Missionaries, the State
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DEVELOPMENT AT THE MARGINS: MISSIONARIES, THE STATE, AND THE TRANSFORMATION OF MARSABIT, KENYA IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY By Jonathan M. Hansen Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Vanderbilt University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in History May, 2015 Nashville, Tennessee Dennis C. Dickerson, Ph.D. Moses E. Ochonu, Ph.D. Michael D. Bess, Ph.D. Gregory Melchor-Barz, Ph.D. To my mom and dad ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The path to completing this dissertation was much longer than I expected, and there were many days I felt like giving up on the whole project. The fact that I did not throw in the towel is largely due to my friends, family, and Vanderbilt community who encouraged me along the way, or just spent time listening to my frustrations. I would like to thank my advisor, Dennis Dickerson, and the other members of my committee: Moses Ochonu, Michael Bess, and Gregory Melchor-Barz. For a few years I had a regular lunch crew that made the graduate school experience fun, meaningful, and full of sarcasm. Though I may have actually been more productive if our lunches did not last so long. Thank you to Adam, Cory, Elizabeth, Katie, Rachel, and Will, along with the others who joined us from time to time. Thank you to my cohort: Bill, Kevin, and Will. Also, thank you to Jane Anderson and Heidi Welch, who answered so many of my questions through the years with grace and generosity, and made the department office an enjoyable place to me. I am deeply thankful for my church community, City Church of East Nashville. Thank you to my wife, Daniella, who married into this dissertation, for not resenting the time and mental energy it has taken me to finish, even though I originally said it would be done before our wedding (20 months ago). Finally, thank you to my parents. You have given so much to me, and continued to love and support me throughout this prolonged adolescence. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page DEDICATION .................................................................................................................... ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................... iii LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................... vi Introduction ..........................................................................................................................1 Marsabit .....................................................................................................................4 East African Pastoralism ..........................................................................................11 Missionaries and Development ................................................................................13 Chapter Summaries ..................................................................................................16 Chapter 1. From Pastoralist Refuge to Imperial Outpost ................................................................22 Late Nineteenth Century East Africa .......................................................................24 Contact .....................................................................................................................31 Marsabit and the NFD ..............................................................................................36 The Colonial State in the NFD .................................................................................52 Changes in the Land .................................................................................................57 2. State Development at the Margins: Marsabit, 1930-1965 .............................................59 Imperial Architects and British Development Policy ............................................. 61 Colonial Development and Social Welfare ............................................................ 67 Depression, Dustbowl, and African Production in Kenya ..................................... 79 Conservation and Intervention on Marsabit ........................................................... 84 World War II and Marsabit .................................................................................... 86 Post-War Plans and Pastoralist Development ........................................................ 91 Grazing Control, Forest Conservation, & Piped Water Schemes .......................... 99 Agricultural Development on Marsabit ................................................................ 105 1960 Marsabit District Development Scheme ...................................................... 110 Conclusion ............................................................................................................ 112 3. “It’s Their Souls We Seek”: BCMS Missionaries and Colonial Development on Marsabit ......................................................................................................................114 The Bible and the CMS ........................................................................................ 120 BCMS at Marsabit ................................................................................................ 123 WWII in Marsabit ................................................................................................ 136 iv The Post-War Mission at Marsabit ....................................................................... 138 Social Services and “Auxiliary” Ministries .......................................................... 139 Africanization ....................................................................................................... 145 Conclusion .............................................................................................................150 4. A Sedentary Independence ..........................................................................................152 NFD Commission and the Shifta War .................................................................. 153 Roman Catholic Missions in Northern Kenya ..................................................... 161 Africa Inland Mission in the NFD ........................................................................ 166 Early Experiences with Famine Relief & Pastoralist Development ..................... 169 Generations of Missionary Experience – AIM in Marsabit ................................. 174 The Northern Frontier Medical Mission .............................................................. 182 Harambee, Self-help, & Development ..................................................................185 5. Drought, Desertification, and Development ................................................................189 BCMS Decline ..................................................................................................... 193 Relief and Majengo .............................................................................................. 198 Mediating the Pastoral Culture ............................................................................. 203 AIM Interventions in the Pastoralist Economy .................................................... 207 The Hurri Hills Project – Part I ............................................................................ 211 The UNESCO-IPAL Project ................................................................................ 214 Plans ..................................................................................................................... 220 A New Migration .................................................................................................. 224 Conclusion .......................................................................................................................226 REFERENCES ................................................................................................................231 v LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page 1. Landscape of Northern Kenya .........................................................................................5 2. Northern Frontier District (map) ....................................................................................38 3. IPAL Study Area (map) ...............................................................................................216 vi Introduction In 1908 Captain Leycester Aylmer of the King’s African Rifles set out to survey the portion of the East African frontier that lay between the Juba River and Lake Turkana, what would become Northern Kenya. In his report Aylmer described the land, some 80,000 square miles, as a dry and sparsely populated wasteland whose unproductive character was “entirely owing to the lack of water.” In spite of his own observations, Aylmer believed the region had the potential to be a financial and political asset to the British government: “…if steps can be taken to increase the water-supply by the sinking of wells and cutting of canals, the country will soon be supporting ever-increasing numbers of contented people and their cattle, who, though at present nomads, may eventually under more certain conditions of life evolve into agriculturalists. Thus Britain may some day be able to claim as an achievement, not only the change of warlike savages into peaceful subjects, but barren deserts into rich and fertile provinces.”1 In Aylmer’s estimation, the value of the land depended upon the relationship between the region’s water supply and its inhabitants, and the solution lay in the knowledge and