‘Joy rides for juveniles’: vagrant youth and colonial control in Nairobi, Kenya, 1901–52 *
2006; Routledge; Volume: 31; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1080/03071020500424458
ISSN1470-1200
Autores Tópico(s)Global Maritime and Colonial Histories
ResumoClick to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes I would like to thank Dr David M. Anderson for his supervision of my research at Oxford University and his academic and personal support. I would also like to extend my gratitude to Robert Tignor, Jan-Georg Deutsch, Andrew Burton and Daniel Branch for their assistance and friendship in the past three years. An earlier draft of this article was presented at the Symposium on Law, Colonialism and Children in Africa at Stanford University in May 2004. I would like to thank Richard Roberts for the opportunity to participate in the event. 1Kenya National Archive PC/COAST/1/1/81, John Dawson Ainsworth to Acting Sub-Commissioner, Mombasa, 18 May 1901. 2Andrew Hake, African Metropolis: Nairobi's Self-Help City (London, 1977), 22, 31. 3The literature on vagrancy in England, Scotland and Wales is extensive. For the most widely cited texts, see: A. L. Beier, Masterless Men: The Vagrancy Problem in England 1560–1640 (London, 1985); W. Booth, The Vagrant and the 'Unemployable' (London, 1904); W. H. Dawson, The Vagrancy Problem: The Case for Measures of Restraint for Tramps, Loafers, and Unemployables: With a Study of Continental Detention Colonies and Labour Houses (London, 1910); Robert Humphries, No Fixed Abode: A History of Responses to the Roofless and the Rootless in Britain (Basingstoke, 1999); John Pound, Poverty and Vagrancy in Tudor England (London, 1971); C. J. Ribton-Turner, A History of Vagrants and Vagrancy and Beggars and Begging (London, 1887); Lionel Rose, 'Rogues and Vagabonds': Vagrant Underworld in Britain 1815 to 1985 (London, 1989); and Sidney and Beatrice Webb, English Local Government: English Poor Law History parts 1 and 2 (London, 1927, 1929). 4L. P. A. H., Treasurer Secretary of the Bureau of Charity, Tenth Department of Paris, Des Avantages de la Mendicité bien Regleé dan l'Economie Sociale (Paris, 1816), 17–18. 5Timothy B. Smith, 'Assistance and repression: rural exodus, vagabondage and social crisis in France, 1880–1914', Journal of Social History (Summer 1999), 824. 6John L. Gillin, 'Vagrancy and begging', American Journal of Sociology, xxxv, 3 (November 1929), 430–1. 7Scholarship on vagrancy in the colonial world has grown in recent years. See Ravi Ahuja, 'The origins of colonial labour policy in late eighteenth-century Madras,' International Review of Social History, 44 (1999), 159–93; Clayton A. Hartjen and S. Priyadarsini, Delinquency in India. A Comparative Analysis (New Brunswick, 1984); Martha K. Huggins, From Slavery to Vagrancy. Crime and Social Control in the Third World (New Brunswick, 1985); Philip A. Warren, Vagrants and Citizens. Politics and the Masses in Mexico City from Colony to Republic (Wilmington, 2001). For work on vagrancy in Africa, see the following: Richard Allen, 'Indian immigrants and the legacy of marronage: illegal absence, desertion and vagrancy in Mauritius, 1835–1900', Itinerario, xxi, 1 (1997), 98–110; Andrew Burton, 'Urchins, loafers, and the cult of the cowboy: urbanization and delinquency in Dar es Salaam, 1919–1961', Journal of African History, xlii (2001), 199–218; Robert J. Gordon, 'Vagrancy, law and "shadow knowledge": internal pacification, 1915–1939' in Patricia Hayes et al. (eds), Namibia under South African Rule: Mobility and Containment 1915–46 (Oxford, 1998); B. H. Kinkead-Weekes, A History of Vagrancy in Cape Town (Cape Town, 1984); and Jeremy Martens, 'Polygamy, sexual danger and the creation of vagrancy legislation in colonial Natal', Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, xxxi, 3 (2003), 24–45. 