By Bob Newland
The author, Colin Leys looks at settler colonialism in Kenya through the words of his Uncle Norman Leys. As we are struggling to understand the depth of colonial cultural and political impact on post colonial countries, especially in Africa, this is a timely study.
Norman Leys, a Fabian Socialist from Glasgow became a doctor in East Africa from 1901-1917. As part of the Colonial Service, he had the opportunity to study the impact of colonialism at close hand and rapidly became an opponent of its worst excesses.
One of his earliest ‘educational’ experiences was to participate in a ‘punitive expedition’ in response to the killing of a tax collector. Over a relatively short period of time, this formed into a determined and well-informed opposition to colonialism itself. Eventually forced out of the Colonial Service by ill health, Leys returned to the UK where he spent the rest of his life campaigning for independence for the colonies.
In his own words, we see Leys’ confronting the racism which was endemic in the Colonial Service and the administration of the colonies. Far ahead of many of his contemporaries, he came to challenge to idea that Africans (barbarians) were incapable of running their own affairs and their own countries. While his language is difficult to read at times as it reflects the common usage at the time including racist tropes, his ideas were widely adopted by and integrated into the works of such black giants of the liberation struggles as W.E.B du Bois and C.L.R. James.
Much of the material in the book comes from Norman Leys’ correspondence. It demonstrates the many highs and lows of his campaign to end the colonial system. In the 1920s he believed that the Labour Party’s commitment to ending colonialism and the League of Nations move towards a similar position offered hope of an early end to this system. Sadly, he was naïve in this and one by one he is seen to fall out with many friends and acquaintances who he previously believed to be allies. Some of these he suggested said one thing in private and another in public. Others failed to understand that change would not come about without campaigning for. Some suggested that Leys’ activities were counter productive.
His religious upbringing certainly led him to place greater hope on the intervention of the church and missionary societies than the facts justified. In letters to the Colonial Office, he urges a change of course believing that otherwise ‘rebellion’ by the peoples of Kenya and other colonies will be inevitable. This was to be a theme to which he returned throughout his life. His book ‘Kenya’, first published in 1924 by Hogarth Press and republished in 1925 with a paperback edition published in 1926, became a best seller. It continued selling after he died in 1944 and was republished in 1969. In this he gives detailed accounts of the ‘Mau Mau’ uprising, the background to it and the horrendous repression which followed it. ‘Kenya’ also inspired many other publications exposing the horrors of colonial repression in Africa and more widely throughout the colonies.
Colin Leys, in writing this book, addresses a range of important questions in today’s debates. He exposes the myth of the ‘civilising mission’ of colonialism and the Christian missionaries; he shows in detail the destruction of the traditional African villages and culture in order to impose a thoroughly racist and corrupt colonial administration.
Some may think this book is a bit narrow in its focus on the life, writing, and campaigning of Norman Leys. That of course is what it promises to do. However, as it goes about that task it provides a deep insight into his mindset, his development into a campaigner against racism and colonialism and the terrible reality of life for the victims of colonialism.
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Norman Leys & Settler Colonialism in Kenya. Colin Leys, Merlin Press. £20
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