The colonial state and the development of public libraries in Kenya prior to 1965

Abstract

Public libraries are a part of the ideological apparatus of the state. The history of public libraries in Kenya is seen as essentially determined by political developments and as dependent on the growth and control of the state apparatus. They were only established when needed to support the activities of the state. In Chapter 1, the form that a public library might take and the definition of the term public library is discussed. The commonly-held assumptions about its role and how these concepts changed and evolved during the 19th and 20th centuries is examined. As a colony, Kenya was greatly influenced by ideas from outside. Public library development in Kenya is seen as falling into three distinct eras - the period up to World War 1, the inter-war period, 1914-1939, and the post-war period leading to the establishment of a national library service in 1965. Within each period, political developments and the growth of the state are analysed in detail and are shown to explain the parallel developments in the setting up of libraries of a public nature. The early period was one of pacification and settlement. The apparatus of the state was far from crystallized. Libraries were founded in clubs or through philanthropy; they were on a small scale. Between the wars, racial divisions between the main communities - the Europeans, the Indians and the Africans - became entrenched, with the Europeans remaining in the ascendant. The apparatus of the state was strengthened both at the central and local level, and there was state intervention in areas like finance and education. Libraries developed, like other social services, on a communal basis and were given financial ii support by both central and local government. An examination of some European libraries shows that Europeans in Kenya received a library service of excellent quality. After the Second World War, Africans in Kenya began pressure for control of the state. To begin with, the government tried a policy of allowing limited advances under European control. The African Library Service was part of this policy. Once Britain accepted in 1960 the idea of independence under an African majority, it offered support for the setting up of a national library service, as part and parcel of its strategy of decolonization. The establishment of Kenya National Library Service was thus determined by British support. It failed to replace or integrate the existing public libraries, whose services then began to deteriorate.