Labor in Colonial Kenya after the Forced Labor Convention, 1930–1963

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-ix

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2. Introduction: Communal Forced Labor as a Mask of Tradition

   • Opolot Okia

   Pages 1-24

3. “Skinny Scarecrows”: Forced Labor in Kenya Before the Forced Labour Convention

   • Opolot Okia

   Pages 25-47

4. The Tactical Compromise: The 1930 Forced Labour Convention and Kenya Colony

   • Opolot Okia

   Pages 49-85

5. Interlude: Forced Labor During WWII

   • Opolot Okia

   Pages 87-99

6. Protecting the Soil (1): Communal Labor and Land Degradation in Central Province

   • Opolot Okia

   Pages 101-126

7. Protecting the Soil (2): Communal Labor and Land Degradation in Nyanza Province

   • Opolot Okia

   Pages 127-169

8. Controlling “Spivs”: The ILO and Emergency Communal Labor, 1952–1960

   • Opolot Okia

   Pages 171-223

9. Conclusion: The Phoenix of Abolition

   • Opolot Okia

   Pages 225-241

10. Back Matter

    Pages 243-265

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This book advances research into the government-forced labor used widely in colonial Kenya from 1930 to 1963 after the passage of the International Labor Organization’s Forced Labour Convention. While the 1930 Convention intended to mark the suppression of forced labor practices, various exemptions meant that many coercive labor practices continued in colonial territories. Focusing on East Africa and the Kenya Colony, this book shows how the colonial administration was able to exploit the exemption clause for communal labor, thus ensuring the mobilization of African labor for infrastructure development. As an exemption, communal labor was not defined as forced labor but instead justified as a continuation of traditional African and community labor practices. Despite this ideological justification, the book shows that communal labor was indeed an intensification of coercive labor practices and one that penalized Africans for non-compliance with fines or imprisonment. The use of forced labor before and after the passage of the Convention is examined, with a focus on its use during World War II as well as in efforts to combat soil erosion in the rural African reserve areas in Kenya. The exploitation of female labor, the Mau Mau war of the 1950s, civilian protests, and the regeneration of communal labor as harambee after independence are also discussed.

• Coercive labor
• East Africa
• International Labor Organization
• Forced Labor Convention
• Traditional community values
• British administration
• British Empire
• Mau Mau Rebellion
• Decolonization
• Soil preservation

• Department of History, Wright State University, Dayton, USA

  Opolot Okia

Opolot Okia is Professor of African History at Wright State University, USA. He is the author of Communal Labor in Colonial Kenya: The Legitimization of Coercion, 1912-1930 (Palgrave Macmillan, 2012) and was previously a Fulbright Scholar at Makerere University in Uganda and Moi University in Kenya. 

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