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Colonial Policy and Education in British East Africa, 1900-1950

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 January 2014

Ann Beck
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Extract

Since World War II much emphasis has been placed on the key role which education must play in East African affairs to promote the economic and cultural growth of the new African states. The problems of the intensification and the spread of education in East Africa deserve particular attention because they are different in nature from those of well-established countries and have been complicated by peculiarities in the history of the region.

Between 1900 and 1920 the groundwork for native education was laid by missionary schools. Though limited in their objectives, they achieved tangible results. In spreading the knowledge of reading and writing among a substantial number of natives, they facilitated native contact with western civilization. After 1919 British officials in East Africa, humanitarians, and leaders in missionary movements became concerned with the spread of native education and demanded a change in the existing system. At the same time there emerged new native political movements, the leaders of which took a determined stand on matters of native education. They criticized the existing facilities and demanded the right of the African to be educated. To analyze the complexity of the problems of East African native education, particularly in the period from 1920 to 1950, is the purpose of this paper. It is necessary, however, first to look at the broader picture of the situation in East Africa in the immediately preceding decades and then to examine the achievements and limitations of East African education in the period from 1900 to 1914.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of British Studies , Volume 5 , Issue 2 , May 1966 , pp. 115 - 138
Copyright
Copyright © North American Conference of British Studies 1966

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References

1. Education in East Africa has been described in official and unofficial publications. For a good presentation of education up to 1925, see Ormsby-Gore, W. G. A., “Education Policy in British Tropical Africa,” Parliamentary Papers (1924–1925), XXIGoogle Scholar, and Jones, Thomas Jesse, Education in East Africa (London, 1924)Google Scholar. Missionaries in East Africa had established mission schools before 1900. They were far from satisfied with their initial experiments, however, as is evidenced by reports and letters in the archives of the Church Missionary Society in London. See CMS Archives (London), H. K. Binns to Sir Arthur Hardinge, Dec. 7, 1898. The Report of the Committee of Management for Schools meeting in Freretown on July 23, 1900, shows that a more systematic approach to teaching began to develop by 1900.

2. For a detailed study of East Africa's development, see Robinson, John, Gallagher, John, and Denny, Alice, Africa and the Victorians (New York, 1961)Google Scholar, and Oliver, Roland and Mathew, Gervaise, History of East Africa (Oxford, 1963), IGoogle Scholar. A brief summary of the East African background can be found in Oliver, Roland and Fage, J. D., A Short History of Africa (Baltimore, 1962)Google Scholar.

3. The British East Africa Company had not seen fit to invest capital in the building of a railroad, without which the territories could not be developed profitably. The Colonial Office was not yet ready to assume responsibility for East Africa. Liberals, and even some Conservatives, did not relish the idea of adding to England's African problems.

4. Pioneer missionaries had come to Zanzibar as early as 1844, 1857, and 1864. They represented the Church Missionary Society of the Anglican Church, the Universities Mission of Cambridge University, and the Catholic Society of the Holy Ghost, a French Order. In the 1870s the United Methodists, the London Missionary Society, the Friends, and the French White Fathers arrived for permanent settlements. For a description of the early missionary activities, see Oliver, Roland, The Missionary Factor in East Africa (London, 1952)Google Scholar, and Coupland, Reginald, East Africa and Its Invaders (London, 1938)Google Scholar.

5. The initial expenses for the Protectorate may not seem high by modern standards. Uganda and Kenya received £50,000 per year from the Imperial Treasury as grants-in-aid from 1893 on. Oliver, Roland, Sir Harry Johnston and the Scramble for Africa (London, 1957), p. 287Google Scholar.

6. Eliot explained that East Africa was no longer the human hunting ground for slave dealers. The mere rumor that a single child was kidnapped sufficed to send warships out along the coast in search for the child. The naive certainty with which men like Eliot looked at their task as being primarily humanitarian is disarming. It would be wrong to stigmatize him as hypocritical. At that time the abolition of the slave trade was still considered the major achievement of the British administration. The protection, of the native population from attack by foreign invaders was the second objective. Eliot, C., “Report by His Majesty's Commissioner on the East Africa Protectorate,” Parliamentary Papers (1903), XLV, 29Google Scholar.