8Two criminologists have heatedly debated the nature of vagrancy law. William Chambliss argues that vagrancy is an attempt by Weberian status groups to control the movement of labourers and more generally the labour market itself. See William J. Chambliss, 'A sociological analysis of the law of vagrancy', Social Problems, xii (1965), 69. In response, Jeffrey Adler proposes that vagrancy law is an attempt to manage threats to social stability. See Jeffrey S. Adler, 'A historical analysis of the law of vagrancy', Criminology, xxvii, 2 (1989), 215. This article contends that both arguments need not be mutually exclusive and when studying vagrancy at varying time periods and in different places each position provides a useful framework. 9Ribton-Turner, op. cit., 290; the institutionalization of children in London began long before the founding of industrial schools. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries institutions like Christ's Hospital and the infamous Bridewell were established to care for orphans and re-educate child vagrants and delinquents. See Barry M. Coldrey, ' "[…] a place to which idle vagrants may be sent". The first phase of child migration during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries', Children and Society, xiii (1999), 33; and Robert C. Johnson, 'The transportation of vagrant children from London to Virginia, 1618–1622' in Howard S. Reinmuth, Jnr (ed.), Early Stuart Studies (Minneapolis, 1970), 138. 10Andrew Lees, Cities Perceived: Urban Society in European and American Thought 1820–1940 (Manchester, 1985), 168. 11KNA PC/COAST/1/10/81, Secretariat Circular, 16 April 1914; and Robert L. Tignor, The Colonial Transformation of Kenya: Kamba, Kikuyu and Masai from 1900 to 1939 (Newark, 1976), 128–32. 12Anthony Clayton and Donald C. Savage, Government and Labour in Kenya 1895–1963 (London, 1974), 21. 13M. P. K. Sorrenson, Land Reform in the Kikuyu Country (London, 1967), 18. 14KNA PC/NZA/3/20/17/1, Senior Commissioner of Nyanza to District Commissioner of Central Kavirondo, 5 January 1925. 15Sharon Stichter, Migrant Labour in Kenya: Capitalism and African Response (Harlow, 1982), 17, 30. 16The Poll and Hut taxes required every 'able-bodied' male over the age of sixteen to pay a fee to the colonial administration. As age was often determined by looking under the arm for hair, it was likely that numerous youths under the age of sixteen were required to pay the tax. See R. M. A. Van Zwanenberg, An Economic History of Kenya and Uganda, 1800–1970 (London, 1975), 4–5. 17It is important to note that African entrance into the wage market and migrant labour system occurred piecemeal throughout the colonial period. Severe land alienation, placement of Africans on reserves, concentration of European-run agricultural estates and proximity to Nairobi made African groups in Central Province, such as the Kikuyu, seek entrance into the labour market in the early decades of the twentieth century. Other groups, such as the Kisii and Kamba, became more active in the market at a much later date. For more detail see Stichter, op. cit., 46–7. 18David M. Anderson, 'Master and servant in colonial Kenya', Journal of African History, xli (2000), 462–5; and Clayton and Savage, op. cit., 30. 19Mary Parker, Political and Social Aspects of the Development of Municipal Government in Kenya with Special Reference to Nairobi (London, 1947), Appendix I. 20KNA ABK/14/140, Deputy Registrar of Domestic Servants to District Commissioner, Nairobi, 2 July 1931. 21Hake, op. cit., 36. 22Herbert Werlin, Governing an African City (London, 1974), 45, 51. 