The adaptation of colonial elite to decolonization Kenya Europeans and the land issue 1960-1965

Abstract

The rise at nationalist movements in Africa was certainly a contributing factor in the dismantling or the colonial empires. The demise of colonialism,n however, cannot 'Wholly be attributed to the rise at nationalism. In contrast, this thesis centers on the idea that the decolonization process was shaped by an adaptive reaction of colonial political and economic interests to the political ascendancy of a nationalist elite and to the threat of disruption by the masses. The approach to decolonization is not that of tracing the upward development of an indigenous African political movement,but rather at tracing the downward manipulation of that movement into a colonial established political economy