaboration with Micere Githae-Mugo, is Ngugi’s response to colonialist writings about the Mau-Mau movement, which traditionally depicted the movement and its leader, Dedan Kimathi, as mentally unbalanced and vicious.
Ngugi and his collaborator choose to counter this image with a portrait of Kimathi as a man of great courage and commitment. This was how he was seen by many of the peasants and laborers of Kenya.
Wisdom of the Elders Personal Reflections of Over 70 Kenyans who Have Lived Through Changing Times by Susan Wakhungu Githuku and Bobby Pall
"'Wisdom of the elders' presents conversations with over 70 elders of diverse background, education level, race and gender. One is none other than immediate former President Emilio Mwai Kibaki. Another is the widow of former freedom fighter Dedan Kimathi, while another is the grandmother of President Barrack Hussein.
Others are normal Kenyans living in villages, with no claim to fame or stature.
However, all those profiled have lived three score ten years and more and in the words of the Bible, have reached the age of wisdom.
Discussing how life was then and how it is today, their disparate views will inform and resonate as they provide a veritable history lesson."--Dust jacket flap.
Pio Gama Pinto Untold Life Story of First Unsung Martyr
Pio Gama Pinto: Kenya’s Unsung Martyr 1927– 1965 is edited by Shiraz Durrani and includes letters, recollections from family and comrades and newspaper articles. Shortly after independence, Pinto was shot dead outside his Westlands home (where Sarit Centre is). He was 38. That his two-year-old daughter was in the car with him or that it was broad daylight did not deter the assassins -- they were determined to eliminate him.
One stark reason to finish him, it has been argued over the years, was the fact that he was a hardcore socialist caught in the cross-hairs of neo-imperialists hell-bent on directing Kenya the capitalistic way. The 2013 report by the Truth, Justice and Reconciliation (TJRC) said his death was motivated by "ideological differences at the heart of the global cold war but also mirrored in domestic politics.”
Three men were nabbed in connection with the murder. TJRC said those arrested were "scapegoats” meant to divert attention from the real killers. Fingers were pointed at the government led by Mzee Jomo Kenyatta. One of his closest friends Achieng’ Oneko, on learning about his death, would shout: "No, no, no! Kenyatta must explain! He must explain!” Kenya’s second Vice President Joseph Murumbi, also a dear friend, was the most distraught and in tears after learning of his death (Murumbi is quoted saying that Pintomade him join politics).
Two weeks earlier, Pinto had been tipped that there was a plot to murder him alongside Bildad Kaggia and JD Kali due to their "secret anti-Government” activities. But did Kenyatta have a hand in Pinto’s death? Pinto after all, had fought for Kenyatta’s release from detention. The book suggests that his assassination needs to be seen in its "overall national and international” context.
Durrani quotes authors who have tied his death to that of slain US black rights activist Malcolm X. The two met when Malcolm visited Kenya in 1959.
Pinto was active in the fight against colonialism as well as neo-colonialism in the post-independence struggle and was targeted by colonial Portuguese Goan and British Kenyan administrations. The post-independence ruling elite ultimately silenced him. "The bullets that killed Pinto may have been fired or organized by the former home guards, now the new power brokers, but their foreign backers were the real instigators of his assassination,” writes Durrani.
Pinto gave away almost all his money and not even his wife Emma, knew how much he earned. As secretary of the Pan African press, Pinto used to tell his wife that his salary was half of what he earned and gave out the other half to the poor.
According to Murumbi, he didn’t own a house and was very reluctant when it was suggested. When Pinto died, poor people from all over went to his house. "It was really pathetic to see elderly Kikuyu weeping for a man who had helped them, a man who was their colleague in detention and a man who had never forgotten them,” said Murumbi. After his death, Murumbi arranged for Emma to immigrate to Canada where they became citizens. Now 90, Emma describes Pinto as a "humanist.” The author says the book has been in the works since the 1980s and blames unfavourable political climate for the cancellations and delays on any work on Pinto.
Histories of the Hanged by David Anderson
In "a gripping narrative that is all but impossible to put down" (Joseph C. Miller), Histories of the Hanged exposes the long-hidden colonial crimes of the British in Kenya.
This groundbreaking work tells how the brutal war between the colonial government and the insurrectionist Mau Mau between 1952 and 1960 dominated the final bloody decade of imperialism in East Africa.
Using extraordinary new evidence, David Anderson puts the colonial government on trial with eyewitness testimony from over 800 court cases and previously unseen archives.
