RAS History & PhilologyЭтнографическое обозрение Ethno review

  • ISSN (Print) 0869-5415
  • ISSN (Online) 3034-6274

Tribalism in Kenya: “Our Time to Eat”

PII
S30346274S0869541525030123-1
DOI
10.7868/S3034627425030123
Publication type
Article
Status
Published
Authors
Volume/ Edition
Volume / Issue number 3
Pages
206-220
Abstract
The article examines the ethnic history of Kenya during the years of colonialism and on the eve of the country’s independence. I argue that the Kenyan society may be considered as an essentially typical case in research on tribalism, national question, and federalism in Africa, as well as elsewhere in the world, and in the study of a country-specific version of “African socialism”. Having a short-lived experience of federalism on the eve of independence (the era of majimbo) and an experience of unitary state order during the independence period, Kenya in the 2010s turned back to decentralization and regionalism as a system of territorial and political structure. Some researchers believe that Kenya is returning to the practice of majimbo, i.e. devolution, and that a specific version of “ethnic federalism” is being established in the country when its administrative-territorial system is being adjusted to the tribal composition of the population. I attempt to demonstrate the relationship between the choice of regionalism and the prospects for political, economic, and cultural coexistence of different peoples within the confines of the country. Without analyzing the colonial experience, it is impossible to understand what is happening in modern Kenya, including the “ethnic policy” pursued by the Kenyan authorities.
Keywords
Кения трайбализм политические партии регионализм федерализм колониализм
Date of publication
17.03.2025
Year of publication
2025
Number of purchasers
0
Views
28

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