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AFRO-ASIAN RELATIONS IN A SOCIO-ECONOMIC HISTORY OF DISTRICT, Gordon Omenya

To cite this version:

Gordon Omenya. AFRO-ASIAN RELATIONS IN KENYA A SOCIO-ECONOMIC HISTORY OF KISUMU DISTRICT, NYANZA PROVINCE. 2013. ￿halshs-01206502￿

HAL Id: halshs-01206502 https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-01206502 Submitted on 29 Sep 2015

HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. IFRA Mambo! Travaux de Recherche sur l'Afrique de l'Est AFRO-ASIAN RELATIONS IN KENYA A SOCIO-ECONOMIC HISTORY OF KISUMU DISTRICT, NYANZA PROVINCE Gordon Omenya

Volume XI n° 5 - 2013

Since the establishment of populations of Indian or Asian origin in Kenya, the history of Afro-Asians relationships has been shaped by changes in the economic and political context. However, due to the specific position and status occupied by most Asians in comparison to the majority of Africans since colonial rule, segregation and tensions expressed in racial terms have been significant features of such relationships. The case on the city of Kisumu, in Nyanza region, illustrates this argument about identity formation and race rela- tions against the backdrop of the social, political and economic history in Nyanza region.

The Foundation of Kisumu and Early Asian Settlements railway were given an option to stay or go back to The town of Kisumu was founded in 1893 when . A number of them decided to remain and settle the chief engineer of the railway under construction in Kenya. Nevertheless, the first official formal Indian settlement was established in 1905 at Kibos within and a railway surveyor agreed to make it the 3 Western terminus. It was named Port Florence after Kisumu District. Molliner argues that migration is the engineer’s wife. A food depot was established often a very disruptive experience that generates then telegraph lines, roads and other means of a sense of insecurity, resulting from uprooting and communication built in order to connect the new marginality. In their adaptive strategies, immigrants port with other settlements1. As the railways redefine their self perceptions and their collective steadily approached , C.W Hobley, a identities. The representations and relationships thus British administrator (locally nicknamed Obilo), generated are highly unstable, as they depend on was ordered to move from to establish the complex interactions between the global, regional, new headquarters for Nyanza Province. In 1900, he national and even local contexts. appointed Odera Ulalo, chief of several Luo pinje Early Forms of Afro-Asian Relations (multilineal territories) and, together with Hobley, The colonial administration’s encouragement of established a new administrative station, which 2 trade was undertaken within a broad economic later developed into the Kisumu town of today . policy framework which assigned the different races Indian immigration into Kisumu was facilitated in Kenya and fractions of merchant capital with by the construction of the Kenya- specific roles. Occupying the highest rank on the which was completed in 1901. After its completion, commercial ladder were European importers and indentured Indian labourers contracted to build the exporters. Asians occupied a middle position while 1 Obudho, R.A., (1976). Periodic Markets Urbanisation and Regional Planning: Africans formed the lowest chain in the marketing A Case Study from Western Kenya, London: Greenwood Press. 3 Molliner, M (2007)" Freres ennemis? Relations Between Panjab Sikhs 2 Ogot B.A., (2003). My Footprints on The Sands of Time: An Autobiography, and Muslims in the Diaspora", South Asia Multidisciplinary Academic Kisumu: Anyange Press limited. Journal, 1.