His research exonerates the Kikuyu rebels; hardly the terrorists they were thought to be; and reveals the British to be brutal aggressors in a "dirty war" that involved leaders at the highest ranks of the British government.
This astonishing piece of scholarship portrays a teetering colonial empire in its final phase; employing whatever military and propaganda methods it could to preserve an order that could no longer hold.
The Big Conservation Lie: The Untold Story of Wildlife Conservation in Kenya by Mordecai Ogada and John Mbaria
The Big Conservation Lie' is a wakeup call focused on a field that has been 'front and center' of many people's hearts and minds in recent years; the conservation of Africa's wildlife. It is a pursuit whose power to inspire is only rivalled by its ability to blind its audience to reality.
This book takes the reader through Kenya's conservation 'industry' and the players therein with all their prejudices, weaknesses and commitment to causes, many of which are indistinguishable from their personalities.
It is a call to indigenous Africans to claim their place at the table where the management of their natural resources is being discussed and invites well-meaning donors to look beyond the romantic images and detect the possible role of their money in the disenfranchisement of a people.
Abrahams People a Kenyan Dynasty by Jane Barsby
Brief Summary
The book, all 400 pages of it, sticks largely to the script of facts but unlike many other biographies brings Abraham’s journey alive, saturated with anecdotes, narrating the many twists in the tail of Abraham’s life as if the author had been the proverbial fly on the wall at times.
Jane manages to find that perfect blend of what story telling should embrace, an embroidery of facts and at times a bit of fiction surely, giving readers of the book ‘Abraham’s People’ the impression of reading a novel rather than a dry story dictated entirely by time lines and actual events. Abraham’s escape route took him to Britain first, still as a young lad, before taking a leap into the unknown when he decided to first go to South Africa in 1901 to join up with his father, working his passage as a ‘grease monkey’ in the engine room before finally making his way to Kenya in 1903 at the age of 20.
The first chapters in the book are dedicated to the story of his forefathers, how they came to Lithuania where they first prospered and then suffered under increasingly intolerant rulers, leading up to the days when first his father had to flee for his dear life before, almost one by one, the rest of the family managed to make their getaway. It must have been in those days in Leeds, when a little acorn took root in Abraham’s mind, germinating along the way, taking shape and eventually becoming a vision taking visible shape.
His arrival at the port of Mombasa and the rail journey on the ‘Lunatic Express, aka as The Iron Snake’, his stepping off the train in Nairobi, back then but a depot for the railway, around which a town had just started to grow, his first meetings with contemporaries who were part of Kenya’s colonial history, all is meticulously captured by the author. Again it almost appears that Jane Barsby was present or else managed to train her looking glass back in time as she describes how Abraham met with Tommy Woods on arrival in Nairobi, who became a fast friend, or how Abraham made a quick 25 pounds profit on a land deal, which he struck with one of the Asian community’s icons Mr. Jevanjee and how he then ventured into business, farming, ranching and deal making, soon becoming part of the colonial Kenya’s ‘furniture’ too.
The author ably sums up Abraham’s business acumen when she describes him as basically a jack of all trades with an uncanny ability to smell money if it could be made somewhere by buying or selling, investing or trading, importing and exporting. As the chapters add up, more and more insight is given into the life Abraham lived, the setbacks he suffered and his almost throwing in the towel had it not been for Lord Delamare, the Kenyan colony’s leading aristocrat and an icon in his own right.
Kikuyu District by Paul Sullivan
Brief Summary
Francis Hall's letters are among the earliest colonial record of daily life in British East Africa, now modern day Kenya. In 1892 Hall was posted to Fort Smith with orders to build 150 miles of road, to re-supply caravans between the coast and Uganda and to keep the peace between the Kikuyu and the Maasai.
His was a hard life in difficult, dangerous conditions and every day was an adventure. He was gored by a rhino and mauled by a leopard, which he strangled with his rifle, and survived bush surgery and frequent bouts of malaria.
While on leave in England he married Bee Russell, a colleague's sister, and they set up house together in Fort Smith. As the railway line approached, so the early European settlers started to arrive. But the railway was to change everything, and when Nairobi was established on their doorstep at the turn of the century, Fort Smith became redundant.
The government first moved the Halls to Machakos and then back to Kikuyuland to establish a new fort at Mbirri. Six months later Francis Hall was dead from black water fever aged 40. Mbirri was renamed Fort Hall in his memory and today the town is called Muranga. Kikuyu District is a fascinating account of the life of an early colonial administrator and settler.
Reviews
Clear filtersThere are no reviews yet.