Terminal Colonialism in East Africa: 1945-1963History of East Africa, Volume III by D. A. Low; Alison SmithReview by: Thomas FullerAfrica Today, Vol. 24, No. 4, Nigeria: Impact of the Oil Economy (Oct. - Dec., 1977), pp. 91-93Published by: Indiana University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4185739 .

Accessed: 16/06/2014 09:43

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

.

Indiana University Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Africa Today.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 185.2.32.96 on Mon, 16 Jun 2014 09:43:17 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Terminal Colonialism in East Africa: 1945-1963

Thomas Fuller

D.A. Low and Alison Smith, editors, HISTORY OF EAST AFRICA, Volume III, (Clarendon, Press, Oxford, 1976) 691 pp., $36.25.

This volume completes the Oxford HISTORY OF EAST AFRICA series which first came to print in 1963. Two previous titles detailed the historical themes of the former British ruled territories of Uganda, Kenya, Tanganyika, and Zanzibar from precolonial to the mid-colonial era of the twentieth century. Volume three explores the colonial world of East Africa during its final phase when imperial overrule was being dismantled and transferred to African majority governments. It is a period historians are increasingly recognizing as crucial, one that holds the key to deeper understanding of the continuing prospects and problems of contemporary African states. Instead of relying on the familiar themes of nationalism and decolonization as parameters for discussion, the contributors of this book have focused their description and analysis more on the various elements of the colonial situation which were to affect the successor states. Of primary concern is the nature and legacy of colonial political and economic structures. To a lesser extent the shape, direction, and results of social change are examined, particularly in reference to how they affected both African and non-African conceptions and perceptions of the colonial world. Furthermore, these issues are discussed with a perspective to the wider changing scene elsewhere in Africa and the world.

In an excellent introduction D.A. Low and John Lonsdale summarize the nature of British activity in this period and elaborate upon several important concepts that help to interpret and give unity to the specific essays and topics which follow. Their analysis suggests that in order to understand African politics it is both necessary and meaningful to understand the major directions of social change and the positive adaptions of Africans to such changes. Thus it is important to recognize that during these years Africans faced the circumstances of what the authors call a "second colonial occupation." (p. 12) From the late 1940s there was a great intensification of British government activity - efforts at improved administrative efficiency, imposition of development plans, and aspirations toward a wide spectrum of other social engineering schemes - all of which did much to stimulate African political activity and awareness. Many Africans for the first time began to seek solutions to the new stresses and problems of this "second colonial occupation" by mobilizing and challenging the imperial government at the territorial level. African efforts are analyzed as interactions within and between different "levels and arenas" that existed in the colonial situation. African chiefs, prominent men, school teachers, and other rising elite were moving from local parochial arenas towards the territorial level of action by creating new aggregations which were as frequently social and cultural in inspiration and format as political. This engaging introduction deserves recognition for

Thomas Fuller is a lecturer in the Department of History at the University o} California, Santa Barbara.

91

This content downloaded from 185.2.32.96 on Mon, 16 Jun 2014 09:43:17 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

providing key explanations and insight into the dynamics of change in East Africa and the forces that made up that turbulent era.

The fourteen chapters that follow the introduction can be divided conveniently into four sections for review considerations. Chapters one through four survey the political histories of Uganda, Kenya, Tanganyika and Zanzibar up to independence. Each provides concise discussion of the major course of events and the interaction of the individuals and policies involved. Together these chapters present a lucid comparison of the similarities and differences between the territories and give support to the point that the relative strength of local colonial government institutions had an important influence upon the course of nationalism in each country.

The focus then shifts to economic history with three chapters detailing the various yet similar patterns of economic change. The post-war era was the heyday of colonial economic planning and the efforts and failures are surveyed here. In almost all instances British aspirations for development fell short in performance, mostly because, despite almost a half century of colonial control, there was still inadequate knowledge of African social and economic systems. The different authors concur that although growth was evident, few real structural changes took place, and where they did African opportunities were often constrained by new mechanisms of control such as restrictive marketing and tax policies. The economic analysis here is not in the model of underdevelopment theory advanced by recent authors nor is it a discussion of political economy. Consideration of the role of wage employment and the growth of African labor force is meager and secondary to the primary focus on agricultural affairs. Likewise little is said about African entrepreneurship or the creation of an "African peasantry." Economic issues which overlap the four territories are treated in a separate chapter on the wider informal and formal economic links formed to solve both the problems of unequal development and the increasing need for a common economic market in East Africa.

