Where can we still see a legacy of British imperialism in Kenya? What effect has Britain had on your country in regard to e.g. language, administration, ethnic diversity, ...? Which good and which bad effects has it had on your country?
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A legacy of colonialism as in Kenya today is, for instance: the educational system, school uniforms, the number of years of study, the division of the country in provinces, the constitution, the fact that English is one of the official languages,...
Another thing is the erosion of culture. Some people think this is a bad thing. But i think it’s really debatable. Personally, I don’t mind.
A negative legacy would be: The British still exploit our resources, like our coffee and our tea. They buy it from us, take it there and process it, and then sell it back to us at a higher price. Even though we can make it ourselves, there are still too many strings attached.
And maybe another legacy is the ethnic divide. During colonialism the British gave each tribe a certain area to live in and after independence we started to blend. But now during the post-election violence, people started remembering that you came from this or that region and so the Kikuyus who had moved to Maasai land were then told “You don’t belong here. Move back to where you came from.” This division was all a British thing.
I think another legacy is our Indian population. When the Uganda Railway from Mombasa to Lake Victoria was built many workers came from India - also a British colony at that time - and when the railway was finished they stayed. I don't say that's a bad thing. After all, we owe them bringing "chapatis" into our Kenyan cuisine.
I think that a negative effect of imperialism in all of Africa is that the colonial powers drew the countries' boundaries without knowing anything about the people's ethnicity, about existing political systems or already existing boundaries,... Africans played no part in the creation of their countries. The colonialists simply created countries that had to fit their needs, not those of the indigenous people. They didn't care if different tribes that hated each other were put together in one country. I even think that they sometimes put them together on purpose, so that no opposition to the colonial government could be formed. I think that Africa spends way too much time "mediating" conflicts that could have been avoided. Kenya has 42 tribes that sometimes have very different ideas about how the country should be ruled. Wouldn't it all be so much easier if Kenya was split up into smaller countries?
let us face the reality: shall we continue to blame the whites almost half a century after they left? we ought to have decided what we wanted with uhuru (feed on it) and we should know that real uhuru starts with mental emancipation and self determination ..... we have passed the blame and look what we are now: we are like marionettes (puppets) for the generation that didn't take arts and craft in school. It is very easy to blame others and assume the position of sainthood or of pontification. Wake up and bring a change instead of whining from your safe enclaves ..... or am I too harsh? just a thought
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