Exposed inequalities
Résumés
Cet article s’intéresse à l’expérience des étudiantes kenyanes parties à l’étranger dans les années 1950 et 1960, une période de mobilité croissante pour les étudiants africains. Il examine le processus de candidature des étudiantes, les défis auxquels elles ont été confrontées dans le cadre de leur formation, leur vie sociale, leurs expériences du racisme et du sexisme, ainsi que leur retour au Kenya. Ces étudiantes kenyanes ont participé activement aux processus de mondialisation qui ont caractérisé cette époque et elles en ont bénéficié, mais dans le même temps, leur mobilité a aussi mis en évidence des inégalités inhérentes aux structures mondialisées. Enfin, l’analyse de la mobilité de ces femmes met en lumière des expériences de trajectoires postcoloniales jusqu’ici sous-représentées dans les historiographies des étudiants africains à l’étranger.
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Acknowledgements: Thank you to the two anonymous reviewers, whose comments shaped and improved previous versions of this article. In a time of pandemic-induced restrictions on movement, hindering access to libraries and archival institutions, I am also especially grateful to the editors of this issue, and to Professor Daniel Branch, who so generously shared some of their own material with me in the process of writing and editing.
Remerciements : Je remercie les deux relecteurs anonymes dont les commentaires ont permis d’améliorer les versions précédentes de cet article. En cette période de restrictions des déplacements, dues à la pandémie, qui entravent l’accès aux bibliothèques et aux institutions d’archives, je suis aussi particulièrement reconnaissante envers les coordinateurs de ce numéro, ainsi qu’envers le professeur Daniel Branch, qui ont si généreusement partagé avec moi certains de leurs propres documents au cours du processus de rédaction et d’édition.
- 1 Peter Fryer, Staying Power: The History of Black People in Britain, London, Pluto Press, 1984, p. (...)
- 2 Ibid, p. 438.
- 3 Marc Matera, Black London: The Imperial Metropolis and Decolonisation in the Twentieth Century, Oa (...)
- 4 Daniel Branch, “Political traffic: Kenyan students in Eastern and Central Europe, 1958-69”, Journa (...)
- 5 David Mills, “Life on the hill: Students and the social history of Makerere”, Africa: Journal of t (...)
- 6 House of Commons, Hansard, 631, 6 December 1960, accessed 8 December 2020. URL: https://hansard.pa (...)
- 7 House of Commons, Hansard, art. cit.; Jim C. Harper, II, “Tom Mboya and the African students airli (...)
- 8 House of Commons, Hansard, art. cit.
1There is a long history of African students’ mobility outside of the continent, and their pursuing of higher education in other parts of the world. The first African students’ union in Britain was formed in 1917, and in 1925, the West African Students’ Union was formed, acting as a space for its – primarily male – members to discuss socio-political issues, to critique colonialism and its accompanying discrimination, and the future trajectories of their individual countries1. By 1913, there were approximately 70 students from Africa – primarily from West Africa – living in London2. This number increased over the following decades, as more women joined their male peers, and towards the late 1940s, there were 644 West African women students based in Britain, the majority of whom were Nigerian3. The diversity in destinations also increased over the decades, and, in addition to the imperial metropolises, these also included the United States, Eastern Europe, and Asia, especially India, which offered a variety of education opportunities for Kenyan students4. With specific regard to the latter, Uganda especially was a popular destination, as it was home to Makerere College, one of the most reputed higher education institutions, and which opened its doors to women in 19455. In 1960, 396 Kenyan students were enrolled at Makerere College, while in Britain the figure lay at 1,159 Kenyans, out of around 11,000 Africans registered as students in the country6. In the same year, the United States saw 440 Kenyan students reading at higher education institutions across the country, which increased in 1962 to 477 male students and 66 women students7. Former communist countries saw the least amount of Kenyan students, the figure for which lay at 51 in 19608.
- 9 Eric Burton, “Decolonisation…”, art. cit., p. 173; Jim C. Harper, II, “Tom Mboya…”, art. cit., p. (...)