7. Harry Johnston's orders stated that he was to set up a Protectorate upon a course that would make it self-supporting at the earliest possible date. He interpreted his commission from the point of view of a progressive economist and introduced a new system of taxation and a plan for the reallocation of land.

8. The fifteen departments listed in 1903 were Judicial, Military, Treasury, Medical, Trade and Customs, Transport, Audit, Public Works, Post Office, Telegraphs, Police, Agricultural, Forestry and Veterinary. Eliot, , “Report on the East Africa Protectorate,” Parliamentary Papers, XLV, 12Google Scholar. The list shows that administrative services had become departmentalized. The omission of education indicates an underestimation of its importance during this period.

9. Girouard, E. P., “Annual Report, East Africa Protectorate,” Parliamentary Papers (1911), LI, 38Google Scholar.

10. Ibid. (1912-13), LVII, 53.

11. Tucker, Alfred R., Eighteen Years in Uganda and East Africa (London, 1908), II, 150Google Scholar. Tucker was a pioneering bishop who showed great interest in the development of Uganda and cooperated constructively with the British administrators. See also Ingham, Kenneth, The Making of Modern Uganda (London, 1959), pp. 79–81Google Scholar, Ingham, referring briefly to missionary education in the 1890s, said, “Reading and writing were also taught by the missionaries, at first in a rather unsystematic fashion and purely as an adjunct to their main evangelical purpose. Hence the title of ‘reader’ applied to those who were beginning to learn about Christianity.” Ibid., p. 79.

12. Sadler, Hayes, “General Report for the Year Ending March 31, 1904 (Uganda),” Parliamentary Papers (1905), LVI, 16Google Scholar.

13. Hesketh Bell, “General Report for 1905-06 (Uganda),” ibid. (1907), LIV, 19.

14. Oliver described the purpose of the first schools of both Protestants and Catholics as the training of catechists. See Oliver, , Missionary Factor, p. 212Google Scholar. Government statistics cited in the early colonial reports may be misleading. They do not indicate what is meant by “native schools” and by “teachers or catechists.” In his comprehensive report for 1903-04 Commissioner Sadler wrote, for instance, that the Church Missionary Society had 2,052 teachers or catechists, the White Fathers had thirty-eight native schools each with a native teacher, and the Mill Hill Mission had twenty schools under native teachers. See Sadler, , “Report for Year Ending March 31, 1904 (Uganda),” Parliamentary Papers, LVI, 16Google Scholar.

15. “General Report for 1917-18 (Uganda),” ibid. (1919), XXXV, 8.

16. Ingham, , Uganda, p. 123Google Scholar.

17. Tucker, , Uganda, II, 327–30Google Scholar.

18. Quoted in Jones, , Education in East Africa, p. 116Google Scholar.

19. For an evaluation of this phase of education, see Ingham, , Uganda, pp. 125–26Google Scholar, and Oliver, , Missionary Factor, pp. 215, 265Google Scholar. Both authors stress the limitations of education provided during the period and the danger of creating a semiliterate elite but conclude that the over-all achievements were valuable. On the contrary, colonial administrators who were directly concerned with native education were often critical of the missions. For example, A. R. Tate, Provincial Commissioner in Kenya, wrote to John Ainsworth, the Advisor on Native Affairs, that he was not happy with the existing modus vivendi among the missions which often led to disregard of their spheres of influence. He praised the high caliber of the teachers of the Church Missionary Society but deplored the teaching personnel of other missions which did not even require an examination for a teaching position. See Central Government Archives (Nairobi), Tate to Ainsworth, Sep. 14, 1915, File PC/CP/6/5/1, Native Affairs.

20. “Statistical Abstract for the Several British Overseas Dominions,” Parliamentary Papers (1924), XXIV, 13–14Google Scholar.

21. “Resolutions for the Twenty-first Annual Conference,” The Labour Parly (1921), p. 14Google Scholar. Similar views were expressed at the conferences between 1920 and 1925.