23In Britain, vagrancy regulation had undergone centuries of revision and, as a result, the term 'vagrant' became associated with a plethora of categorizations and connotations. In the 1500s, a whole host of individuals was listed in the vagrancy law from jugglers and counterfeiters to those feigning knowledge of the 'absurd sciences': see Chambliss, op. cit., 73. The law of vagrancy became a catch-all for Britain's undesirable population, granting a wide sphere of influence to magistrates. Vagrancy also became more closely associated with criminal activity. The Act of 1530 described the 'vacabundes' as 'the mother and roote of all thefts, robberyes and all evill actes and other mischiefs […]'. In 1834, the notion of vagrancy was altered to include sets of behavioural traits such as the 'wilfully' underemployed and the incorrigibly lazy: see Ribton-Turner, op. cit., 90, 236. 24East Africa Protectorate, Ordinances and Regulations vol. ii (Mombasa, 1900), Articles i, ii. 25 ibid., Articles iii, vi, vii. 26Punishments for vagrancy in England and colonial India often involved forced labour, for adults and juveniles alike. In 1500, English vagrancy law forced apprenticeships on juvenile and child vagrants as young as five years old: see Ribton-Turner, op. cit., 108. Over three centuries later, vagrants in Madras were sentenced to three–six month terms of forced labour: see Ravi Ahuja, op. cit., 184–5. By 1850, juvenile vagrants in colonial India were placed into apprenticeships if other employment could not be found: see Hartjen and Priyadarsini, op. cit., 40. Yet not all punishments for vagrancy involved compulsory employment; another strategy, was repatriation, uprooting and shifting labour surpluses. The continual removal and repatriation of would-be employees from region to region, often urban to rural, temporarily alleviated surplus or shortage crises. In seventeenth- and eighteenth-century England, Justices of the Peace spasmodically used privy searches to round up a cornucopia of individuals ranging from servants who had abandoned masters and drunkards to poachers and, frequently, persons with whom the justice had a particular grudge: S. and B. Webb, op. cit., 367, 381. 27Chambliss, op. cit., 69. 28Ribton-Turner, op. cit., 108. 29Huggins, op. cit., 72–5. 30KNA PC/COAST/9/47, Chief Native Commissioner to Chief Secretary, 13 July 1920. 31As quoted in Gareth Stedman Jones, Outcast London (Oxford, 1971), 128. 32Charles Masterman, The Heart of the Empire (London, 1973), 125. 33KNA PC/COAST/1/10/181, Circular No. 34, 21 April 1914. Chief Secretary to the Government, 'The Rights of Missions to Keep Minors Without the Consent of the Guardians', and subsequent responses. 34Bruce Berman and John Lonsdale, Unhappy Valley (London, 1992), 238. 35 ibid. 36Robert Gordon in his work on vagrancy in Namibia focuses on the role of European settlers regarding government's preoccupation with underemployed Africans. He argues that vagrancy policy and practice served as a 'massive local anaesthetic', effectively sedating the colonizer's worst psychological and economic insecurities: Gordon, op. cit., 75. 37Robert W. Foran, The Kenya Police, 1887–1960 (London, 1962), 32. 38 ibid., 66. 39Colony and Protectorate of Kenya, 'No. 9 Vagrancy Ordinance, 1920', Ordinances and Regulations (Nairobi, 1921), Section 2. 40 ibid., 'No. 9 Vagrancy Ordinance, 11 February 1920', Ordinances and Regulations 1920 (Nairobi, 1921), Sections 4, 6 and 9. 41 ibid., Section 14. However, magistrates across Kenya had difficulty determining the age of juveniles brought before them. This confusion often resulted in their remand or imprisonment alongside adults, even for crimes such as vagrancy. KNA PC/NZA/3/17/15, W. B. Brook, Magistrate, Nyanza to Senior Commissioner of Nyanza, 17 July 1926. 42 ibid., Section 16. 43Colony and Protectorate of Kenya, Native Affairs Department, Annual Report 1928 (Nairobi, 1929), 74. 44 ibid., Native Affairs Department, Annual Report 1931 (Nairobi, 1932), 82. 45Stichter, op. cit., 95. 