2Many of the African students abroad were part of the continent’s elite who had benefitted from a mission education, coming from wealthy, occasionally royal, families, and who demanded a higher education that was not readily available in Africa, far beyond what the colonial education, designed to produce labourers and clerical workers, had to offer9. Of these students studying and training overseas, a large number became politicised and exposed to new ideas, returning to their home countries in Africa with the intention to decolonise, and build their newly independent countries. Many of these returnees became part of the new African elite, and occupied high-level positions in industries, government, or academia.
- 10 For examples of discussions of African women’s movements for education and training, see: Jim C. H (...)
3The experiences of African male students, and how they contributed to decolonisation and the circulation of ideas through studying abroad have been documented extensively. However, what remains underexamined are those of African women students, who were also active participants in and beneficiaries of post-war globalisation processes. While some country or region-specific works examine the movements of African women for education, the literature largely remains androcentric in nature, in its discussion African male students’ mobility, and less so the experiences of women10.
4Building on the historiography on Kenyan students abroad, this article will discuss the experiences of Kenyan women students, including both academic and vocational students, outside of Kenya in the two decades following World War II. This period of the 1950s and 1960s was selected, as, comparatively, greater educational and professional opportunities were available to Kenyan and African women then, due to the increased emphasis on their importance in contributing to a new Kenya, which gained independence in 1963. Using specific individual examples of Kenyan women studying abroad, this article hopes to illuminate the inequalities inherent within broader structures of globalisation that brought about actors’ mobility. While, of course, women’s movements and their ability to do so can be lauded as emancipatory, a closer examination of the characteristics of their movements highlights how these simultaneously reproduced structures of oppression. This duality within seemingly peripheral actors’ lived experiences, as they moved toward the centre and back again, will be demonstrated through a focus on individual Kenyan women students in the late colonial and early post-colonial period. These movements characterise the nature of post-World War II globalisation processes, which were often contradictory, decreasing some social inequalities, while broadening others. Additionally, in centring women in the narrative, even in that of the seemingly mundane, this article is a modest attempt to deconstruct the normativity of male experiences that characterises much historiography.
- 11 Moya Bailey and Trudy, “On misogynoir: Citation, erasure, and plagiarism”, Feminist Media Studies, (...)
5Firstly, a brief discussion on methodology and sources for the topic will be provided. The article will then examine the situation of women before travelling abroad to study, and discuss the applications, scholarship opportunities, as well as preparations for their time overseas. This will be followed by an analysis of their experiences once abroad, exploring where and what Kenyan women studied, the combination of sexism and anti-Black racism they faced – known today as “misogynoir11” –, their social lives, financial struggles, as well as mental health. In examining the experiences of Kenyan women students abroad, this piece will demonstrate how such under-examined actors in history change understandings of African student mobility and aims to highlight a hitherto neglected perspective of these processes.
Researching African women
- 12 See, for example: Marisa J. Fuentes, Dispossessed Lives: Enslaved Women, Violence, and the Archive (...)
6Various scholars have documented the difficulties in researching the lives of Black and African women, in all their diversity and complexity12. Their voices remain largely absent in archives that prioritise colonial documents, and as discussed previously, secondary literature tends to continue this marginalisation in focussing on male actors. This has also been found to be the case in the process of research for this article, and for this reason, it has been difficult to source exact statistics on Kenyan women studying abroad. If they are discussed at all, these figures are conflated with either Kenyan, or African, male peers, or with those of African and Afro-Caribbean women.
7For a topic as global in scope as that of this article, ideally a broad geographical variety of archival institutions would have been consulted; however, primarily due to the movement restrictions of Covid-19, which were implemented in the process of research and writing, a limited scope of primary sources has been able to be considered. Primary sources consulted mainly took the form of government reports, pamphlets, written correspondence between institutional representatives, or application forms, retrieved from archives in Kenya. Among these, there were a variety of letters written by women to various institutions, who were either interested in or already in the process of gaining qualifications abroad, and, as some of the few sources produced by women, form the basis for some of the issues addressed in this article. The letters are often personal and intimate, and an analysis of their textual culture can reveal aspects of the writers’ background, such as class and education. The written correspondence reveals more than simply “experiences”: it is also evidence of the agency of the women writing them, and of their efforts to actively change their situation. For these reasons, this article will focus on select individual women’s experiences, using these conjointly with secondary literature, to comment on broader structural issues surrounding globalisation in the post-World War II decades.
