A large literature has described the years after independence from colonial rule as a period of ‘... more A large literature has described the years after independence from colonial rule as a period of ‘departicipation’. Africa’s new rulers – whether driven by personal venality or a sincere commitment to nation-building – swiftly gave up on elections, or at best held elections that, by denying choice, left violence as the central dynamic of African politics. This article draws on the cases of Kenya, Ghana and Uganda in the late 1960s to argue that the emphasis often placed on the ‘speed and ease’ of this process has been overstated. Instead, Africa’s politicians and civil servants valued elections as a means to educate and discipline the public, even as they feared their possible outcomes. Building on a literature that focuses on the individual experience of elections rather than the presence or absence of parties, we argue that the rhetoric of politicians and civil servants shows that they saw elections as ‘exercises’ – a revealing term – that would train and test their new citizens. Y...
The Mijikenda are a group of nine peoples who live on the coast around, and in the immediate hint... more The Mijikenda are a group of nine peoples who live on the coast around, and in the immediate hinterland of, Mombasa. Their identity as the Mijikenda is a recent construct, and is structured around traditions of migration from a common place of origin in the north, called Singwaya. These traditions have also been employed by elder males within Mijikenda groups to explain and legitimate the institutions around which their power is based. Until the 1940s, all the Mijikenda peoples were called the Nyika, defined as such in opposition to the Swahili who live in the coastal towns. Individuals could and did change their identity from a Nyika one to a Swahili one, and the two identities, while they were in opposition, were parts of a single paradigm. Ties of kin cut across the boundary between the two identities. This fluidity of identity on the coast gave the hinterland people a considerable ability to avoid the demands of the colonial state. In the context of a labour shortage on the coas...
Research on Kenya’s 2013 elections has suggested that a “peace narrative” was deliberately promot... more Research on Kenya’s 2013 elections has suggested that a “peace narrative” was deliberately promoted by an establishment elite to delegitimize protest and justify the use of excessive force. It has also tended to see the Kenyan case as exceptional and to assume that such a narrative was only possible because of the 2007/2008 post-election violence. We agree that peace campaigns are often particularly intense in the wake of violence and that they can be manipulated to generate a “peaceocracy”, a system in which an emphasis on peace is used to prioritize stability and order to the detriment of democracy. However, by comparing Kenya to Ghana and Uganda, two countries that have had very different experiences of elections and election-related violence, we demonstrate that peace messaging is neither unique to countries that have experienced recent electoral conflict, nor a recent phenomenon. Instead, we highlight the pervasiveness of peace narratives across the sub-continent, which we show...
In 1971, Kenya’s National Assembly passed a new Act to regulate the consumption of “traditional l... more In 1971, Kenya’s National Assembly passed a new Act to regulate the consumption of “traditional liquor”—that is, alcohol produced by traditional methods, as opposed to bottled beer or spirits. Among the changes which this introduced—which were, broadly, intended to encourage a new level of commercialization—was a change in drinking hours (formally, brought in by rules made under the new Act). Since the early colonial period, this had been one of a number of areas in which a clear distinction was made between traditional liquor (or “native liquor,” as it was called) and intoxicating liquor (which in this context meant branded beers, wines, and spirits). Licences for the sale of intoxicating liquor had specified hours of sale which were decidedly liberal by comparison with the metropole; the colonial period saw a slow process of increasing restriction of hours, staunchly resisted by white public opinion. Licences for the sale of “native liquor,” by contrast, had set different hours and on the whole the legal hours of sale had ended up as much more restricted than those for the sale of “intoxicating liquor” — which was, until the 1940s, forbidden to Africans. In 1971 this distinction ended, and standard licensing hours were created for both “traditional liquor” and “intoxicating liquor.”
Kenya's March 2013 elections ushered in a popular system of devolved government that represen... more Kenya's March 2013 elections ushered in a popular system of devolved government that represented the country's biggest political transformation since independence. Yet within months there were public calls for a referendum to significantly revise the new arrangements. This article analyses the campaign that was led by the newly elected governors in order to understand the ongoing disputes over the introduction of decentralisation in Kenya, and what they tell us about the potential for devolution to check the power of central government and to diffuse political and ethnic tensions. Drawing on Putnam's theory of two-level games, we suggest that Kenya's new governors have proved willing and capable of acting in concert to protect their own positions because the pressure that governors are placed under at the local level to defend county interests has made it politically dangerous for them to be co-opted by the centre. As a result, the Kenyan experience cannot be read as...