Chapters nine through thirteen discuss select topics more far ranging in scope. These include a survey of legal institutions, the impact of Christianity, and the role of the different immigrant communities - the Europeans, the Asians, and the Arabs - with each essay detailing events since the beginning of the colonial period. The concluding chapter by Christopher Wrigley returns the focus to the "African 98 per cent of the lives that were being lived in the region." He has composed a penetrating description and analysis of the transitions occurring among African peoples. In tracing the "loosening and modifying (of) the fabric of colonial society" he details what daily life had become as a result of the impact of new goods, new ideas, the general shifting in social class and caste, the impact of population growth, and the making of urban townsmen. Wrigley's essay is one of wide ranging synthesis about social dynamics of the period which paints an image of how the African fared during the final days of colonialism. Finally an extensive amount of detailed material is contained in the 140 pages of appendices, statistical tables and select bibliography. Included is an essay on the East African Royal Commission of 1953-55.

For those readers in search of radical reassessments of this period of colonialism and its impact on East African peoples this volume will be in default. The topics selected and analysis offered concentrate on the higher and middle level situation and experiences of colonialism and thus may appear dated in comparison to more recent studies and interpretations such as Colin Leys, The Underdevelopment of Kenya (University of California Press, 1976) or 92

This content downloaded from 185.2.32.96 on Mon, 16 Jun 2014 09:43:17 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Thomas Fuller

others appearing in journals like the Review of African Political Economy. Despite the fact that since the first inception of the volume in 1960 most essays were reworded and revised in the late 1960s in light of new studies, the editors recognized that by the time the volume came to print many interpretations and conceptual ideas would need further revision. There were and are still many official and private papers of this era closed to the researcher. Another feature which will make the History appear incomplete to some readers may be the notable absence of contributions by historians from East Africa. Again the editors acknowledge the gap, yet profess faith in the utility of the final product as a statement from those persons, mostly British academics, who have had long acquaintance with East Africa. Moreover, the increasing contributions of historians from East Africa in publications such as Zamani, the History of Tanzania, the Hadith series, the Kenya Historical Review and Transafrican Journal, and other East African works, will help to supplement, update, and amplify subjects and themes not brought into sufficient focus by the Oxford History.' For both the interested reader and the student of East African history, however, the publication of this volume should be a welcomed addition to the literature about terminal colonialism, offering both basic reading and useful reference to the broader themes, skillfully composed in detail and synthesis.

1. B.A. Ogot, editor, Zamini, new edition (Nairobi, 1974); I.N. Kimambo and A.J. Temu, editors, A History of Tanzania (Nairobi, 1969); B.A. Ogot, editor, Hadith 14 (Proceedings of the Historical Association of Kenya, 1967-73).

Lesotho: Two New Resources

Dalvan M. Coger

Gordon Haliburton, HISTORICAL DICTIONARY OF LESOTHO. (Metuchen, N.J.: The Scarecrow Press, Inc., 1977) 223pp., $10.00

S.B. Burman, THE JUSTICE OF THE QUEEN'S GOVERNMENT. The Cape's Administration of Basutoland, 1871-1884. (Leiden: Afrika-Studiecentrum, and Cambridge: African Studies Centre, 1976) 131pp., no price quoted.

Lesotho is a happy choice for the student of African history seeking an area of specialization. Neatly compact in size, it can also boast of extensive documentation of its past. Further, there are few African states that have a man of the status of Moshoeshoe in their chronicles.

Dalvan M. Coger is on the faculty of Memphis State University in the Departmerit of History.

93

This content downloaded from 185.2.32.96 on Mon, 16 Jun 2014 09:43:17 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions