The Afrikaners in Kenya 1903-1969

Abstract

After the 1899-1902 Anglo-Boer War, many Afrikaners began searching for other lands in which they could settle. The newly colonized regions of East Africa beckoned a number of these restive people. A few of the potential settlers hoped to establish politically autonomous states in German East Africa but many were searching for inexpensive agricultural lands for themselves and their children. Others who had been accused of collaboration with the British during the war preferred living under British rule rather than suffer the indignities which were being heaped upon them by their fellow Afrikaners after the war. Finally some trekked out of an inner psychological need. The Afrikaners' reception in East Africa was mixed. Initially the German regime welcomed the immigrants but a change of policy during the 1904-1906 period discouraged further immigration and caused nearly half of the immigrants to either return to South Africa or trek northwards into British East Africa. The British Administration was also ,reluctant to grant land to these migrants and only responded to their needs when they were joined by the substantial Van Rensburg Trek in 1908. After considerable negotiations between administrative officials and Van Rensburg, the Afrikaners were permitted to settle on the Uasin Gishu Plateau two hundred miles northwest of Nairobi.