46Parker, op. cit., Appendix I. 47Colony and Protectorate of Kenya, Native Affairs Department Annual Report 1920, 1932 (Nairobi 1931, 1933), 83 and 120 respectively. 48See Chloe Campbell, 'Juvenile delinquency in colonial Kenya, 1900–1939', Historical Journal, xlv, 1 (2002), 139. 49David M. Anderson, 'Policing, prosecution and the law in colonial Kenya' in David M. Anderson and David Killingray (eds), Policing and Decolonisation: Politics, Nationalism and the Police 1917–65 (Manchester, 1992), 192–3. 50Foran, op. cit., 83. 51 ibid., 41. 52Colony and Protectorate of Kenya, Crime Committee Report, May 1932 (Nairobi, 1932), 5, 7–8. 53 ibid., 14. 54 ibid., 6. 55KNA ABK/14/140, District Commissioner, Nairobi to Town Clerk, 31 July 1931. 56Aside from the Juveniles Ordinance of 1934, two other pieces of legislation were gazetted with significant changes in the level of state authority over African juveniles. The Employment of Women, Young Persons and Children Ordinance of 1933 restricted the use of children under the age of twelve in work deemed 'industrial undertakings'. For more information, see Colony and Protectorate of Kenya, 'No. 14, Employment of Women, Young Persons and Children Ordinance, 1933', Ordinances and Regulations (Nairobi, 1934). In addition, the Employment of Servants Ordinance of 1937 took up the issue of recruitment, restricting the activities of the recruiters and requiring all juveniles to be brought before their District Officer, with parental or chiefly consent, before being allowed to work. See Colony and Protectorate of Kenya, 'No. 2 of 1938, Employment of Servants, 1937', Ordinances and Regulations (Nairobi, 1938). The ordinance sought to protect the authority of African adults over their children in the rural areas. Yet neither ordinance was effective in the face of labour demands on juveniles and the resistance of recruiters, employers and African youth. In Nyanza, the recruitment regulations were all but abandoned, and in Nairobi labour inspectors frequently looked the other way when observing juveniles at work alongside machinery. 57Colonial concern that juveniles were being held alongside adults within the penal system was justified. Officer-in-Charge of Nairobi informed the Resident Magistrate in 1933 that no separate accommodation was available for juveniles and that juvenile prisoners on remand were being held in prison with convicted adults. KNA AP/1/1699, Resident Magistrate, Nairobi, 'Juvenile Offenders Ordinance', 17 June 1933. 58Colony and Protectorate of Kenya, 'No. 22, Juveniles Ordinance, 1934', Ordinances and Regulations (Nairobi, 1935), Section 3–4, 12. 59Colony and Protectorate of Kenya, Annual Report of Native Affairs 1935 (Nairobi, 1936), 145. 60 ibid., Annual Report of Native Affairs 1937 (Nairobi, 1938), 173. 61 ibid., 'No. 22, Juveniles Ordinance, 1934', Ordinances and Regulations (Nairobi, 1935), 11. 62KNA AP/1/1699, B. V. Shaw, Resident Magistrate, Nairobi to Registrar of the Supreme Court, Nairobi, 20 November 1933. 63KNA AP/1/1699, B. V. Shaw, Resident Magistrate, Nairobi, 17 June 1933. 64KNA RN/1/58, Municipal Native Affairs Officer, 28 March 1944. 65Colony and Protectorate of Kenya, Crime Committee Report, May 1932 (Nairobi, 1932), 39. 66Specific bylaws used to this end include 187, 195 and 193 as well as law CAP 82 of 1931. 67Colony and Protectorate of Kenya, Native Affairs Department Annual Report 1928 (Nairobi, 1929), 74. 68 Native Affairs Department Annual Report 1929 (Nairobi, 1930), 71. 69KNA AP/1/1699, 'Juvenile Offenders, 1933–1940'. 70Louise White, The Comforts of Home: Prostitution in Colonial Nairobi (Chicago, 1990), 158; Also see Bodil Frederiksen, 'African women and their colonization of Nairobi: representation and realities' in Andrew Burton (ed.), The Urban Experience in East Africa, c. 1750–2000 (Nairobi, 2002). 