Safarnama: Notes from Kenya
A country created by railways. All of Africa is not hot. The cost of inequality.
We hear about Africa in only two places - either on BBC or on National Geographic. This reduces our mental image of Africa into the stereotypical bucket of a hot place with exotic animals and lots of poor people. While that image is not entirely untrue, Africa is a big continent with a lot of diversity in topography, languages and cultures. I had an opportunity to visit Kenya recently; the trip burst the many myths about Africa I had in my mind. In this travelogue, I share my notes and observations from the trip.
When you land at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, the first thing that strikes you is the vast expanse of savanna grasslands. Kenya is home to the most stunning wildlife reserves and the site for the Great Migration that takes places between the grasslands of Serengeti (in Tanzania) to the Masai Maara (in Kenya). You get safari vibes right as you step out of the airport and immediately pass along the Nairobi National Park. “If you are lucky, we may get a glimpse of a few giraffes”, we were told. We were visiting our friends Indranil and Sanchari who live in Nairobi and very graciously hosted us at their home, and guided us throughout the trip.
The next thing that strikes you is the wonderfully pleasant weather. Contrary to popular perception, all of Africa is not hot. Nairobi, in particular, has a very pleasant cool climate, thanks to an elevation of almost 6000 ft from the sea level. Britishers, when they started colonising Kenya, decided to make Nairobi as the place to settle down for exactly this reason. It was very home-like for them. Below is the poster displayed in the Kenya National Museum showing how the Europeans were encouraged to make East Africa a “winter home”.
But, I am getting ahead of myself. The story of Kenya really begins with building of Uganda railways. A famous quip about Kenya goes like this:
“It is not uncommon for a country to create a railway, but it is uncommon for a railway to create a country”.
So, let’s dive into the history behind the Uganda railways, and how Indians came about to be in East Africa.
A country built by the railways
In the late 19th century, there was a frantic race going on between the Europeans to grab a piece of the African continent. By 1880s, the British already had control over Egypt. They wanted to secure water supply for Egypt and hence wanted control over the waters of the Nile that originated in the highland of East Africa. So it was decided that a railway will be built from Mombasa, an old trading port on the swahili coast of Africa, to Lake Victoria. This line passed through what is now modern day Kenya.
Now, it is obvious that the local people, who were still organised into tribes, would not co-operate. There was active resistance from many tribes, and so labourers were brought from India, which was already an established colony by then.
The construction process was challenging, especially as it passed through the wildlife reserves of Tsavo. In an episode that is quite famous and well documented in the book “The Man-eaters of Tsavo”, two rogue man-eating lions ended up killing hundreds of labourers working on the rail lines. At some point, there was one kill everyday.
In the below picture, the old railway line is seen as we pass through Tsavo in a swanky new train, built by China, that runs between Nairobi and Mombasa.
Anyhow, the lions were finally nabbed and the construction completed. After the construction ended, many Indians decided to stay back and some Indians even immigrated from India to start small shops and trades.
How to raise taxes to run the Protectorate?
In the early days, the administration of the region was run by the Imperial British East Africa company. But later on it was handed over to what got named as the East African Protectorate. The entity was still dependent on the crown for finances. As time passed, the pressure on the protectorate to raise their own revenue increased.
It was identified that there was opportunity to grow commercial crops like tea and coffee in the highlands of Kenya. The weather was also conducive for Europeans to settle; they were encouraged to settle here. Land had to be aquired for the purpose. A contract was made with leaders of Masai tribe who signed the document written in beautiful calligraphic English with their thumbprints. The agreement is displayed in the museum. Looking at it from today’s frame, one has to question the validity of such an agreement, but the impact of this land acquisition is still visible in the country. Many kenyans were reduced to being labourers on their own land. The historical memory of this exploitation continues to be alive and is palpable amongst people even now.
Indians in East Africa
Trade between the east coast of Africa and west coast of India was being carried on from the days of the Silk Route. It is well known that it was possibly a gujarati sailor that showed Vasco-da-gama the way to India from somewhere around Mombasa on the east coast of Africa. (Till then, apparantly, the Arabs had sold a lot of cock and bull stories about India to the Europeans to keep their monopoly over the profitable trade routes).
Once Kenya was established as a colony, many Indians migrated to Africa to work for the Britishers. Many of them ran shops and came to be known as dukawallahs. (a corruption of dukanwallahs?). Tea saplings were taken from Assam to start the first tea plantations in Kenya. We see Indian influence even today - the locals drink Chai with milk, just like Indians. Chappati and something called “maru bhajiya”, that look like a gujarati version of aloo-bhajji, is a common snack. Here’s a pic of us enjoying “maru bhajiya” with chai at the railway station in Nairobi.
Many Kenyans were forced to participate in WW1, but were ill-treated and left unpaid on their return from the war. After WW2, people became even more aware about their rights and the fight for independence grew. Labour unions played a considerable role in this movement. Here’s a poster from the museum.
That was a short version of the history of Kenya as I gathered from my visit to the museum.
Today Kenya is the third biggest economy in Africa after South Africa and Nigeria. Nairobi is a pretty developed city with newly constructed highways and many fancy restaurants and bars. People do not honk. There is still a habit of giving nice cutlery all set next to the plate as in colonial times. The hilly roads remind you of being in Lonavala. Weather is chilly in the evening and it gets pretty dark after 7 pm. There are very few street lights in Nairobi and foreigners are not advised to walk on the streets especially in the dark. Otherwise the night life is quite alive in restaurants and malls.
There is heavy electric fencing in most of the houses - a cost of the abject inequality we see when a few have a lot while majority have very less.
A few things I noticed:
All businesses have to compulsory display a photo of the Kenyan President. Ahem!
The streets are quite litter free for the most part. Plastic bags are banned. Most restaurants will have packaged drinking water in glass bottles. Plastic bottles are strictly banned in national parks. No litter seen in the wild areas.
Saw a lot of primary schools along the highway. The school buildings were in a good shape, while the village itself had very modest housing with tin roofs.
We do not associate Africa with clean, white and sandy beaches, but the beaches near Diani were exactly that. No garbage or litter floating along with the waves, which was good to see. At least there are some parts of the ocean that is relatively plastic free. There are beautiful coral reefs and diving sites along the coast, but we were not able to visit. We saw some coral reefs by the beach.
That’s all for today. It was a bit of deviation from the usual theme, but I hope it was worth your time. I leave you with some nice pictures from the trip.
Oh, and we also had a fun baatcheet about our travels over at Puliyabaazi where we shared notes about our travels across three continents. Pranay talks about travel to US, Saurabh talks about Thailand and I talk about Kenya. Do check it out if you care for Hindi podcasts.
Do leave your comments if you enjoyed reading this. It keeps me motivated to write. Shukriya!