IFRA Laikipia Road, P.O. Box 58480-00200 Nairobi, Kenya Tel : 254 20 43 43 446 - Fax : 254 20 43 43 052 E-mail: [email protected] Web site: www.ifra-nairobi.net Mambo! 2013 nº5 -Afro-Asian relations in Kenya-Gordon Omenya system. The colonial government 1920s. The Kavirondo Chamber of also employed indirect and direct Commerce, an all-African economic compulsion to ‘encourage’ trade. pressure group representing the For instance, in addition to raising Luo and Luhya African traders, revenue, the imposition of the hut passed several resolutions in the tax early in 1902 was also intended 1930s seeking restrictions on the to induce Africans to grow and sell activities of Asian traders. The surplus produce if they were to be Chamber even suggested separate able to meet their tax obligation4. trading centres for Asians and In such situations, Africans were Africans; it also condemned the compelled to engage in exchange Local African Council’s unpopular of goods within Kisumu, and other practice of allocating plots to parts of Nyanza province with the Indians in the newly established Asians so as to raise money to pay trading centres against the interest for their tax. of African traders9. Other avenues As early as 1902, Jamal Hasham of economic contestations were an Asian trader nicknamed bwana Time clock©Omenya also realized through the Bondo Thrift Association and the Luo Thrift mzuri (good man) by the locals in business enterprises as contractors, 5 and Trading Company formed by Kisumu, dealt in marekani cotton outfitters, builders and mechanics. and coloured cotton textiles known Oginga Odinga alongside other The activities of the Indian people in 1945. Yet even though as kitenge and kanga, originally commercial population witnessed imported from Holland and a the Luo Thrift Trading Corporation a steady expansion during this was a rival and counter corporation popular wear for the great majority 8 period . With their skills in various to the Asians’ dominance in trade of African women. The importation fields, Asian artisans imparted and distribution of the fabrics in the Nyanza area, the directors of to Africans invaluable vocational the company still sought help from were also to be the work of Asian skills in making furniture, repairing traders6. Between 1910 and 1920, the Asians in terms of construction bicycle, printing magazines and materials for the building of AFRIKA Kisumu was a major axis where books, stocking shops, crafting goods imported from outside HOUSE. They also went ahead and leather shoes and handbags and leased Ramogi House to Asians10. British East African raw materials teaching so many other income- gathered from African periodic generating occupations. Through In spite of trade conflict between rural markets, all destined for such trainings, there emerged a Asians and Africans, a tall Town Nyanza Province and Eastern permanent skilled class of African Clock (saa maduong) was built by 7 Uganda, could be taxed . Afro- artisans, mechanics and technicians the sons of Kassim Lakha along Asian relations in Kisumu district within the region and especially in the main Oginga Odinga street in were not centered on trade in cloth Kisumu. In commerce, the activities Kisumu. This clock was unveiled and food items alone. Many of the of the Kavirondo Taxpayers Welfare by the then Governor H.E. Sir skilled immigrants such as Rehmat Association (KTWA), the first African Robert Brooke Pophan in memory Khan, Hayer Bishan Singh and Abdul political organization in Nyanza in of Kassim Lakha on 19 August Kassam were to launch a variety of the 1920s stimulated co-operative 1938. This monument is evidence 4 Ndege, P., (1992). ‘Internal Trade in Kenya self-help schemes, particularly in of the extent to which the Asians 1895-1963’ in Ochieng W., and Maxon R., grain milling by waterpower thus were entrenched in Kisumu. For (ed) An Economic , Nairobi: instance, both Asians and Africans East African Educational Publishers. competing with the Asians. 