71KNA ABK/12/68, T. C. Carlisle, Native Affairs Officer to Labour Commissioner, Nairobi, 4 June 1941. 72KNA RN/1/58, Municipal Native Affairs Officer, 28 March 1944. 73KNA ABK/12/68, P. de V. Allen, Labour Commissioner to Native Affairs Officer, 5 June 1941. 74KNA AP/1/1700, D. C. Cameron, Superintendent of Approved Schools to Chief Inspector of Approved Schools, 27 October 1945. 75KNA ABK/14/140, Secretariat, 17 July 1940. 76KNA ABK/12/68, Labour Superintendent, Tea Estates Labour Department Memorandum, 31 January 1943. 77KNA ABK/14/140, Secretariat, 17 July 1940. 78Tabitha Kanogo, Squatters and the Roots of Mau Mau (London, 1987), 99–100, 102. 79Parker, op. cit., Appendix i; Colony and Protectorate of Kenya, African Affairs Department Annual Report 1952 (Nairobi 1954), Appendix A; and Andrew Burton, 'Introduction' in Burton (ed.), op. cit., 19–20. 80David Throup, Economic and Social Origins of Mau Mau 1945–1953 (London, 1987), 178–9. 81 ibid., 183. 82KNA MAA/8/22, T. S. Askwith, African Affairs Officer to Superintendent, 29 October 1947; and KNA MAA/2/5/223, Crime Committee, 19 June, 26 June and 15 August 1947. 83For a detailed example of European settler preoccupation with crime in Nairobi, and Kenya as a whole, see Colony and Protectorate of Kenya, Debate of Crime in Kenya (Nairobi, 1945). 84Colony and Protectorate of Kenya 'Amendment, CAP 59, Vagrancy, 11 February 1948', The Laws of Kenya, 1948, vol. i (Nairobi, 1962), Section 9. 85 ibid., Sections 12, 13. 86 ibid., 'No. 22, Removal of Undesirable Natives (Temporary) Ordinance, 1946', Ordinances and Regulations, Section 5. 87KNA MAA/2/5/223, T. G. Askwith, African Affairs Officer, Nairobi African Advisory Council, substituted para. 11, 1 and 2 March 1948. 88KNA AP/1/1700, Ministry of African Affairs Officer to Registrar of Supreme Court, Nairobi, 10 November 1949; Registrar of Supreme Court of Nairobi, 'Regarding Questionnaire on the Treatment of Juvenile Delinquents', 12 June 1950. 89KNA AP/1/1700, D. C. Cameron, Superintendent of Approved Schools to Chief Inspector of Approved Schools, 27 October 1945. 90Indeed, similar youth movements could be found in Soviet Russia, many of which developed immediately following the Civil War. Discipline, education and moral instruction were the jurisdiction of the state – not biological parents. As a result of the Civil War and the Famine of 1921, juvenile urban migration to, and vagrancy in, Moscow grew to unparalleled proportions. In the 1920s, the Soviet solution involved forced conscription into the Red Army and collective farms, capital punishment (although rare), and institutionalization. Yet, the state's ability to construct and manage these facilities fell short of the law. There was a clear divergence between the responsibilities the state provided itself and its capacity to carry out those duties. See Vladimir Zenzinov, Deserted: The Story of the Children Abandoned in Soviet Russia, trans. Agnes Platt (Westport, 1975). 91Joanna Lewis, Empire State-Building: War and Welfare in Kenya 1925–1952 (Oxford, 2000), 174–6. 92Letter from Okaku Onyango, Baraza, 18 April 1946; and letter from 'Why Not?', Baraza, 29 April 1946. 93Confidential letter from East African Standard to Mrs Olga Watkins, 4 May 1946. The letter can be found in Mrs Olga Watkins's personal papers, in the possession of June Knowles. Contact author for further information. 95 ibid., African Education in Kenya (Nairobi, 1949), 34. 94Colony and Protectorate of Kenya, A Ten-Year Plan or the Development of African Education (Nairobi, 1948). 96 ibid., Education for Citizenship in Africa (Nairobi, 1949), 5. 97 ibid., 12. 98 ibid., Annual Report of the Community Development Organization 1950 (Nairobi, 1951), 21. 99 ibid., Community Development Organization, Annual Report 1953 (Nairobi, 1954), 21.
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