8It deserves reiteration here that the category of “Kenyan women” is by far not a homogeneous one, and is stratified across many markers of identity, including – but not limited to – class, ethnicity, race, or age. This article attempts to do justice to some aspects of this diversity, by, amongst others, examining indigenous Kenyan women, in addition to those of Asian descent, or by discussing issues women with childcare duties while studying abroad may have faced. Their experiences abroad would also have subsequently been influenced by their positionality and situation, in addition to their location of further education, depending on the country, and whether they were in rural or urban areas. It must also be added that some of the topics that are described and discussed in this article are also applicable to male students. However, a discussion of how women specifically experienced certain issues illuminates inequalities perpetuated by the very structures that enabled student mobility.
Before leaving Kenya
9In order to gain a full understanding of women student’s experiences and mobility abroad, it is useful to examine their situations before leaving Kenya. This section discusses the background of women’s education in the country, scholarship opportunities for them abroad, the application process, as well as preparations for their studies, and the trip itself.
- 13 Jim C. Harper, II, “Tom Mboya…”, art. cit., p. 89.
- 14 J. E. Goldthorpe, An African Elite: Makerere College Students 1922-1960, Nairobi, Oxford Universit (...)
- 15 Thomas Owen Eisemon, “Private initiatives in higher education in Kenya”, Higher Education, 24, 199 (...)
- 16 Tabitha Kanogo, African Womanhood in Colonial Kenya, 1900-1950, Oxford, James Currey, 2005, p. 205 (...)
- 17 Ibid; Daniel Branch, “Political traffic…”, art. cit., p. 822; Earl De La Warr, Higher Education in (...)
10Colonial education in Kenya and Africa was not academic in nature; it focussed on vocational training, aiming to produce soldiers, policemen, administrators, clerks, or telephone and telegraph operators in service of the colonial project13. An academic education was largely reserved for Europeans residing in Kenya; however, the establishment of Makerere College in 1922 in neighbouring Uganda signified a broader range of options for African students, including Kenyans, as they received training in education, medicine, or veterinary sciences14. In Kenya, the Royal Technical College was established in 1952, later to become the University of Nairobi in 1970, and offered similar vocational courses to East African students15. There was also certainly a male bias within the education for Kenyan students, with fewer girls attending school – this in spite of the fact that girls’ education was a key tenet of the colonial government’s and missionaries’ “civilising mission” and agenda for large-scale conversion to Christianity16. However, missionaries also did not believe in educating girls beyond a basic level of literacy, and implemented a highly gendered curriculum, with a focus on domestic sciences, home economics and homecrafts – subjects designed to produce suitable wives for educated African men17.
- 18 Tabitha Kanogo, African Womanhood…, op. cit., p. 232.
- 19 Ibid., p. 206; Rajab Ngashira, oral interview, Ebumanyi, Mumias, 22 January 1997, ibid., p. 209.
- 20 Joy C. Kwesiga, Women’s Access…, op. cit., p. 165-170.
- 21 Robert F. Stephens, Kenyan Student Airlifts to America, 1959-1961: An Educational Odyssey, Nairobi (...)
- 22 Letter from Curtis to Director of Colonial Scholars, November 9, 1954, Kenya National Archives (KN (...)
11The first high school for African girls in Kenya was established in 1950: African Girls High School, later known as Alliance Girls High School, which aimed to provide an education for African girls from across Kenya, who were selected on merit18. However, a large proportion of elders and parents of young girls disliked the idea of their daughters becoming educated, as this was associated with the abandonment of indigenous traditions, and, therefore, with social ruin19. Socio-economic factors also played a role, wherein oftentimes parents could only afford to send one child to school, in which case the boy would be educated20. Wealthier families sought to educate their daughters abroad by private means in the 1950s, by sending them to mission schools in Uganda or India21. Kenyan Asian families could more easily afford their daughters’ education, such as that of Lalita Tampi, a student at Coast Girls’ High School Mombasa in 1954, whose “father […] requested that, since her present school does not provide a course in science subjects, his daughter might be placed in a suitable institution in Great Britain […] in order to obtain a sufficient standard in Chemistry of Physics22”.
