Politics of Colonial Conservation in Kenya

Abstract

Colonial conservation in Africa was so controversial that it has elicited diverse interpretations from historians. In colonial Kenya, the presence of European settlers amplified the controversy due to their entrenched interests in the territory’s natural resources, particularly land. Settlers instigated colonial imposition of extra-environmental regulations that proscribed African interests and modes of production while seeking to secure their own. Politics of conservation raised the stakes and tensions over access to, use, and management of critical resources that had sustained African livelihoods in pre-colonial times, especially land, forests, wildlife, and even livestock. Colonial conservation policies and programs were premised on ensuring “efficient” use of natural resources and their “preservation” for the future generations. In reality, those policies and programs afforded the colonial state a wide latitude of control over these resources in ways that economically benefited the state and its agencies. They were also tools through which colonial authorities wielded social control over African communities. This control was enacted through ordinances or legislations to protect forests, wildlife, and land from what colonial officials perceived as “abuse” or “misuse” by African communities. Thus, ecological order, social control, and economic interests were all intertwined in the way colonial authorities in Kenya designed and executed conservation measures. African communities were not merely malleable actors in the politics of colonial conservation. Like settlers, they sought to secure their economic and social interests by ignoring or actively resisting the invasive aspects of colonial conservation. Some Africans were co-opted by the government into institutions that implemented restrictive policies. Although violence was not a widespread African response, it was an option, as evidenced in the Mau Mau Uprising during the 1950s. In spite of pushback from Africans, regimented colonial control over critical resources became institutionalized, its most permanent legacy being a transformation from communal to individual or private forms of ownership.