KENYA 1498 to Present

Foreign Visitors

1331—Ibn Battuta from Morocco visited Mombasa for one night and said the people were, “"a religious people, trustworthy and righteous. Their mosques are made of wood, expertly built.”

In the years before European colonization Mombasa was a thriving port, a plantation society dependent on slave labor During the European Middle Ages it handled

trade with ports in Africa, Persia, Arabia, India, and China.

Foreign Travelers

In the late 1400’s, a traveler said of Mombasa, "[Mombasa] is a place of great traffic and has a good harbour in which there are always moored small craft of many kinds and also great ships.”

In 1498 in his trip around Africa headed for India, Vasco da Gama set anchor in Mombasa on April 7 and was greeted with suspicion and hostility

Foreign Travelers

Foreign Travelers

The Muslim traders in Mombasa viewed him as a threat to their business so they tried to seize his ships; failing to succeed they cut the Portuguese anchor ropes

He sailed on to Malindi where the ruler received the Portuguese well, hoping to get an ally against Mombasa, and even provided a pilot to take them across the Indian Ocean to India

A Portuguese Colony

The Portuguese navy laid siege to the coastal cities of Kenya, except for its ally Malindi, and conquered them

Mombasa was destroyed 3 times (1502, 1528, and 1588) until it finally capitulated to Portuguese rule; it was known as the “rebel city”

A Portuguese Colony

The Portuguese never sent colonists but controlled the government and trade

In a system known as “mercantilism” all natural resources from Kenya went to Portugal, where they were then traded to other countries, and goods from South America, like corn, manioc, cashew, tomato and tobacco, were sent to Kenya

A Portuguese Colony

In 1590 the Muslim Turks tried to retake Mombasa, so the Portuguese allied with the Zimba cannibals from Zimbabwe; when they captured Mombasa, they left it as a gift for the cannibals

The Turks tried again later in the 1500s so the Portuguese built Fort Jesus where the moved their military headquarters and transferred the Sultan of Malindi to Mombasa

A Portuguese Colony

This wasn’t such a good idea, because the Sultan was murdered by a Portuguese captain and succeeded by his son, who surrendered the fort to the Muslims, who killed all the Portuguese in it except five people

There followed a time of prosperity under the new Arab guidance

The Portuguese still had a presence, though, and in 1696 had 2500 soldiers in Fort Jesus

A Portuguese Colony

The new Muslim power in the area, the Omanis of Oman, laid siege to the fort; at the end of the year only 50 Portuguese had survived an attack of the bubonic plague

Reinforcements arrived in December, but soon only 20 survived in the fort, 8 of which were soldiers

The Omanis attacked for the last time and captured the fort in 1698

The Portuguese tried again in 1728 but failed, ending their presence in East Africa

1698-1856 Omani Domination True to their history, the Kenyan cities rebelled

against the Omani A series of small wars between coastal cities broke

out, complete with murders for power and traitors who sold out to the other side

A tentative peace was arrived at in 1784 The French and British began operating in the area

to control trade routes and obtain slaves for their sugar cane plantations in India

The defeat of Napoleon in 1815 made the British the strongest European influence on the African East coast

1698-1856 Omani Domination In 1840, after several attempts, the

Omanis captured all the coastal cities in Eastern Africa, opening trade in items such as ivory tusks, beeswax, tortoise shells, and the new commodity, slaves

The British tried to intervene to stop the slave trade, but failed

The Omanis trade thrived and the area prospered, making it even more appealing to the Europeans

1698-1856 Omani Domination The Omani ruler preferred the British, so

signed an agreement to ally with them and end the slave trade

When the ruler died in 1856, his sons, who were profiting from selling slaves, fought over who would inherit the crown

The British interceded and one son got the Arabian half and the other got the East African Coast

1856-1884 Dividing Africa

The English, who had explored much of Eastern Africa, took the area along the East African Coast

France colonized Algeria and Senegal The Turks, through their Egyptian leader and

English mercenaries, expanded to the equator, getting stopped at Khartoum in 1885, with General Gordon’s head “rolling down the floor.”

