On December 12, 1963, people across Kenya joyfully celebrated independence from British colonial rule, anticipating a bright future of prosperity and social justice. As the nation approaches the ...fiftieth anniversary of its independence, however, the people's dream remains elusive. During its first five decades Kenya has experienced assassinations, riots, coup attempts, ethnic violence, and political corruption. The ranks of the disaffected, the unemployed, and the poor have multiplied. In this authoritative and insightful account of Kenya's history from 1963 to the present day, Daniel Branch sheds new light on the nation's struggles and the complicated causes behind them.
Branch describes how Kenya constructed itself as a state and how ethnicity has proved a powerful force in national politics from the start, as have disorder and violence. He explores such divisive political issues as the needs of the landless poor, international relations with Britain and with the Cold War superpowers, and the direction of economic development. Tracing an escalation of government corruption over time, the author brings his discussion to the present, paying particular attention to the rigged election of 2007, the subsequent compromise government, and Kenya's prospects as a still-evolving independent state.
In 1963, Kenya gained independence from Britain, ending nearly seventy years of white colonial rule. Many whites relocated outside Kenya, but some stayed. Over the past decade, however, protests, ...scandals, and upheavals have unsettled families with colonial origins, reminding them of the tenuousness of their full acceptance in Kenya. From clinging to a lost colonial identity to embracing a new Kenyan nationality, white settler descendants living in post-Independence Kenya have undergone changes fraught with ambiguity. Drawing on fieldwork and interviews, Janet McIntosh asks: What stories do settler descendants tell about their claims to belong in Kenya? How do they situate themselves vis-à-vis the colonial past and anticolonial sentiment, phrasing and rephrasing memories and judgments as they seek a position they feel is ethically acceptable? Straining to defend their entitlements in the face of mounting Kenyan rhetoric of ancestry and autochthony, settler descendants offer contradictory and diverse responses: moral double consciousness, aspirations to uplift the nation, ideological blind spots, denial, and self-doubt. In discussions ranging from land rights to language and from romantic intimacy to the African occult,Unsettledpresents a unique perspective on whiteness in a postcolonial context and a groundbreaking theory of elite subjectivity.
Eight essays by leading literary critics and writers explore the social, historical and personal dimensions of Paterson's poetry and prose. Situating his work in dialogue with the classical, ...medieval, early modern, modernist and contemporary voices that inform it, the book considers Paterson as a figure actively negotiating his place within literary history and theory, as well as confronting that history with humour and directness.
Key Features:
* Eight essays by leading literary critics and writers, two interviews with Paterson, a critical introduction and a bibliography
*Considers Paterson's place in the contemporary British poetry scene, examining the influence of modern American, English and Irish, European and Scottish literature on his writing
*Analyses literary qualities across Paterson's poetry and prose, from his sonnets to his long sequences, his aphorisms to his versions and translations
*Examines Paterson's published theoretical work on poetic form, metre, rhythm and sound and his arguments about lyric practice in his editorial work and his interviews and essays
*Attends to key issues in British poetry and publishing, including: translation, national and international identities, spirituality and religion, the contemporary poetry industry, poetry and mathematics, the intersections of poetry, art and music, and psychoanalysis and the body
Sana Aiyar chronicles the strategies by which Indians sought a political voice in Kenya, from the beginning of colonial rule to independence. She examines how the strands of Indians' diasporic ...identity influenced Kenya's leadership--from partnering with Europeans to colonize East Africa, to collaborating with Africans to battle racial inequality.
Focusing on the major movements and personalities of the time, as well as the lasting influence of the period,Canada's 1960sexamines the legacy of this rebellious decade's impact on contemporary ...notions of Canadian identity.
