Scarcity, Government, Population: the Problem of Food in Colonial Kenyy, C.1900-1952
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Scarcity, Government, Population The Problem of Food in Colonial Kenya, c. 1900–1952 James Duminy Thesis presented for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy In the Department of Architecture, Planning and Geomatics University of Cape Town University of Cape Town January 2018 The copyright of this thesis vests in the author. No quotation from it or information derived from it is to be published without full acknowledgement of the source. The thesis is to be used for private study or non- commercial research purposes only. Published by the University of Cape Town (UCT) in terms of the non-exclusive license granted to UCT by the author. University of Cape Town Abstract Food security in Africa is a foremost development challenge. Dominant approaches to addressing food security concentrate on availability and increasing production. This ‘productionist’ focus arguably limits the capacity of government policies to address contemporary food problems. It does so by obscuring both the specific food insecurity dynamics linked to the continent’s ongoing urban transitions, as well as the potential for more systemic food strategies. Yet existing research provides an inadequate historical understanding of how a production and supply-oriented bias has emerged and become established in the African context. This undermines the capacity of scholars and policymakers to critique and reform food security thought and practice. The thesis addresses this gap in knowledge by critically and historically examining the emergence of food scarcity as a specific problem of government in a particular African context: colonial Kenya. Understanding how colonial officials and other actors conceived of and responded to food scarcities in Kenya is the primary question addressed. The specific roles and duties of the state in relation to this problem are also investigated. The thesis employs a Foucauldian-inspired approach to the historical analysis of government and problematizations. Primary data were gathered from archives in the United Kingdom. The argument is that food scarcity, as a problem of government, shifted from an uncertain and localized rural issue to a risk encompassing the balance between market supply and demand at a territorial scale. The role of the state shifted from a last-resort provider of relief to a regulator of maize production and demand, with a focus on ensuring adequate supply for territorial self-sufficiency. Accordingly, anti-scarcity techniques became increasingly economic and calculative in nature, and longer term in focus. This mode of conceiving and addressing food scarcity existed in Kenya by the end of the Second World War, and was stabilized in the immediate post-war period. Elements of this system are recognizable in contemporary food security policies in Kenya and elsewhere in Africa. The thesis contributes to historical knowledge of African food insecurity and colonial government. It moves beyond previous work by focusing on Kenya, and by examining food scarcity as a distinct problem of colonial government. It enhances knowledge of the conditions under which contemporary modes of food governance have come into existence. ii Declaration of Free Licence I hereby: a) Grant the University free license to reproduce the above thesis in whole or in part, for the purpose of research; b) Declare that: i. The above thesis is my own unaided work, both in conception and execution, and that apart from the normal guidance of my supervisor, I have received no assistance apart from that stated below; ii. Except as stated below, neither the substance or any part of the thesis has been submitted in the past, or is being, or is to be submitted for a degree in the University or any other University. iii. I am now presenting the thesis for examination for the Degree of PhD. Signed: James Duminy Signature removed iii Table of Contents Abstract ii Declaration of Free Licence iii Table of Contents iv List of Figures vi Abbreviations vii Acknowledgements viii 1. Introduction 1 1.1 Motivation 2 1.2 African famine history and government 5 1.3 Colonial government and food scarcity 11 1.4 Food, biopolitics and colonial governmentality 14 1.5 Research problem, questions and argument 20 1.6 Conceptual approach 21 1.7 Scope and scale 24 1.8 Sources and limitations 26 1.9 Outline 27 2. Famine and Colonial Conquest 29 2.1 The ‘Great Famine’ 33 2.2 Conclusion 37 3. Scarcity, State Control and tHe First World War 39 3.1 Central state responses 40 3.2 Long-term effects 46 3.3 Conclusion 48 4. Scarcity and Settler Consolidation 51 4.1 Recovery and regulation 51 4.2 The 1929–30 famine 57 4.2.1 Official responses 63 4.2.2 Political controversy 66 4.2.3 Reframing the problem 72 4.3 Conclusion 74 5. Depression and Scarcity 77 5.1 Austerity, unemployment and agricultural