Threads of Memory: A Culture of Commemoration in Kenya Colony, 1918-1930 by Timothy Clarke A thesis presented to the University of Waterloo in fulfilment of the thesis requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, 2020 © Timothy Clarke 2020 Examining Committee Membership The following served on the Examining Committee for this thesis. The decision of the Examining Committee is by majority vote. External Examiner Dr. Timothy Stapleton Senior Fellow, Centre for Military, Security and Strategic Studies, University of Calgary Supervisor(s) Dr. P. Whitney Lackenbauer Canadian Research Chair, Trent University Dr. Douglas Peers Professor, University of Waterloo Internal Member Dr. Geoffrey Hayes Professor, University of Waterloo Internal-external Member Dr. Carol Acton Associate Professor, University of Waterloo Other Member(s) Dr. Susan Roy Associate Professor and Associate Chair (Graduate), University of Waterloo ii Author’s Declaration I hereby declare that I am the sole author of this thesis. This is a true copy of the thesis, including any required final revisions, as accepted by my examiners. I understand that my thesis may be made electronically available to the public. iii Abstract The centenary of the First World War (2014-2018) proffered new interpretations of the conflict as a global war that stretched far beyond the Western Front. Historians of the Great War, however, have continued to characterize the African theatres of the war as ‘sideshows.’ Similarly, Africa has been largely absent from studies of the commemoration and memory of the First World War. While memory studies have contributed to an understanding of the long-term legacy of the conflagration for contemporary nation-states, Africa remains a regrettable exclusion. This study addresses a particular case study – Kenya Colony – as a locus of memory and meaning-making in the wake of the Great War. I argue that Imperial organizations, colonial administrators, and settlers all fashioned the First World War as a validation of the colonial project in East Africa, and the trajectory of the British Empire more generally. In the process, settlers, administrators, and the Imperial War Graves Commission pulled on Empire-wide threads of First World War memory, creating knots of memory that denied Kenyans a meaningful place in the public commemoration of the conflagration. Through their commemorative infrastructure, white settlers in Kenya Colony bolstered their political and social power by referencing the First World War. The memory of the First World War, however, was not homogenous within Kenya’s white community. The culture of commemoration that emerged during the 1920s in Kenya was multifaceted and politically charged. What resulted was a debate on the nature of colonialism in East Africa, where different interest groups posited different interpretations of 1914-1918. Ultimately, even though at least 45,000 Kenyans died in the First World War, on the eve of decolonization the First World War was no longer nationally significant in Kenya, relegating its history to the background of Kenyan politics and history. iv Acknowledgements This dissertation would not have been possible without the mentorship of my supervisors Dr. Whitney Lackenbauer and Dr. Douglas Peers. Your advice, support, and intellectual guidance has been instrumental to this project and my personal growth. Likewise, the entire faculty, administrative staff, and student body at the University of Waterloo and the Tri-University History Program, have provided consistent opportunities to learn and grow over the past six years. Dr. John Sbardellati and Dr. Susan Roy, in particular, have been consistent sources of support, inspiration, and opportunity. Dr. Sbardellati: thank you for guiding me through my first year as a graduate student and teaching assistant. Your commitment to teaching excellence, academic rigour, and professional kindness have taught me lessons that will stay with me forever. Dr. Roy: thank you for being a support system, a friend, and an exemplary academic role model. Your open office door always gave me a sense of comfort and relief. I would also like to thank the always-helpful staff at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission in Maidenhead, UK. Andrew Featherstone and David McDonald, among many others, were incredibly helpful when this project was in its infancy. Thank you as well to the helpful staff at the Bird Library at Syracuse University who made much of my early research possible. To the ‘Old Man’ at the Kenya National Archives, all my friends at Mama Africa, and all those who made my research possible in Nairobi: I owe you all a great debt of gratitude. Thank you for making me feel at home, indulging my questions on Kenyan history and politics, and providing