Germany claimed Tanzania A series of wars broke out between colonizers

over territory, ultimately being part of the cause of WWI

1885-1902 The Protectorate and Lunatic Express

The British turned the area of Kenya in to a protectorate, an area that was protected by Britain and could only trade with Britain

They imported thousands of workers from the lower castes of India to build a railroad from Mombasa to Uganda 1000 miles through swamps, steep valleys with sudden ½ mile drops

The workers died from scurvy, malaria, cholera, dysentery, ulcers and typhus

The tsetse flies gave sleeping sickness to the pack animals and nearby tribes attacked the camps, killing many

1885-1902 The Protectorate and Lunatic Express

The man-eating lions of Tsavo, who raided the workers camps at night and pulled workers out to feast on them also caused the deaths of many workers

The Lunatic Express

The Man-eaters of Tsavo

1919-1947 African Nationalism Many Brits, including Winston Churchill,

believed that Africans should be educated, brought to a higher level of prosperity, and be trained to be leaders in their own countries

This was known as “nationalism” or the forming of a nation led by the citizens of that nation

It was a movement against total control by the white populations

1919-1947 African Nationalism Some African tribes formed groups aimed at

becoming part of and eventually taking over rule in their countries; but they still hated and fought with each other as much as the whites

Discrimination was rife among all peoples, with such actions occurring as separate toilets for whites, Asians, Arabs and none for Africans at various events

Rebellions broke out across Kenya; many African natives served in WWII, to find that white men died and suffered the same as them

1919-1947 African Nationalism When they came home they found the

conditions in their huts worse than in their barracks; the war led them to see what life could be

The nationalists tried through both peaceful and violent means to gain independence from Britain, which tried to retake the colony after WWII

Jomo Kenyatta, the Father of Kenya, led the peaceful group

1963 Independence

The end of colonial rule was gradual, with Britain allowing a constitution to be developed and giving up seats a few at a time in the Kenyan legislature

Finally, on Dec. 12, 1963, with Kenyatta as its Prime Minister, Kenya took over control of its own foreign affairs, thus officially being recognized as an independent nation

Kenyatta wanted the whites to stay, because their farms were prosperous; all sides fighting for independence, including violent groups like the Mau-Mau terrorists, who laid down their weapons

Kenya Today

Kenya: deadly blast at Mombasa bus terminal

At least three dead in explosion at bus terminal, and second blast damages luxury hotel

Kenya Today

At least three people were killed on Saturday when attackers threw an explosive device at passengers at a bus station in Mombasa, and a separate blast damaged a luxury hotel in the Kenyan coastal city.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but Kenya has blamed similar attacks on the al-Qaida-linked Somali group al-Shabaab, which killed at least 67 people at the Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi last September.

There have been a string of attacks since then. "A grenade was thrown at passengers," the

Mombasa county commissioner, Nelson Marwa, said.

Kenya Today

"The attackers were riding on a motorbike and lobbed the grenade at the crowd of people at the bus terminus."

More than 20 people were wounded. Guards at the seaside Reef hotel said they had prevented

attackers from entering, but that the suspects threw a bag with an explosive device into the compound. The blast ripped the roof of one building and part of its wall collapsed.

At the bus terminus, victims lay in a pool of blood and the road was littered with shattered glass from a bus.

"I didn't see who threw the object, but I heard a loud explosion before I fell to the ground. I then felt my legs go numb," said local supermarket worker Halima Sidi, 26, as nurses bandaged her wounds.

Kenya Today

The Kenyan coast's large Muslim minority, many of whom feel marginalized by the government, has been a fertile recruitment ground for Islamist militant networks.

Kenya sent soldiers into Somalia in 2011 to try to drive out al-Shabaab, which it sees as a threat to its own borders and security.

President Uhuru Kenyatta has said the tourism sector was "on its knees" as a result of attacks by the militants, who want Kenyan troops out of Somalia. Kenyatta has rejected their demand.

Mombasa is a draw for tourists as well as a major port for the east African region.