The Anatomy of Neo-Colonialism in Kenya by W. O. Maloba

Author:W. O. Maloba
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Springer International Publishing, Cham

In this message, Kenyatta hinted at a parting of ways with Nkrumah’s call for immediate African unity. He was opposed to “territorial expansionist aims which some Pan-African brothers wish to pursue.” If such radical reorganization of African territorial boundaries were pursued “in the Africa of today, we shall succeed only in starting a chain of reactions that would break up African solidarity and the shedding of blood.” To Kenyatta, soon to be Prime Minister of Kenya, pan Africanism meant, “bringing together into closer unions our various countries, so that the artificial boundaries created by imperialist powers between African brothers are declared contrary to the spirit of pan Africanism.” Lastly, Kenyatta supported the efforts of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (with Headquarters in Addis Ababa). He advanced the position that this Economic Commission (and related agencies) “could be greatly utilized to interpret pan Africanism into its concrete form.” Thus, he was a great “supporter of the steps being taken to create a united African Common Market, the harmonization of monetary zones in Africa, the co-ordination of economic development plans, so that Africa may move forward hand in hand in unity and in a spirit of brotherly fellowship.”179

Kenyatta’s hesitant position on, and later abandonment of, radical positions in international affairs was clearly evident in how his government handled the question of the liberation struggles against the racist regimes in southern Africa. In June 1964, Kenyatta delivered a long impassioned speech to a large charged crowd in Nairobi angry with the Boers in South Africa for jailing Nelson Mandela for his efforts to overthrow the apartheid regime. “In front of 25,000 cheering people … Mr. Kenyatta helped bury symbolic coffins of the South African Cabinet at a protest rally in Shauri Moyo, Nairobi.” Accompanied by some members of his new cabinet and diplomats from France, India, Pakistan, Yugoslavia, Ghana, China, and other countries, Kenyatta “urged the Governments of France, Britain, America and Germany to stop aiding South Africa.” Kenyans, he said, “must be prepared to shed blood to help their ‘brothers’ in South Africa, Southern Rhodesia and the Spanish and Portuguese colonies.”180 During this rally, Kenyatta also talked of Britain’s post-Uhuru aid to Kenya. Grants from Britain of about £60,000,000 “had been made in return ‘for sucking our blood’ … I talked to the British people who used to suck our blood and they have given us £60,000,000, I told the British people that they were sucking our blood and never given us anything in return. I am now telling them to give us something in return.”181 Kenyatta later retracted this statement. It was unsettling to the British. A few days after the rally, he issued a statement in which he “denied that he had referred to the British as ‘blood suckers’ in his speech at the anti-apartheid rally … The Prime Minister,” the statement continued, “wishes to make it clear that this is a distorted translation of a remark he made in Swahili which taken out of context is a

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