22. Keane, G. J. and Tomblings, D. G., The African Native Medical Corps in the East African Campaign (London, 1926)Google Scholar. The recruitment for this Corps began in August 1914 with an initial strength of forty men. By the end of the war it numbered fifteen hundred natives from nearly all tribes of British East Africa and the former German territory.

23. Oliver describes the British prewar policy correctly by stating that the East African territories “were regarded as being in cold storage against a time of need.” He found that the Edwardian administrators were satisfied with modest innovations in the fields of law and order, taxation and public works. Oliver, , Missionary Factor, p. 246Google Scholar.

24. Central Government Archives (Nairobi), Orr to Tate, June 11, 1918, File PC/CP/6/5/1, Native Affairs.

25. Central Government Archives (Nairobi), Orr to Ainsworth, Sep. 19, 1918, ibid.

26. For an account of the preparation of the memorandum, see Oliver, , Missionary Factor, pp. 251–54Google Scholar.

27. The personnel of the Royal Commission of 1924 was as follows: Chairman, W. G. A. Ormsby-Gore, M.P. (Conservative); Major A. G. Church, M.P. (Labour); F. C. Linfield, M.P. (Liberal); and J. A. Calder, Secretary (Colonial Office). See House of Commons, Report of the East Africa Commission (1925)Google Scholar.

28. Lewis, L. J. (ed.), Phelps-Stokes Reports on Education in Africa (London, 1960)Google Scholar. This is the abridged edition of Jones, Education in East Africa, cited in note 1.

29. Ormsby-Gore, , “Education Policy in British Tropical Africa,” Parliamentary Papers, XXIGoogle Scholar. Among the nine members of this commission were five laymen, two bishops, and Oldham.

30. Lewis, , Phelps-Stokes Reports, p. 8Google Scholar.

31. Ormsby-Gore, , “Education Policy in British Tropical Africa,” Parliamentary Papers, XXI, 5Google Scholar.

32. Report of the East Africa Commission, p. 50.

33. Custody of Margery Perham, Oxford, Cameron to Oldham, Nov. 8, 1925, Oldham Papers.

34. Jones, , Education in East Africa, pp. 114, 152Google Scholar.

35. Government expenditure for Uganda cannot be compared with that for Kenya, since missions were entirely in charge of education until 1924.

36. Report of the East Africa Commission, p. 175. Of the total estimated expenditure of £2,000,000, the sum of £327,000 was spent for the upkeep of the military, the police, and the prisons; £133,000 for medical services; and only £37,000 for education.

37. The commissioners added that the demand on the taxpayer's purse could be justified “on the grounds of the moral obligation imposed on Great Britain for the development of its great tropical possessions.“ Ibid., p. 182.

38. Ormsby-Gore, , “Education Policy in British Tropical Africa,” Parliamentary Papers, XXI, 3Google Scholar.

39. The memorandum stated that grant-aided schools “should be regarded as filling a place in the scheme of education as important as the schools conducted by Government itself.” Ibid., XXI, 5. From this statement missionary schools could derive a claim for equality in the proposed expansion of education. The report was generous in its recommendation that all government departments should concern themselves with vocational training and services for apprentices. It made recommendations for the training of girls and women and even mentioned adult education in order to interest older people in the education of their children. It assigned to education a central role in the cultural development of the East African dependencies.

40. Oldham, J. H. and Gibson, B. D., The Remaking of Man in Africa (London, 1931), esp. pp. 19–21Google Scholar.

41. Edinburgh House (London), Memorandum by Bishop of Uganda, Apr. 21, 1924, File General.

42. Legum, Colin, Pan-Africanism (New York, 1962), p. 133Google Scholar.

43. Central Government Archives (Nairobi), District Commissioner to Senior Commissioner (Nyeri), Jan. 2, 1926, File PC/CP/8/5/2.

44. Central Government Archives (Nairobi), Memorandum by Kikuyu Association, Southern District of Kikuyu, for Hilton Young Commission, 1928, p. 6, ibid.