5 Salvadori, C., (1996). We Came in Dhows Vol attended separate schools due 1-3, Nairobi : Paperchase Limited. However, conflicts of interest to the colonial segregation policy 6 Seidenberg, A. (1996) Mercantile Adventures: between established Asian which affected Afro-Asian social The World of East African Asians 1750-1985, businesses and those of new African 11 New Delhi: New Age International (P) integration . Zoning of residential Limited Publishers. entrepreneurs also arose in the 9 Memon, P., (1976), "Colonial Marketing, 7 KNA, PC/NZA/1/4 Annual Report and Urban Development in the African 1908/9 Anyumba, G. (1995) Kisumu 8 Omenya, G. (2010) The Relations Between Asian Reserves," Journal of Eastern Africa Research Town: History of The Built Form, Planning and and African Communities of Kenya’ Nyanza and Development.Vol 6,2. Environment 1890- 1990. Ph.D. Thesis, Moi Province 1901-2002, M.A Thesis, Kenyatta 10 KNA/PC/NZA/3/1/404 1955-51 University. University 11 Omenya (2010),op.cit. 2 Mambo! 2013 nº5 -Afro-Asian relations in Kenya-Gordon Omenya avenues through which Africans Ondiek and Bashir Ud–Deen (an wanted to take over political and Asian) were re-elected as Mayor economic power. Widespread and Deputy Mayor respectively for resentment against Asian traders a second term of office15. In the intensified around the middle of following year 1963, Jamal Amir was 1948 by what was felt by Africans re-elected Member of Parliament to be serious malpractices. for Kisumu Town. Were Olodhe, a The pre-independence period Luo by ethnicity was his interpreter also saw the move of Asians living in situations where he could not articulate issues properly in in the rural areas to Kisumu to 16 seek education after attending during his campaigns . Last, the lower primary schools in the rural issue of separate and segregated areas. The Kisumu Asian Housing school system was sustained into Committee was also put in place the independence era before the around this period to cater for the African government came up with housing interests and needs of the the policy of integration in public 17 Asians who were posted to Kisumu schools . to work for the government12. Afro-Asian Interactions in the Kisumu CBD © Omenya In 1956, the Kisumu Ismailia Kenyatta, Moi and Kibaki Eras areas according to race was also the Housing Society Limited put up Afro-Asians relationship rule. However, it did not prevent sixteen flats for Asians,namely deteriorated during the postcolonial Afro-Asian daily interactions and the Aga Khan flats near the new 13 period. Apart from the forms of sociability. At the Asian Goan school . By 1960, Afro- policy and the Citizenship Act of Jamnadas residence in Kisumu, for Asian relations was seen in the 1969, other developments in the example, African children would go activities of the Kisumu Municipal post independent period such as to the compound to eat a fruit locally Council. This was exemplified by the killing of on known as" jamna "coined from the the participation of Mr M.F Shah, 24th February 196518, deportation name "jamnadas". Henceforth, Mr M.P Ondiek (Mayor of Kisumu) of Pranlel Sheth and the stern they would say that they were going and the DC in the activities of warning by president Kenyatta in to" kajamna" (Jamnadas place) – a the Allocations of Plots (African 1966 on the Asians instilled fear name which has stuck with the location) Committee. Between among the Asians19. Such warnings Africans up to date. 1961 and 1962, the Municipal laid the foundation upon which The Political Economy and Afro- Council of Kisumu started to solve Afro-Asian hostilities were based Asian Social Engagements During the Asian housing problem through during the Kenyatta era. In Kisumu the Asian Tenant Purchase Housing the Decolonization Period 1945-63 14 specifically, the boundary of areas Scheme . It is clear that housing set aside for ‘citizens only’ due to Several organizations such as development was administrated the Kenya (KAU), the Africanization policy were Accra and managed along racial lines by Street, Otieno Oyoo Street, Joshi the Central Nyanza Chamber of the colonial government and this Commerce, the Ramogi African Avenue, Achieng’ Oneko Street and influenced Afro-Asian relations new station road. Others included Welfare Association (RAWA), because it reduced interaction only the Nyanza Soldiers Association, Kibuye Estate, Mosque Estate, to areas of economic exchange like Makasembo, Shaurimoyo, Ondiek, together with numerous clan and the trading centres. Africans were sub-clan welfare organizations Kaloleni, Lumumba, Nyalenda, given land in the peri-urban areas Omino Crescent and Pembe Tatu ,were formed to air African of Kaloleni, Shaurimoyo and Kibuye. grievances and challenge the estates surrounded by the Nairobi Asians did not move to these areas road, Street, Sailors Close, Karachi dominance of Asian traders in but concentrated in getting houses the rural areas in 1942 and 1945. within the Central Business District 15 KNA, HT/17/3 AR Central Nyanza District These organizations represented 1962, KNA, DC/KSM/1/30/ 53 1959 in Kisumu. In July 1962, councilors 16 Daily Nation, 2/2/1990 voices of protest, negotiation, and 12 KNA/PC/NZA/2/16/60 17 Omenya, (2010) op.cit. compromise. They were initial 13 KNA/PC/NZA/3/1/404 1955-51 18 Zarina, P., (2004). ‘I am A Kenyan South 14 KNA, NHC/1/152, 1961 Asian’ Awaaz Issue 11 19 Rattansi: 2004, Theoroux, (1969:4) 3 Mambo! 