- 23 Teresia Mbari Hinga, The Role of Religious Networks in the Provision of Education to Women in Afri (...)
- 24 KNA, Higher Education – Overseas, Miss Zarina Mamujee, 1954-58, ED/3/695; KNA, Higher Education – (...)
- 25 Letter from Wadeley to Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Defence, August 3, 1962, British National (...)
12These examples, however, were exceptions to the general rule. Educational inequalities are reflected in the figures for school certificate examination candidates: by 1950, while 61 African boys had taken the exam, no girls had done so; and a decade later when Kenya gained independence in 1963, 1,292 boys qualified for a high school diploma, in comparison to 199 girls23. It is thus unsurprising that many women applicants to colleges in Britain applied for home economics and domestic science courses24. For those with academic ambitions, this was a great frustration, as evidenced by science student Winifred Mshingo studying at Moscow State University in 1962, who lambasted the Kenyan education system for women to visiting Kenyan politicians, viewing it as useless for the country in the form it took then25.
- 26 “Kenya Shortage of Nurses”, June 22, 1961, KNA, Kenya High Commission: The Kenyan Students Scholar (...)
- 27 Letter from Koinange to hospital matrons across Britain, May 13, 1961, KNA, Kenya High Commission: (...)
- 28 “Kenya Scholarship Fund: Widespread Appeal Pending”, The Times Educational Supplement, 2, 1961, p. (...)
- 29 Ibid.
13At independence in 1963, therefore, there was a shortage of skilled workers in Kenya to take over where expatriates had worked previously. There were only four hospitals in Kenya that provided nursing training to African women students, and one maternity hospital for midwifery training26. Career options and choices ran along gendered lines, and, consequently, many women undertook nursing training for a career in this field. By 1961, only two women had returned to Kenya from Britain with qualifications in nursing and midwifery27. In preparation for independence, steps were taken to rectify the situation in Kenya, through sourcing opportunities and scholarships for students abroad. The Kenyan Students Scholarship Fund (KSSF) was established in 1961, with the purpose of providing funding for studies and training abroad for Kenyan residents, “irrespective of race, tribe, creed or party allegiance28”. Based in London, the KSSF sourced funding from private donors, as well as seeking places in various industries and training colleges for young Kenyans29.
- 30 Letter from Koinange to hospital matrons across Britain, May 13, 1961, KNA, Kenya High Commission: (...)
- 31 KNA, Education: Nursing, ED/3/343; KNA, Kenya High Commission: Applications to study in Europe, MS (...)
- 32 Bweya to Permanent Secretary for Education, June 14, 1962, KNA, Education: Nursing, ED/3/343, 163.
- 33 Ibid.
- 34 Ibid.
14For Kenyan women specifically, such places included nursing training opportunities at hospitals around Britain30. Although an exact number is difficult to surmise, sources indicate that many young women were interested in such opportunities abroad, and in the years preceding independence, the Ministry of Education in Nairobi, which worked in cooperation with the KSSF, received letters from numerous interested applicants from a variety of backgrounds: some had recently finished school, others had already received basic nursing training in East Africa, while others were already working in different fields, such as secretarial work31. The written correspondence indicates an eagerness for education on the part of young women and the ambition for the opportunity for professional development. Lily Bweya, a Kenyan nurse based in Uganda, is one such example: having received general nursing training at Mengo Hospital in Kampala, passing in 1958, she afterwards worked as an assistant classroom teacher, whilst searching for scholarships for further studies32. In a letter to Kenya’s permanent secretary for education in June 1962, Bweya describes her desire to train as a State Registered Nurse and State Certified Midwife in Britain, expressing her frustration at the difficulties “for [her] to get the qualifications which [she wants] in East Africa33”. She was convinced that, upon her return to Kenya, such training would allow her “to render service to [her] people better34”. Bweya is one example of the different women who applied for nursing training positions in Great Britain via the KSSF. With the help of the Ministry of Education, which had a rigorous application and interview process, the KSSF was able to place young Kenyan women in nursing and midwifery training hospitals across Britain.
