Communal labor in Kenya
Subtitle: legitimizing coercion, 1912-1930
By: Opolot Okia
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Published: 2012
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 186
ISBN-13: 9780230392953
Subjects: Politics and government; HISTORY / Africa / East; SOCIAL SCIENCE / Slavery; HISTORY / Modern / 20th Century; Forced labor; History
Description: "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"--