expansion 77 5.2 Production and marketing policy 89 5.3 Scarcity, soil and population 98 5.4 Conclusion 103 6. Scarcity, State Control and War: Redux 106 6.1 Food self-sufficiency as security 106 6.2 Famine relief 108 6.3 The path to maize control 109 6.4 Scarcity worsens 114 6.4.1 Production and marketing 119 6.4.2 Rationing, distribution and pricing 121 6.4.3 Further relief and coping strategies 126 6.5 Conclusion 128 iv 7. Setting tHe Agenda 131 7.1 The 1943 Food Shortage Commission 131 7.1.1 Nutrition and the failure of a needs-based food policy 133 7.2 Post-war Kenyan food systems and policy 140 7.3 Conclusion 147 8. Conclusion 149 8.1 Kenya and the history of African food scarcity 153 8.2 Governmentalities of the colonial 159 8.3 Food and colonial biopolitics 165 8.4 Critical history and food security 168 8.5 Limitations and further research 170 BibliograpHy 173 Archival Records 173 Government and Other Reports 174 Published Sources 175 Websites 187 Appendix: Note on Primary Sources 188 v List of Figures 2.1 Colonial Provincial and District Map of Kenya, c. 1933. 30 2.2 Map of Key Transport Routes and Towns in Kenya, c. 1925. 31 5.1 Registered Adult Male Africans Reported in Employment, Kenya, 1930–47. 66 5.2 Cost of Living Index, Kenya, 1924–33. 66 5.3 LNC Expenditure, Kenya, 1925–38. 73 5.4 Settler Export Earnings for Key Crops, Kenya, 1923–38. 79 7.1 Total Deliveries to Maize Control, Kenya, 1945–52. 126 vi Abbreviations APSb Agricultural Production and Settlement board EAPSC East African Production and Supply Council FSC Food Shortage Commission GOK Government of Kenya ILO International Labour Organization KCDb Kenya Commodity Distribution board KFA Kenya Farmers Association KSB Kenya Supply Board Legco Legislative Council LNC Local native council MPC Maize and Produce Control NCPB National Cereals and Produce board NA Native authority vii Acknowledgements This research would not have been possible without the help and guidance of numerous people. The archivists and staff at the National Archives of the United Kingdom and the Weston Library (bodleian Libraries) at the University of Oxford were extremely helpful. Library staff at the University of Cape Town (UCT) were always eager to assist. Thank you. My livelihood and costs of archival work were generously supported by the United Kingdom’s Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and Department for International Development (DFID) as part of the ‘Governing Food Systems to Alleviate Poverty in Secondary Cities in Africa’ project, funded under the ESRC– DFID Joint Fund for Poverty Alleviation Research (Poverty in Urban Spaces theme) [grant number ES/L008610/1]. Thank you to all the staff at UCT involved in administering these funds and thereby my livelihood – Maryam, Ithra and Marlene especially. Thank you to Jane Battersby, Warren Smith and Vanessa for their hard work in leading the project. I would like to thank Vanessa Watson, my supervisor, for her insightful and patient guidance. My colleagues at the African Centre for Cities and University of Cape Town deserve credit for many of the ideas presented here. Sophie Oldfield organized several postgraduate student workshops were I was able to present earlier drafts of this work and receive stimulating feedback. For the many corridor discussions and collective conversations, thank you all. Gordon Pirie, Sue Parnell and Owen Crankshaw deserve thanks for kindly allowing me to stay in their Richmond digs to undertake archival work in Kew. They have also been a constant source of support and friendship during my time in Cape Town. Hobson kindly allowed me the chance to write during my times perched atop Blue Valley. Thank you, also, to my parents for their support, and especially for the opportunity to undertake periodic writing retreats to Plettenberg bay. Few of these words would have been written without those wonderful, secluded days. Thank you to Peter, John and Pam for the many meals and conversations that sustained me through this ambitious project. Also to Anne, Richard and family, in Kingston and Surbiton, for keeping me sane between bouts of ‘archivitis’. Thank you to my friends in Durban and Cape Town, and all those who have encouraged me to press on, weathering my highs and lows. Thank you, Paddy, for your kind assistance with preparing the maps of Kenya. Finally, thank you to the three external reviewers who provided a range of insightful comments on the first submission of the thesis. I hope that I have been able to do justice to your kind suggestions. Rosebank, Cape Town January 2018 viii 1. Introduction This is a study of how food scarcity emerged as a problem of government. It is a study, also, of the tensions at the heart of that process. The focus is on a particular African context: colonial Kenya.1 The thesis seeks to contribute to our knowledge of the historical nexus between food scarcity and colonial government in Kenya as well as Africa more generally.