Author Archives: Obinna Samuel Alozie

You know how people always talk about America as “the land of opportunity”, “the land of plenty”, “a nation built by hard workers for hard workers” and the most recognizable statement, “the America Dream”, it didn’t start in the modern age, you know. It started after Christopher Columbus discovered the Americas in 1480. Decades later, European nations came to the Americas to escalated their wealth and broaden their power over world affairs. The Spanish were the first Europeans to explore the New World and the first to settle in the soon-to-be United States. However, in 1650, England had established a dominant presence on the Atlantic coast. The first colony was founded at Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607. Many of the people who settled in the New World came to escape religious persecution. The Pilgrims, founders of Plymouth, Massachusetts, arrived in 1620. In both Virginia and Massachusetts, the colonists flourished with some assistance from Native Americans. By 1770, more than 2 million people lived and worked in Great Britain’s 13 North American colonies.

Alas, when a superpower nation enforces its laws on a small nation, rebellion is sure to start. Ultimately, the colonists felt that their rights as free British citizens were being taken away. Why? The colonists have been living in America and largely governing themselves, under the authority and power of the Britain, for 150 years and were satisfied with British rule. Around 1760, the British were fighting the French for the control of Canada and the western territory of the Appalachian Mountains. With the French urging Indians to help fight the colonists, the British formed an army of colonists, which helped defeat the French. The trouble, at last, started when the British decided that the Americans should be taxed to help pay for the war. Now the taxes were much less than today’s Americans pay, but the then-Americans felt that they were being treated as foreigners because they had no members in the British parliament. Their motto became “No taxation without representation.” While the Americans pleaded for years with the British government and people, the British, still wanting to remind the colonists who was their master, kept sending troops, including German mercenaries, which forced the colonists to keep the soldiers in their homes, and tried to destroy the Americans’ arms and ammunition. Armed incidents, small fights, protests, like the Boston Tea Party, kept accelerating at an alarming rate. American men, who were trained by the British, were ready, willing and able to form their own army.

As listed in the Declaration of Independence (July 4, 1776), George III, King of Britain, was crippling the American governments, inciting Indian attacks against colonists, burning towns, taking British soldiers who committed crimes safely home to England, and sending more and more troops and mercenaries. The Declaration mainly said that it appeared that he wanted to enslave them, and that if they were going to be treated like enemies and not like free British citizens, then they should quit being British citizens.

As for the start of colonial Africa under British rule, unlike the colonies in America which started slow and progressed, the colonization of Africa was fast, swift, with accurate military precision. It all started at the Berlin Conference for the European powers, with its main function: establishing the ground rules for the division of Africa. There were several reasons why Europe wanted African. The political motivation has to do with the political rivalry among European states for dominance in the international system of the eighteenth century. These states believed that colonial possessions conferred prestige and status. Even today, everyone knows that possessions and wealth still bestow a great deal of status on those who have them. The cultural reason for colonization was deeply rooted in the ethnocentrism (judging another culture solely by the values and standards of one’s own culture) and cultural arrogance of the European people, who regarded anyone different as being culturally inferior. In the case of the Africans, because they were not technologically advanced or their achievements were not written and therefore not known to the rest of the world, the Europeans felt that it was their duty to “civilize” and “uplift” the African people. Why? Africans were considered to be savages, primitive individuals with no morals or any form of an educational system whatsoever. Generally, Africans were ignorant, primitive, primitive people sitting on a continent filled with gold, ivory, fertile lands, diamonds and cheap labor force, which, no doubt, contributed to the slave trade.

According to the Constitution of Kenya online based on early Kenyan history, Vasco da Gama, who was a Portuguese explorer, was a member of the original Europeans to set foot on the African continent, arriving in 1498 on the eastern coast in an area now called Malindi. What was their goal? With Portugal becoming a growing power, the Portuguese explorers were to create naval bases to protect the growing trade routes gained by Portugal in the Indian Ocean. A great moment in history came into being when, Mombasa, in 1593, became the birthplace for the Fort Jesus meant to strengthen Portuguese economic power that constantly got threatened by the Dutch, English and Ottoman Arabs during the course of the 1600s.

Throughout the entire history of Kenya, it was the Ottoman Arabs that mostly confronted power of the Portuguese, surrounding its Fort and attacking the entire Portuguese navies. After years of battles, Ottomans of the Omani sultanate under the rule and leadership of Seyyid Said defeated the Portuguese in Kenya at the beginning of the 18th century. In 1730, the Ottomans had already began expelling Portuguese settlers and traders of fossil from the coasts of Tanzanian, Kenyan, Cancun, and Mexico. Also, throughout this period, the Portuguese empire began to decline, probably due to over ambitions, distrustful government officials, and the Portuguese Empire had, more or less, already lost its interest on the spice trade sea route because of the decreasing profitability of that business. Why? The new “money-maker” was SLAVERY!!!

According to “A Brief History on Kenya”, the colonial beginning of Kenya go back to the Berlin Conference in 1885, when East Africa was first divided into territories of influence by the European powers. The British Government, wanting to create & establish its territories in East Africa, founded the East African Protectorate in 1895 and soon after, opened the fertile highlands to white settlers. Before a British colony was officially declared in 1920, these new settlers were given a voice in government, while the Africans and the Asians were banned from direct political participation until 1944. Why? Maybe the British thought that Africans were too primitive, uneducated and uncivilized to understand the concept of parliament. Throughout this period, thousands of Indians were brought into Kenya to work on building the Kenya Uganda Railway Line and subsequently settled there, whilst inviting many of their kith and kin who were mainly traders from India to join them.

However, Kenyans and other Africans swore to expel the British from their country, creating their own “Mau Mau Government”. Several freedom fighters for Kenyan Independence were born, and unfortunately, caught, if not killed. In 1953, Jomo Kenyatta, charged with directing the Mau Mau and sentenced to 7 years imprisonment. Another fighter Dedan Kimathi, arrested in 1956 for his role in the Mau Mau uprising as one of the leaders of the struggle for independence and was subsequently hanged by the colonialists. Kenya experienced a state of emergency from October 1952 to December 1959, because of the Mau Mau rebellion, leading to thousands of Kenyans incarcerated in detention camps. During this period, African participation in the political process increased rapidly and in 1954, all three races (European, Asian and African) were admitted into the Kenya Legislative Council on a representative basis.

In 1957, the first elections for Africans to the Legislative Council took place and thanks to the people’s agitation, Jomo Kenyatta was released from detention. In 1962, Kenyatta became Kenya’s first Prime Minister, with Kenya gaining independence on December 12, 1963. Later, Kenya became a Republic with Kenyatta becoming its first President and Kenya joined the British Commonwealth.