Race and Empire by Campbell, Chloe;

Eugenics in Colonial Kenya

Series: Studies in Imperialism;

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Product details:

Publisher Manchester University Press
Date of Publication 1 September 2007

ISBN 9780719071607
Binding Hardback
No. of pages214 pages
Size 237x162x21 mm
Weight 481 g
Language English

Short description:

The story of a short-lived but vehement eugenics movement that emerged among a group of Europeans in Kenya in the 1930s, unleashing a set of writings on racial differences in intelligence more extreme than that emanating from any other British colony in the twentieth century.

Long description:

Race and empire tells the story of a short-lived but vehement eugenics movement that emerged among a group of Europeans in Kenya in the 1930s, unleashing a set of writings on racial differences in intelligence more extreme than that emanating from any other British colony in the twentieth century.

The Kenyan eugenics movement of the 1930s adapted British ideas to the colonial environment: in all its extremity, Kenyan eugenics was not simply a bizarre and embarrassing colonial mutation, as it was later dismissed, but a logical extension of British eugenics in a colonial context. By tracing the history of eugenic thought in Kenya, the books shows how the movement took on a distinctive colonial character, driven by settler political preoccupations and reacting to increasingly outspoken African demands for better, and more independent, education. The economic fragility of Kenya in the early 1930s made the eugenicists particularly dependent on British financial support. Ultimately, the suspicious response of the Colonial Office and the Prime Minister, Ramsay MacDonald, backed up by a growing expert concern about race in science, led to the failure of Kenyan eugenics to gain the necessary British backing. Despite this lack of concrete success, eugenic theories on race and intelligence were widely supported by the medical profession in Kenya, as well as powerful members of the official and non-official European settler population. The long-term failures of the eugenics movement should not blind us to its influence among the social and administrative elite of colonial Kenya.

Through a close examination of attitudes towards race and intelligence in a British colony, Race and empire reveals how eugenics was central to colonial racial theories before World War Two.

Race and empire tells the story of a short-lived but vehement eugenics movement that emerged among a group of Europeans in Kenya in the 1930s, unleashing a set of writings on racial differences in intelligence more extreme than that emanating from any other British colony in the twentieth century.

The Kenyan eugenics movement of the 1930s adapted British ideas to the colonial environment: in all its extremity, Kenyan eugenics was not simply a bizarre and embarrassing colonial mutation, as it was later dismissed, but a logical extension of British eugenics in a colonial context. By tracing the history of eugenic thought in Kenya, the books shows how the movement took on a distinctive colonial character, driven by settler political preoccupations and reacting to increasingly outspoken African demands for better, and more independent, education. The economic fragility of Kenya in the early 1930s made the eugenicists particularly dependent on British financial support. Ultimately, the suspicious response of the Colonial Office and the Prime Minister, Ramsay MacDonald, backed up by a growing expert concern about race in science, led to the failure of Kenyan eugenics to gain the necessary British backing. Despite this lack of concrete success, eugenic theories on race and intelligence were widely supported by the medical profession in Kenya, as well as powerful members of the official and non-official European settler population. The long-term failures of the eugenics movement should not blind us to its influence among the social and administrative elite of colonial Kenya.

Through a close examination of attitudes towards race and intelligence in a British colony, Race and empire reveals how eugenics was central to colonial racial theories before World War Two.

Acknowledgments

1. Nellie’s Dance
2. British eugenics, race and empire
The British eugenics movement
Race and empire
Eugenics and Kenya Colony
3. Kenyan medical discourse and eugenics
Eugenic research on the African frontier: Dr Gordon and Dr Vint
The medical leaders and eugenic discourse in the EAMJ
4. Metropolitan responses
The response of the Eugenics Society
Race and intelligence in the British press
Official interpretations
5. Settler attitudes to eugenics and race
The Kenya Society for the Study of Race Improvement
Eugenics and settler politics
Self-government, climate and Closer Union
African education
Officials and the eugenic research
6. Biology, development and welfare
Oliver and ‘The General Intelligence Test for Africans
Juvenile delinquency and Kabete Reformatory
Mathari Mental Hospital, criminal lunacy and criminal responsibility
7. Conclusion: the decline of the eugenics empire
Abbreviations
Bibliography