a refuge from the loneliness of archival research. To my friends and colleagues, David Hussey and Preston Arens, I am certain that I would not be the person I am today without your friendship, reliability, and collaboration. I cherish our many and varied conversations, our consistent ability to find light and joy during difficult circumstances, and our now-shared journey into the next stages of our lives. To my family, the importance of your unwavering support during my decade of scholarship is unquantifiable. Mom and Dad, thank you for being there whenever I needed you. I would not have gotten to this final stage without you. To Krista, my partner and most ardent advocate: I love you. This project is as much yours as it is mine. Finally, to Bryn: the anticipation of your arrival drove me through the final months of isolated writing and editing. Bringing this project to a close just as you came into this world is a fitting transition into the most important part of my life. v Table of Contents Examining Committee Membership……………………………….…...…………………………ii Author’s Declaration...…………………………………………………………………….……..iii Abstract……………………………………………………………………….………………..…iv Acknowledgements……………………………………………………………….……………….v List of Figures…………………………………………………………………………….…...…vii Preface……………..…………………………………………………………………………....viii Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………..1 Part One…………………………………………………………………………...……………..19 Chapter One: Britain’s First World War in Africa: Between Myth and Reality…..…………19 Chapter Two: Memorialization and Remembrance of the First World War in the British Empire: How the Settler Colony Forgets …………...…………………………………..……48 Part Two………………………………………………………………………………………….70 Chapter Three: Imperial Fibre: the IWGC, Race, and Memorialization in Kenya……...……78 Chapter Four: Settler Filaments I: Monuments to Empire, Memory of a Nation……..…….119 Chapter Five: Settler Filaments II: Community Service and Missionary Trusteeship as Great War Memory …………………………………………………………………………….….150 Chapter Six: State Tethers I: Great War Memory Between Empire and Nation…...……….180 Chapter Seven: State Tethers II: The Script and Unscript of Armistice Day in Kenya, 1920- 1929………………………………………………………………………………….………201 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………………...…231 Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………………243 vi List of Figures 1. Kenyan Carrier as depicted on the African Monument, Nairobi 2. Picture of Carrier used by JA Stevenson to design the African Memorial, Nairobi. 3. Picture of King’s African Rifles Rifleman used by JA Stevenson to design the African Memorial, Nairobi. 4. Blue Print of Nairobi Monument Location. 5. Blueprint of Mombasa Monument Location 6. Memorial to Major Arthur John Byng Wavell, Winchester Cathedral. 7. The Wavell and Arab Rifles Memorial, Mombasa. 8. Memorial Hall and the Memorial Obelisk, Nairobi. 9. Muthaiga Club First World War Memorial. 10. Poppy Day advertisement from the East African Standard. 11. East African Standard Advertisement for Haig’s Poppy Fund. 12. Sketch of Nairobi City Centre. 13. Announcement of the Armistice in the East African Standard. 14. Memorial Obelisk and Sir Edward Grigg Laying a Wreath. vii Preface1 Historians of the First World War have almost invariably described the African theatre as a ‘forgotten front.’ Although there have been numerous published academic accounts since the early-2000s, some important dedicated journal issues and edited volumes since the late-1970s, and plentiful fictional and popular portrayals since the 1940s, the continent of Africa remains on the periphery of First World War studies. Although it may have appeared a ‘sideshow’ from the perspective of the metropoles of Europe, fighting from 1914-1918 left no part of Africa untouched, whether by direct involvement in the fighting, supplying the troops on the continent, or through personnel and resource demands. As recent scholarship has shown, the African theatre is essential to the story of the Great War. The continent, however, rarely appears in instructional materials on the conflict, contributing to the erasure of the million Africans who enlisted from 1914-1918 and the countless other casualties who became fodder in the war. Although this neglect may be driven by a lack of interest and relevance to the Western Front rather than a dearth of source material, Africa’s First World War is a history that we forget at our peril. Recent historians of the First World War have pressed the issue with more vigour, especially during the years of the centenary, but the publications pale in comparison to those for the Western Front, the Eastern Front, the Middle East, and Asia. While historians dedicated to the study of the First World War in Africa have kept the story alive in academic