Abstract
Saeteurn’s historical analysis explores the emergence of the smallholder tea farmer class in Kenya during the late-colonial and early-independence era. Particularly, Saeteurn’s case study shows how rural Kenyans successfully navigated the unfair policies and strict regulations imposed on them by the Kenyan government and its cooperate allies who were intent on maintaining control. While Kenyan farmers were subjected to inequalities that placed them at a disadvantage when it came to having access to the market and acquiring resources to expand their enterprises, they hardly refrained from cultivating tea. Rather, they took advantage of opportunities afforded them as a result of the changing political climate that would enable them to displace the large tea plantation estates as the leading producers and exporters of tea in present-day Africa.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
“Kenya Tea Industry Performance Highlights for December 2017,” Agriculture, Fisheries and Food Authority (AFFA), accessed on 27 February 2017, http://tea.agricultureauthority.go.ke/december-2017/.
- 2.
Colin Leys, Underdevelopment in Kenya: The Political Economy of Neo-Colonialism (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1975); David K. Fieldhouse, Unilever Overseas: The Anatomy of a Multinational 1895–1965 (Stanford: Hoover Institute Press, 1978); Nicola Swainson, The Development of Corporate Capitalism in Kenya, 1918–1977 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1980); Steven W. Langdon, Multinational Corporation in the Political Economy at Kenya (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1981).
- 3.
Robert L. Tignor, “Race, Nationality, and Industrialization in decolonizing Kenya, 1945–1963,” The International Journal of African Historical Studies 26, no. 1 (1993): 31–64; Cosmas Milton Obote Ochieng, “The Political Economy of Contract Farming in Tea in Kenya: The Tea Development Agency (KTDA),” in The Comparative Political Economy of Development: Africa and South Asia, Judith Heyer and Barbara Harriss-White, eds., (London: Routledge, 2010), 136–158.
- 4.
Thomas Piketty, Capital in the Twenty-First Century (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2014); Joseph E. Stiglitz, The Price of Inequality: How Today’s Divided Society Endangers Our Future (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2012).
- 5.
Anne Booth, “Living Standards and the Distribution of Income in Colonial Indonesia,” Journal of Southeast Asia Studies 19, no. 2 (September), 310–334; Arne Bigston, “Welfare and Economic Growth in Kenya, 1914–76,” World Development 14, no. 6, 1151–1160.
- 6.
Kenneth McGill, Global Inequality: Anthropological Insights (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2016), 2.
- 7.
Robert M. Maxon, Going Their Separate Ways: Agrarian Transformation in Western Kenya, 1930–1950 (Cranbury, NJ: Associated University Press, 2003); “Application for Financial and Managerial Assistance with the Development of Tea Factories in the African Lands of Kenya, 8 December 1958,” ACW/26/54: Development of Tea Growing and Tea Factories in Africa Areas, National Archives, Nairobi, Kenya; Kenya Government, “Tea Ordinance (NO. 61 of 1960),” Department of Agriculture Report, 1960 (Nairobi, Kenya: Government Printer, 1960), TEA/TEC/CULT/3/67: Tea Development in Nyanza.
- 8.
R.J. Swynnerton, Plan to Intensify the Development of African Agriculture in Kenya, (Nairobi, Kenya: Government Printer, 1954), 10.
- 9.
Simon Reid-Henry, The Political Origins of Inequality: Why a More Equal World Is Better for Us All (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2015), 21.
- 10.
For a detailed analysis of the Swynnerton plan’s role in cultivating the smallholder agricultural sector, see Anne Thurston, Smallholder Agriculture in Colonial Kenya: The Official Mind and the Swynnerton Plan, (Oxford, UK: Rhodes House Library Press, 1987).
- 11.
David M. Anderson, Histories of the Hanged: The Dirty War in Kenya and the End of Empire (New York: W.W. Norton, 2005).
- 12.
David Anderson, Histories of the Hanged: The Dirty War in Kenya and the End of Empire, 119–181.
- 13.
R.J. Swynnerton, Plan to Intensify the Development of African Agriculture in Kenya, (Nairobi, Kenya: Government Printer, 1954), 10.
