In 1888, as Britain, Germany, and France were carving up East Africa, the British granted a charter to the British East African company. For the British, it was a way of establishing their presence in the region without the government having to get directly involved. However, soon afterward, the company went bankrupt and the British government took over, turning what is now Kenya into the East Africa Protectorate in 1895.
The British then turned their focus to asserting control over the region, facing resistance from groups such as the Kikuyu and Nandi people. The extension of British control over Western Kenya, where the Luo people lived, was slowed due to lack of financial resources and limited infrastructure. This is why at the beginning of the novel, Akoko and her people are largely untouched by British rule, although by then they ruled most of the country. The decision to build a railroad from the coast to the fertile land of Lake Victoria was initially criticized as a ridiculous project. However, it became a turning point in their domination over the region. The project started in 1896, and reached Kisumu in 1901.
Along with the railroad, British authorities passed legislation that dispossessed native people of their lands, introducing forced labor and ensuring they became subjects of British settlers. One such law allowed white British settlers to lease land for 999 years. The cumulative effect provided a cheap workforce for Europeans and helped grow the European economy. Europeans largely held racist views of Kenyans with some arguing that native Kenyans “were as children and should be treated as such.”
By the 1950s, a militant African nationalist movement called the Mau Mau had begun among the Kikuyu people. They rose up against the British and the ensuing fighting lasted from 1952 to 1960. Over the course of the fighting, more than 11,000 resistance fighters were killed along with 100 Europeans and 2,000 African loyalists. Since the freedom fighters started among the Kikuyu, their tribe faced widespread oppression by the British, with over 20,000 Kikuyu put into detention camps. It is not known where the term Mau Mau came from, but the Mau Mau more commonly referred to themselves as the Kenya Land and Freedom Army (KLFA).
In 1963, Kenya finally won its independence from Britain. Jomo Kenyatta, who had been jailed in 1953 as a Mau Mau leader, took over as the country’s first Prime Minister from 1963 to 1964 and then first President from 1964 to 1978.