- 35 George A. Barnett, Reggie Yingli Wo, “The international student exchange network: 1970 & 1989”, Hi (...)
- 36 Daniel Branch, “Political traffic…”, art. cit., p. 812, 819.
- 37 Jim C. Harper, II, “Tom Mboya…”, art. cit., p. 85.
- 38 Ibid., p. 91.
- 39 Ibid., p. 86; Eric Burton, “Decolonisation…”, art. cit., p. 182.; Wangari Muta Maathai, Unbowed: A (...)
15The international soft power conflict of the Cold War also had an impact on Kenyan students, both at home and abroad, and possibly more so than on most other African students, as by 1970 they were, out of all other African countries, the most deeply entrenched within international student networks of global exchange35. Politician Oginga Odinga, who was later to become the first Vice President of an independent Kenya, was active in establishing a scholarship programme with Eastern European countries36. Tom Mboya, Odinga’s political rival, used his networks in the United States to create opportunities for Kenyans to study abroad37. In the context of Kenyan decolonisation and the United States’ Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and 1960s, Mboya worked with African American-led organisations, such as the American Committee on Africa to raise funds for Kenyan students to go to the US38. Through these negotiations and the creation of these complex networks, Mboya was able to organise a famous series of airlifts between 1959 and 1961, to enable approximately 600 students to fly from Kenya directly to the US for their studies39.
- 40 Tom Mboya, Freedom and After, London, Andre Deutsch, 1963, p. 160; Wangari Muta Maathai, Unbowed…, (...)
- 41 Robert F. Stephens, Kenyan Student…, op. cit., p. 49.
- 42 Tom Mboya, Freedom and After, op. cit., p. 160.
- 43 “Report of activities 1959-1961”, airlifttoamerica.org; “Report on Project Air-Lift Africa 1959”, (...)
- 44 Daniel Branch, “Political traffic…”, art. cit., p. 822-823.
16Mboya made a conscious effort to address women’s education as he believed they played a key role in Kenya’s development after its independence40. More cynically, this can also be attributed to the desire to make them suitable wives for new elite African men, who encountered few women among their educated peers41. Mboya saw African women as vital “in the task of creating an enlightened family and community” and in “taking part like any other citizen in the overall development of the country42”. Of the 84 Kenyan students arriving in the USA in 1959, 14 were women, and a year later, in 1960, 59 women were among the 295 students43. Mboya leveraged the Cold War power dynamics in Kenya’s favour, in order to create opportunities for higher education for Kenyan students, and especially for women. Student mobility was an integral part of Kenya’s decolonisation, and it is therefore interesting to note that, in spite of international Cold War power rivalries, some Kenyan students did not concern themselves too much about the politics of their countries of destination before arrival; in fact, many chose not to participate in political life, lest it affect their positions at university44.
- 45 Jordanna Bailkin, The Afterlife…, op. cit., p. 95-96.
- 46 Hilary Perraton, Learning Abroad: A History of the Commonwealth Scholarship and Fellowship Plan, N (...)
- 47 Letter from Papa to Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education, September 25, 1967, KNA, Higher Ed (...)
- 48 Letter from Brotherton to Ambrose, November 1, 1962, KNA, Commonwealth Scholarship – 1962-63, Unit (...)
17As more African states received their independence, as mentioned above, former colonial empires sought to retain their influence over newly independent states through providing scholarships and opportunities for education in the respective colonial metropoles45. For instance, the Commonwealth Scholarship and Fellowship Plan was established in 1959, to provide a select number of students from across the British Commonwealth with funded study and research opportunities in different countries that were members of the political association46. In Kenya in the 1960s, the invitation for applications was advertised in newspapers such as The East African Standard and was received with much interest by prospective applicants47. The letters from interested women applicants from various walks of life to the Ministry of Education document the diversity of their backgrounds. Some of the correspondence reflects the upward social mobility that resulted from education for African women: Wanjiko Gichoki, for instance, a student at Clarke College in Dubuque, Iowa in 1962, stated that “[her] parents [could] neither read nor write”, in a letter to the Kenyan Ministry for Education, expressing her interest in the Commonwealth Scholarship to fund a postgraduate degree in History and Government in Britain48.