2013 nº5 -Afro-Asian relations in Kenya-Gordon Omenya Road and Road20. The the post independent period, post-election violence of 2007/8.For overall image of Asians was so Afro-Asian engagement was instance, an Asian supermarket, Ukwala, negative that Kisumu was referred characterized by skilled African was looted and accidentally burnt down. to as the ‘Bombay of Kenya’ on labourers and professionals Asian entrepreneurs and businessmen account of the Indian hold on employed to work as teachers, have come back to buy premises which commerce21. Some Asians started engineers, or bankers in Asian were hitherto owned by Africans from closing down their businesses. institutions. Yet Asians entered into . These include the However, the above warnings by business relationship with Africans former Kimwa Grand Hotel in Kisumu, president Kenyatta did not affect at a higher level. For instance in part of which is now operating as a Asian participation in politics in 1991, there was a joint business supermarket, Tumaini supermarket Kisumu District. By 1967, the Asians venture in Kisumu between Asian currently located at a Timber yard who were in politics as members of and African personalities like J. initially owned by a Kikuyu from central the Kisumu Council were Abdul E. Nyaseme, Mr J. Shah, the late province. It is therefore evident that Dahya who was the deputy mayor, Bishop H. Okullu and the late Hon H. interethnic political rivalry amongst M.F Shah, and Y.J. Farjallah22. Omino who jointly run the Victoria Africans during the Kibaki era resulted 24 During Moi era 1978-2002, the Finance and Lake Credit Finance in an enhanced and closer relations Moi-Asian nexus that consolidated Afro-Asian social engagement in between Africans and Asians in Kisumu explains why the Asians were the 1990s therefore started to shift – a surprising turn after the deep-rooted viewed as pro-Kenya African from strictly racial considerations past rivalry between Asians and Africans National Union (KANU) in Nyanza to shared economic class interests. in this region of Kenya. province, an area which was an Rich Africans started to take their opposition zone and anti-KANU children to Asian owned private government. This made the Asian schools such as Jalaram Academy, Mahavir School and Kisumu Senior community in Kisumu vulnerable to 25 attacks and intimidations whenever Academy . By 2002, the new general elections approached. forms of Afro-Asian relations and In 1987, renewed tensions arose engagement were characterized by over the issue of entry into Simba a constant shift along the lines of Club (Sikh Union) as Africans were socio-economic and class interests. denied entry to watch rallying cars In the 1990s in Kisumu, there was competing during the 1987 Safari increased interest among African Rally Competitions23. Conflicts youth on Indian films shown at over selling of second hand clothes Indian film theatres like Tivoli and (mitumba) by Africa traders and the Kenya cinema. In these places, some close Afro-Asian relations manufactured clothes from the 26 Kisumu Cotton Mills owned by also emerged . Asians continued to Asians were also reported in enjoy economic dominance during the 1980s. These conflicts were the Kibaki era, although some followed by anti-Asian sentiments Asians were seriously affected by post-election violence of 2007/8 from local political leaders like Kisumu Senior Academy©Omenya Dennis Akumu in Kisumu. It is important to note that, during

20 Standard October 10, 1969. 21 East Africa Standard August, 13 and17 1978) 24 The Weekly Review, 8/3/1991. 22 (KNA,DC/KSM/17/40, 1964, KNA, 25 Bindra, S. (2005) ‘We are Kenya Damu’, HT/17/19, 1967 Awaaz edition Issue 1. 23 Omenya, (2010) op.cit. 26 Omenya( 2010 )op.cit.

Gordon Omenya is a PhD student at the University of Pau in France and an assistant lecturer at Pwani University ,,Kenya

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