The Struggle over Resources between Samburu Pastoralists and British Colonial State, 1850-1961

Abstract

This study examined the struggle over resources between the Samburu pastoralist and British imperialists from 1895 to 1961. Nomadic pastoralist exploitation of natural resources has been the subject of many scholars. The colonial officials expressed their racist based views by focusing on the subject in general perspective. The Samburu people have been viewed as pre-modern, obstructive to development and people whose material conditions had not gone through any structural changes. Their customs and laws were seen as archaic and needed to be replaced by modern structures of the British colonial State. They were condemned and bullied for being a wasteful people who degraded environment through overstocking. The study discussed the Samburu traditional land tenures systems and exploitation of resources. It examined Samburu subsistence production. It also scrutinized the ecological disasters that rocked the Samburu from 1870 to 1897 and, their survival strategies. The above were subjected to historical break by the colonialists. It investigated Samburu contact and reaction to British colonial inimical policies of establishing the Kenya Colony. This is in regards to land alienation, creation of reserves, extraction of force labour, imposition of taxation, creation of forests, grazing schemes, game parks and currency trade. The policies were mechanisms designed to erode and dissolve the self-sufficiency of the Samburu pre-capitalist production. The study discussed the strategies the colonial State officials used to transform the Samburu traditional pre-capitalist subsistence production to capitalist system of production. It concerned with reasons that led to the failure of the grazing schemes in Samburu in 1961.This study used two theories to achieve the set objectives. It utilized Karl Marx‟s theory of political economy which postulates that it is common end that governs human relations. It is economic structure also referred to as substructure that provides the basis for the society on which the superstructure is built upon. The study also used Articulation theory of producing modes of production as advanced by Bernstein in 1977. Articulation theory links the Samburu pastoralist pre-capitalist subsistence system of production to British Colonial State capitalist system of production. This study used both primary and secondary sources. Data was collected from libraries in Kenya, online sources, Kenya National Archives, oral interviews of individuals and Groups. The sampling technique selected to carry out this study was qualitative research method. The semi-structured questions were used in the interview. Data was analyzed, categorized according to topics and subtopics. It was interpreted, written down and finally presented. The research findings will contribute to the historiography of pastoralism in Kenya.