Communal Labor in Colonial Kenya : The Legitimization of Coercion, 1912–1930

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 forced labor 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. This project examines the development of forced labor in colonial Kenya from 1912 to 1930 and the parallel normalization of communal forced labor during this time period. This project examines the development of forced labor in colonial Kenya from 1912 to 1930 and the parallel normalization of communal forced labor during this time period. The colonial reinvention of traditional unpaid labor was, as the noted historian of Kenya, Robert Maxon, has stated, 'based upon a completely fallacious view of the traditional history of Kenya's people.' Even among certain ethnic groups with a nebulous tradition of communal or collective labor, the labor requirements under communal labor were frequently distorted to the point were coerced labor no longer resembled its community based origins. State manipulation of these communal obligations was, in fact, part of a more general phenomenon in Africa. Europeans in Africa made use of invented tradition to both co-opt and ideologically solidify certain Africans into positions of leadership, like chiefs, and to also redefine relationships between Europeans and Africans. Seen by the state as merely an extension of tribal duties and resurrected as another phantom of customary law, communal labor was not actually exploitation but a form of relearning. In the case of communal labor, the British in Kenya used the Native Authority Ordinance to 'invent' traditional powers that galvanized the authority of chiefs to call out the labor. Conversely, chiefs also took advantage of these 'traditional' mandates to enhance their own status "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"-- Provided by publisher Front Matter....Pages i-vii Introduction....Pages 1-8 Forced Labor and Colonial Development in Africa....Pages 9-22 The Juridical Foundation of Government Forced Labor, 1902–1912....Pages 23-36 “Making the Lazy Nigger Work”....Pages 37-62 The Northey Forced Labor Crisis, 1919–1921....Pages 63-79 Interlude....Pages 81-91 Normalizing Force....Pages 93-113 Conclusion....Pages 115-117 Back Matter....Pages 119-186