The Impact of Colonial Policies on the Waata People of Kilifi County, Kenya, 1895-1963
Abstract
The Waata community is among the indigenous Kenyan communities whose social, political, and economic organization has not been adequately studied. The objective of the study was to examine the impact of colonial policies on the history of the Waata people of Kilifi County in the period 1895-1963. The study was guided by the cultural interaction and identity formation theory. The study was conducted using the descriptive research design which offered a chronology of events as they unfolded over time. A qualitative approach was significant because it allowed an in-depth collection of data to ascertain the attitudes, feelings, and opinions concerning the theme under study. The study site was Kilifi County. The study targeted both males and females above 18 years within Kilifi County who were knowledgeable about the existence of the Waata people. Purposive and snowballing sampling techniques were used to select the sample for the study. One hundred and twenty-two participants were interviewed. The study used both primary and secondary data. Primary data was derived from the one-on-one interaction with participants using interview schedules and Key Informant Interviews, oral interviews, and focus group discussions. Question guides and questionnaires with open-ended responses were also used. Secondary data was obtained from critical analysis of books, articles, papers, thesis, and dissertations. Additionally, archival sources, particularly colonial documents, annual reports, correspondents, letters, diaries, and political record books related to the area under study were consulted. The findings of the study revealed that colonial policies impacted significantly on the history of the Waata forcing them to adapt to different lifestyles in order to survive cultural extinction. This adaptation was informed by the colonial labelling of traditional hunting communities like the Waata as poachers and the progressive government efforts to stop them from their traditional source of livelihood as well as their eviction from their indigenous habitats and creation of National Parks.
Downloads
References
Berman, B. J., & Lonsdale, J. M. (1980). Crises of accumulation, coercion and the colonial state: the development of the labor control system in Kenya, 1919–1929. Canadian Journal of African Studies/La Revue canadienne des études africaines, 14(1), 55-81.
Boski, P., Strus, K., & Tlaga, E. (2004). Cultural identity, existential anxiety and traditionalism.
Elspeth, H. (1935). White Man’s Country: Lord Delamere and the Making of Kenya.
Gunston, H. (2004). The planning and construction of the Uganda railway. Transactions of the Newcomen Society, 74(1), 45-71.
Holman, D. 1967. The Elephant People. John Murray. London.
Honey, M. (1999). Ecotourism and sustainable development. Who owns paradise? Island Press.
Hughes, L. (2007). Rough time in paradise: Claims, blames, and memory-making around some protected areas in Kenya. Conservation and Society, 5(3), 307-330.
Kanogo, T. (1987). Squatters and the Roots of Mu Mau. James Currey. London
Kassam, A., & Megerssa, G. (1994). Aloof Alollaa: The Inside and the Outside: Boran Oromo Environmental Law and Methods of Conservation. A River of Blessings: essays in honor of Paul Baxter. Syracuse NY: Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University.
Kassam, A., & Bashuna, A. B. (2002). The predicament of the Waata, former hunter gatherers of east and northeast Africa: etic and emic perspectives. In Paper presented at the Ninth International Conference on Hunters and Gatherers. Edinburgh, Scotland (pp. 9-13).
Kelbessa, W. (2011). Indigenous and Modern Environmental Ethics. Washington DC: Council for Research in Values and Philosophy.
Kenyanchui, S. S. (1992). European Settler Agriculture. An Economic History of Kenya, 115.
KNA NPK/16/1/4008: National Parks Kenya
KNA/Annual Colonial Report No. 1122, 1920-21.
KNA/DC/Malindi District Annual Report, 1932
KNA/EAP/ Crown Lands Ordinance, 1901
KNA/EAP/ Forest Act, 1901
KNA/EAP/ Master and Servant Ordinance, 1906
KNA/EAP/East Africa Game Regulations, 1900
KNA/EAP/Hut Tax Regulations, 1901
KNA/EAP/Native Reserve Area, 1926
KNA/EAP/Registration of Natives Ordinance (Kipande), 1915
KNA/EAP/Wild Animals Protection Ordinance, 1951
KNA/NPK /KLC/1934/16/7/Vol. 11. Kenya Land Commission, 1934
Cone, L. W., & Lipscomb, J. F. (1972). The history of Kenya agriculture. The history of Kenya agriculture.