45. Kenyatta, Jomo, Facing Mount Kenya (London, 1938)Google Scholar, ch. v.

46. Church of Scotland Archives (Edinburgh), A Petition to the Right Hon. H. M. Principal Secretary of State, 1929. The Petition was read at a meeting between Kenyatta and members of the Church of Scotland Foreign Missions Committee in Edinburgh on May 30, 1930.

47. “Indians in Kenya,” Parliamentary Papers (1923), XVIII, 10Google Scholar.

48. The missionary leaders were consulted before the advisory committees were set up.

49. Oliver, , Missionary Factor, p. 270Google Scholar. Regarding the personnel of the Advisory Committee for Native Education in Kenya, Uganda, and Tanganyika, see Oldham, and Gibbs, , Remaking of Man in Africa, pp. 159–63Google Scholar.

50. Report of the East Africa Commission, pp. 145-46, 176.

51. See, for instance, the absence of leadership exercised by the native councils in Kenya during the beginning of Kikuyu political activities, 1924-30. The Native, District, and Provincial Commissioners complained frequently that the authority of the chiefs was disregarded by the younger members of the Kikuyu Central Association.

52. Edinburgh House (London), Memorandum by H. M. Grace, principal of King's College, Budo, to Secretary CMS, Namirembe, Feb. 1930, File General.

53. In personal discussions with former missionary educators and government officials in East Africa, the author's interpretation of cooperation between missions and Government changed considerably.

54. See memoranda of 1933, 1935, and 1943 of the Advisory Committee on Education in the Colonies.

55. Advisory Committee on Education in the Colonies, “Memorandum on Educational Grants-in-aid,” Parliamentary Papers (Colonial No. 84, 1933), p. 5Google Scholar.

56. Edinburgh House (London), Bagshaw to Oldham, Oct. 14, 1930, File Tanganyika, Missionary Council.

57. The author is relying on material in the Files of Edinburgh House, London. Comments on cooperation found in the Edinburgh House Files and in memoranda addressed to officials do not necessarily represent the entire body of the missionaries in East Africa. Statements selected in this section, however, represent the judgment of the Christian Councils in East Africa or of individuals who were the spokesmen of their churches.

58. The Alliance of Missionary Societies, constituted at CMS House, Nairobi, on Apr. 28, 1919, was the forerunner of the Kenya Christian Council.

59. Kenya Missionary Council (Nairobi), Minutes of Meeting, Standing Committee, Apr. 12, 1922, Minutes 1922-44, Book No. 2.

60. Kenya Missionary Council (Nairobi), Minutes of Meeting, Nov. 19-23, 1923, ibid.

61. Kenya Missionary Council (Nairobi), Minutes of Meeting, Feb. 1, 1924, ibid.

62. Edinburgh House (London), Oldham to Gowers, Apr. 20, 1926, File East Africa, Uganda General.

63. Edinburgh House (London), Grace to Secretary CMS, Namirembe, Feb. 1930, File General.

64. Edinburgh House (London), Minutes of Meeting of Tanganyika Missionary Council, Nov. 25, 1942 (Dodoma), File Tanganyika, Missionary Council.

65. Nuffield Foundation, African Education. A Study of Educational Policy and Practice in British Tropical Africa (Oxford, 1953), p. 64Google Scholar.

66. Mathews, Z. K. (All Africa Churches Conference), Christian Education in Africa (Oxford and London, 1963), p. 29Google Scholar. This view was confirmed to the author in a letter by Graeves, Aug. 26, 1963.

67. Minister for Education (Kenya), “The Future Role of the Church in the Educational System of Kenya,” Address delivered to the Christian Council of Kenya, Jan. 29, 1964.

68. John C. Kamau, Memorandum to the Kenya Education Committee on Adult Education conducted through interchurch cooperation, May 26, 1964, The Christian Council of Kenya (Nairobi).

69. Since this paper concentrates on the contribution to native education by missions and the Government, it does not present the attitude of the nonofficial community of settlers and their political influence on the Government.