- 14.
Nina Munk, “How Warren Buffett’s Son Would Feed the World,” The Atlantic, May 2016; Sophie Harman and David Williams, “International Development in Transition,” International Affairs 90 (2014): 925–941; Tina Rosenberg, “A Green Revolution, This Time for Africa,” New York Times, 9 April 2014; Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, 2012 Annual Letter, January 2012, pp. 1–10; Calestous Juma, The New Harvest, Agricultural Innovation in Africa (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011); Luc Christiaensen and Lionel Demery, Down to Earth: Agriculture and Poverty Reduction in Africa (Washington, DC: The World Bank, 2007).
- 15.
Branko Milanovic, “Why We All Care About Inequality (But Some of Us Are Loathe to Admit It), Challenge, 50 no. 6 (November–December 2007), 117.
- 16.
Patrick O. Alila expresses this sentiment in a working paper for the Institute for Development Studies whereby he traces Kenya’s agrarian programme in the 1970s to its colonial roots; see “Kenya Agricultural Policy: The Colonial Roots of African Smallholder, Agricultural Policy and Services,” Institute for Development Studies, Working Paper No. 327, University of Nairobi, November 1977, 1.
- 17.
Frank A. Kierman, Jr., “Economic Planning Becomes Fashionable in Kenya,” 23 July 1962, RG 0286 Agency for International Development, USAID Mission to Kenya/Programs Division, National Archives, College Park, MD.
- 18.
W.W. Rostow, The Stages of Economic Growth (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1962), 1–17.
- 19.
Leslie H. Brown, “A Straight Look at Some Hard Facts, Appendix III,” Box III: Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Water Resources, L.H. Brown, MSS. Arf. S. 1717 (18 B), Bodleian Libraries, Oxford University, Oxford, United Kingdom.
- 20.
“North Nyanza District Statistics 1951 Census,” HD/21/76: Village Surveys, National Archives, Nairobi, Kenya.
- 21.
Jomo Kenyatta, “Back to the land,” 11 September 1964, in Harambee! The Prime Minister of Kenya’s Speeches 1963–1964, ed. Anthony Cullen (New York: Oxford University Press, 1964), 60. The frustrations of land-poor and landless Kenyans who expected their uhuru government to have favourable policies that would address their plight were captured by sympathetic politicians like Bildad Kaggia and Oginga Odinga; see Kaggia, Memorandum, 14 April 1964; Oginga Odinga, Not Yet Uhuru: The Autobiography of Oginga Odinga (New York: Hill & Wang, 1967), 257–263. African Socialism and Its Application to Planning in Kenya (Nairobi: Government House, 1965), 26–27.
- 22.
The independent government was under the control of the dominant political party, Kenya African National Union (KANU), which was headed by Jomo Kenyatta who served as the first Prime Minister until 12 December 1964 when Kenya effectively became a Republic, making Kenyatta the first President.
- 23.
Jomo Kenyatta, “Back to the land,” 11 September 1964, in Harambee! The Prime Minister of Kenya’s Speeches 1963–1964, ed. Anthony Cullen (New York: Oxford University Press, 1964), 60.
- 24.
Kenya Government, Kenya Development Plan, 1965/1966 to 1969/70 (Nairobi: Government Printer, 1964).
- 25.
Swynnerton, A Plan to Intensify the Development of African Agriculture in Kenya, p. 1.
- 26.
Ibid., 1.
- 27.
A.O. Ongoli, “Land Consolidation 16 January 1958,” KPC/NZA/3/2/105: Land Consolidation, National Archives, Nairobi, Kenya.
- 28.
Ministry of Agriculture, “African Grown Tea 16 August 1960,” ACW/26/54: Development of Tea Growing and Tea Factories in Africa Areas, National Archives, Nairobi, Kenya.
- 29.
Ministry of Agriculture, “African Grown Tea 16 August 1960,”; “Application for Financial and Managerial Assistance with the Development of Tea Factories in the African Lands of Kenya, 8 December 1958,” ACW/26/54: Development of Tea Growing and Tea Factories in Africa Areas, National Archives, Nairobi, Kenya; Kenya Government.