Lustig, M. W., Koester, J., & Halualani, R. (2003). Intercultural competence: Interpersonal communication across cultures. Pearson/A and B.
MacKenzie, J. M. (1988). The empire of nature: Hunting, conservation, and British imperialism. Manchester University Press.
Ngugi, P. K., & Sluyter, A. (2018). Challenges of elephant conservation: Insights from oral histories of colonialism and landscape in Tsavo, Kenya. Geographical Review, 108(4), 523-544.
Okoth, O. (1976). African land tenure reform. Agricultural development in Kenya. An economic assessment., 152-185.
Okoth-Ogendo, H. W. O. (1979). Land tenure and its implications for the development of Kenya's semi-arid areas. Institute for Development Studies, University of Nairobi.
Parker, I., & Amin, M. (1983). Ivory crisis. CHATTO & WINDUS, LONDON(UK). 1983.
Parsons, T. (2011). Local responses to the ethnic geography of colonialism in the Gusii Highlands of British-ruled Kenya. Ethnohistory, 58(3), 491-523.
Phinney, J. S. (2000). Identity formation across cultures. Human development, 43(1), 27-31.
Ruchman, S. G. (2017). Colonial construction: Labor practices and precedents along the Uganda Railway, 1893-1903. The International Journal of African Historical Studies, 50(2), 251-273.
Rutten, M., & Ombongi, K. (2005). Kenya: Pre-colonial, nineteenth century. New York, NY: Fitzroy Dearborn
Schauer, J. (2015). The Elephant Problem: Science, Bureaucracy, and Kenya’s National Parks, 1955 to 1975. African Studies Review, 58(1), 177-198.
Sheldrick, A. (2019). Dr. Dame Daphne Sheldrick DBE—conservation icon saluted. Pachyderm, 60, 148-149.
Sobania, N. W. (1990). Social relationships as an aspect of property rights: Northern Kenya in the pre-colonial and colonial periods. Property, poverty, and people: Changing rights in property and problems of pastoral development, 1-19.
Sorrenson, M. P. K. (1968). Origins of European settlement in Kenya. Oxford University Press. Nairobi
Southall, R. (2005). The Ndungu report: land & graft in Kenya. Review of African Political Economy, 32(103), 142-151.
Spencer, P. (1973). Nomads in alliance: symbiosis and growth among the Rendille and Samburu of Kenya. Oxford University Press.
Steinhart, E. (1994). National parks and anti-poaching in Kenya, 1947-1957. The International Journal of African Historical Studies, 27(1), 59-76.
Tarus, I. K. (2004). A history of the direct taxation of the African people of Kenya, 1895-1973 (Doctoral dissertation, Rhodes University).
Van Wijngaarden, W. (1985). Elephants, trees, grass, grazers: relationships between climate, soils, vegetation, and large herbivores in a semi-arid savanna ecosystem(Tsavo, Kenya) (Doctoral dissertation, Landbouwhogeschool te Wageningen).
Waris, A. (2007). Taxation without principles: A historical analysis of the Kenyan taxation system. Kenya law review, 1(272), 274-304.
Western, D. (1982). Amboseli National Park: Enlisting landowners to conserve migratory wildlife. Ambio, 302-308.
Zahir, M. (2014). Land and Labour in Kenya Under the British Colonial Rule from 1888-1953. (Masters Dissertation), University of Oran. Algeria.
Zeleza, T. (1985). The political economy of British colonial development and welfare in Africa. Transafrican Journal of History, 14, 139-161.
Zeleza, T. (1992). The Development of African Capitalism.
Copyright (c) 2021 Cyprian Kioko Wambua, Peter Wafula Wekesa, PhD, Susan Mwangi, PhD
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
