Kenyan Literature: A Call for Discourse

Abstract

The nation we call Kenya did not exist a hundred years ago; it consisted for the most part of independent tribes before the beginning of the twentieth century. Today, the descendants of these tribes constitute the bulk of the nation’s population, outnumbering by far descendants of immigrant populations from Asia and Europe whose ancestors are Arab slave traders, Asian traders and railway builders, and British colonialists and settlers. Towards the end of the nineteenth century, the British occupied the country, naming it British East Africa. According to an article in The Journal of African Travel-Writing, the country was referred to as the “winter home for aristocrats” and “the brightest gem in Britain’s cluster of colonies” (111). In 1920 it was declared a colony.