Colonialism and the Severity of Famines and Food Shortages in Kenya: The Case of the Abagusii of Western Kenya, 1890-1919

Abstract

Pre-colonial food shortages in Kenya, and indeed in Africa were not uncommon as their causes ranged from extreme environmental factors such as drought. inter- and intra-ethnic wars, and invasion of locusts and numerous animal, crop and human diseases. This paper sets to examine the nature of famines and food shortages in pre-colonial and early colonial Kenya. using the case of the A bagusii before J 9 J 9. Two major famines, one in each period, are examined to show their changing patterns. It emerges in the paper that food production systems in pre-colonial Gusii land were fairly stable, diverse and efficient. Mechanisms and strategies for preventing and minimizing the occurrence of famines and food shortages including complex food production systems and elaborate social and economic relationships and institutions emerged. Other food shortage alleviation strategies identified include agricultural diversification, rotational bush fallowing, keeping of reserve food, use of bush foods, elaborate network of trade, widespread kin networks and efficient methods of food storage. However, in the colonial period the Gusii agricultural and food production systems were systematically modified, destroyed and marginalized, thus forming the basis of the severity of the earliest colonial famine in 1918/19. The introduction of new crops, land alienation. labour conscription,. the depletion and neglect of the livestock industry. and the change in patterns of exchange coupled with the need to pay the colonial taxes, all rendered the Abagusii vulnerable and susceptible to the scourge of famine and food shortages only less than two decades into colonialism. Famines and food shortages became more frequent not as a result of drought but due to colonial erosion of fairly stable systems of food production and distribution among not only the Abagusii but throughout colonial and post-independent Kenya.