- 30.
“Smallholder Tea Development Project-Kenya,” International Bank for Reconstruction and Development-International Development Association Report, 9 July 1964, p. 1, accessed on 24 January 2016, http://www.worldbank.org/en/about/archives.
- 31.
“Note of Meeting Held in Ministry of Agriculture, Nairobi, 9 February 1959, Africa Tea Development,” DC/KMG/2/2/62: Tea General Correspondence, National Archives, Nairobi, Kenya.
- 32.
“Report of the working party set up to consider the establishment of an authority to promote the development of cash for smallholders, November 1959,” 1–2, ACW/26/54: Development of Tea Growing and Tea Factories in African Areas, National Archives, Nairobi, Kenya; Kenya Tea Development Authority, The Operations and Development Plans of the Kenya Tea Development Authority (Nairobi: Government Printer, 1964), 1–26.
- 33.
Brooke Bond East Africa, “1959 Pro Forma Letter to Nyanza and Rift Valley Tea Marketing Board: Green Leaf Deliveries,” ACW/26/54: Development of Tea Growing and Tea Factories in African Areas, National Archives, Nairobi, Kenya.
- 34.
Jeffrey S. Steeves traces the intra-class conflicts that develop as a result of the KTDA’s price increases; see “Class Analysis and Rural Africa: The Kenya Development Authority,” The Journal of Modern African Studies 16, no. 1 (Mar., 1978): 123–132.
- 35.
Ministry of Agriculture, “African Grown Tea 16 August 1960,” ACW/26/54: Development of Tea Growing and Tea Factories in Africa Areas, National Archives, Nairobi, Kenya.
- 36.
“Survey of Unemployment, Secretary of North Nyanza African District Council, 30 January 1960” DC/KMG/2/12/11: Unemployment, National Archives, Nairobi, Kenya.
- 37.
Vihiga District Officer, “Unemployment Survey Response, 9 March 1960,” DC/KMG/2/12/11: Unemployment Labor, National Archives, Nairobi, Kenya.
- 38.
Brooke Bond East Africa and The African Highlands Production, Co., “1957 Joint Memorandum from the African Highlands Produce Co., Limited and Brooke Bond East Africa Limited, jointly operating the Labour Organization known as the Tea Estates Labour Department: Employment of Juveniles,” ABK/12/2: Labor for Tea Industry, National Archives, Nairobi, Kenya; Labour Advisory Board, “Labour Recruitment from Ruanda-Urundi,” ABK/12/2: Labor for Tea, National Archives, Nairobi, Kenya.
- 39.
“Smallholder Tea Development Project-Kenya,” International Bank for Reconstruction and Development-International Development Association Report, 9 July 1964, accessed on 24 January 2016, http://www.worldbank.org/en/about/archives.
- 40.
“Report and Recommendation of the Executive Directors on a Proposed Development Credit to the Republic of Kenya for a Fourth Highway Project,” International Development Association Report, 8 December 1971, accessed on 23 January 2016, http://www.worldbank.org/en/about/archives.
- 41.
“Smallholder Tea Development Project-Kenya,” 3.
- 42.
N.N. Khaniri, “RE: Minute 59/65: of P.T.B. of 17 August 1965,” MG/2/24: District Tea Committee and Minutes, National Archives, Nairobi, Kenya.
- 43.
C.H. Walton, “Prosecutions, 30 June 1964,” MG/2/24: District Tea Committee and Minutes, National Archives, Nairobi, Kenya; P.K. Ngetich, “Lost Tea Stumps, 7 June 1967,” MG/2/24: District Tea Committee and Minutes, National Archives, Nairobi, Kenya.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Saeteurn, M.C. (2019). Brewing Inequalities: Kenya’s Smallholder Tea Farmers and the Developmentalist State in the Late-Colonial and Early-Independence Era. In: Christiansen, C.O., Jensen, S.L.B. (eds) Histories of Global Inequality. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-19163-4_10
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-19163-4_10
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-19162-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-19163-4
eBook Packages: HistoryHistory (R0)