A large literature has described the years after independence from colonial rule as a period of ‘... more A large literature has described the years after independence from colonial rule as a period of ‘departicipation’. Africa’s new rulers – whether driven by personal venality or a sincere commitment to nation-building – swiftly gave up on elections, or at best held elections that, by denying choice, left violence as the central dynamic of African politics. This article draws on the cases of Kenya, Ghana and Uganda in the late 1960s to argue that the emphasis often placed on the ‘speed and ease’ of this process has been overstated. Instead, Africa’s politicians and civil servants valued elections as a means to educate and discipline the public, even as they feared their possible outcomes. Building on a literature that focuses on the individual experience of elections rather than the presence or absence of parties, we argue that the rhetoric of politicians and civil servants shows that they saw elections as ‘exercises’ – a revealing term – that would train and test their new citizens. Y...
The Mijikenda are a group of nine peoples who live on the coast around, and in the immediate hint... more The Mijikenda are a group of nine peoples who live on the coast around, and in the immediate hinterland of, Mombasa. Their identity as the Mijikenda is a recent construct, and is structured around traditions of migration from a common place of origin in the north, called Singwaya. These traditions have also been employed by elder males within Mijikenda groups to explain and legitimate the institutions around which their power is based. Until the 1940s, all the Mijikenda peoples were called the Nyika, defined as such in opposition to the Swahili who live in the coastal towns. Individuals could and did change their identity from a Nyika one to a Swahili one, and the two identities, while they were in opposition, were parts of a single paradigm. Ties of kin cut across the boundary between the two identities. This fluidity of identity on the coast gave the hinterland people a considerable ability to avoid the demands of the colonial state. In the context of a labour shortage on the coas...
Research on Kenya’s 2013 elections has suggested that a “peace narrative” was deliberately promot... more Research on Kenya’s 2013 elections has suggested that a “peace narrative” was deliberately promoted by an establishment elite to delegitimize protest and justify the use of excessive force. It has also tended to see the Kenyan case as exceptional and to assume that such a narrative was only possible because of the 2007/2008 post-election violence. We agree that peace campaigns are often particularly intense in the wake of violence and that they can be manipulated to generate a “peaceocracy”, a system in which an emphasis on peace is used to prioritize stability and order to the detriment of democracy. However, by comparing Kenya to Ghana and Uganda, two countries that have had very different experiences of elections and election-related violence, we demonstrate that peace messaging is neither unique to countries that have experienced recent electoral conflict, nor a recent phenomenon. Instead, we highlight the pervasiveness of peace narratives across the sub-continent, which we show...
In 1971, Kenya’s National Assembly passed a new Act to regulate the consumption of “traditional l... more In 1971, Kenya’s National Assembly passed a new Act to regulate the consumption of “traditional liquor”—that is, alcohol produced by traditional methods, as opposed to bottled beer or spirits. Among the changes which this introduced—which were, broadly, intended to encourage a new level of commercialization—was a change in drinking hours (formally, brought in by rules made under the new Act). Since the early colonial period, this had been one of a number of areas in which a clear distinction was made between traditional liquor (or “native liquor,” as it was called) and intoxicating liquor (which in this context meant branded beers, wines, and spirits). Licences for the sale of intoxicating liquor had specified hours of sale which were decidedly liberal by comparison with the metropole; the colonial period saw a slow process of increasing restriction of hours, staunchly resisted by white public opinion. Licences for the sale of “native liquor,” by contrast, had set different hours and on the whole the legal hours of sale had ended up as much more restricted than those for the sale of “intoxicating liquor” — which was, until the 1940s, forbidden to Africans. In 1971 this distinction ended, and standard licensing hours were created for both “traditional liquor” and “intoxicating liquor.”
Kenya's March 2013 elections ushered in a popular system of devolved government that represen... more Kenya's March 2013 elections ushered in a popular system of devolved government that represented the country's biggest political transformation since independence. Yet within months there were public calls for a referendum to significantly revise the new arrangements. This article analyses the campaign that was led by the newly elected governors in order to understand the ongoing disputes over the introduction of decentralisation in Kenya, and what they tell us about the potential for devolution to check the power of central government and to diffuse political and ethnic tensions. Drawing on Putnam's theory of two-level games, we suggest that Kenya's new governors have proved willing and capable of acting in concert to protect their own positions because the pressure that governors are placed under at the local level to defend county interests has made it politically dangerous for them to be co-opted by the centre. As a result, the Kenyan experience cannot be read as...
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