- 49 Letter from Dhanani to Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education, September 22, 1967, KNA, Common (...)
- 50 Letter from Price to Ministry of Education, September 18, 1967, KNA, Commonwealth Scholarship – 19 (...)
- 51 Letter from Achoki to Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education, September 4, 1965, KNA, Higher E (...)
18The women’s writing demonstrates their ambition, with the help of the Commonwealth Scholarship, for further education that was unavailable in East Africa, even after independence: in 1967, Jayshree Dhanani, a Kenyan woman of Asian descent and a teacher at Embu Girls School, expressed her interested in obtaining an Arts degree, which at the time of her writing, was not available at East African institutions49. Similarly, also in 1967, Jennifer Price, of British descent, wished “to take a course in either Wild Life Management or Wild Life Ecology in the UK with the view of returning home to Kenya and working in her National Parks50”. Some husbands also wrote to the Ministry of Education and applied for the Commonwealth Scholarship on behalf of their wives – indicative of domestic gendered power relations – such as Barnabas Achoki for Tabitha Achoki in 1965, who wrote that they were both interested “in the study of adult […] or social education in the United Kingdom” and “[wished] to become administrators or instructors where [they] hope they shall be of great help to [their] fellow men51”.
- 52 Letter from Kheel to Shriver, September 13, 1960, airlifttoamerica.org.
- 53 Letter from Kamolo to Koinange, April 9, 1962, KNA, Hospitals Accepted Applicants, 1961-62, MSS/29 (...)
- 54 Letter from Vintras to Akumu, March 5, 1965, KNA, Kenya High Commission: Mrs T Akumu”, MSS/29/41, (...)
19Once a small number of women were eventually selected for the different scholarship opportunities for studying overseas, preparations for the trip and their stay began. It was a momentous occasion not only for themselves, but also for their entire family and village: Theodore W. Kheel, an American attorney who played a key role in arranging the Kenyan student airlifts to the USA, wrote in September 1960 that “there was […] a tremendous amount of feverish activity on the part of [the] students […] to raise the last few shillings to qualify for admission to the airlift”. Kheel found it very moving to observe “old women and little children contributing pennies to enable their sisters and brothers to come to the United States to Study52”. Many of these students had never left Kenya before, and high levels of nervousness, excitement and impatience before the trip are not unreasonable to assume. Writing from Machakos to J. K. Koinange, the Chairperson of the KSSF in London, in preparation for her nursing training in Britain, Martha Kamolo’s anxiety is very evident; several times in the letter she requests to be met at London Airport, and to be provided with assistance with public transport, as “[she knew] nothing about where to go after getting out of the plane53”. Some women who had been accepted for studies abroad had families, and trip preparations included making plans for childcare, both during the journey, if travelling by steamboat, and once overseas, which, in some cases, the KSSF provided assistance for54.
20In spite of challenges and structural barriers they faced, Kenyan women continuously sought educational and vocational opportunities outside of their country. The individual examples given indicate a widespread eagerness to gain further qualifications and an aspiration to use these to contribute to Kenya’s post-colonial development. However, in as much as these letters demonstrate their writers’ complexity as historical actors, they also illuminate contemporary broader structural inequalities. Many of the women were dependent upon male gatekeepers that would allow them to pursue their goals, be it their fathers or husbands writing their applications on their behalf, or figures such as Mboya, who consciously included women in his plans for the student airlifts. Their mobility was also in part only enabled through government institutions and organisations that allocated funding, thereby highlighting the links between class and education. While post-war globalisation helped enable students’ movements, allowing access to education and training to more African students than before, it simultaneously also highlighted social inequalities based on gender, as Kenyan women required assistance from patriarchal figures and structures to facilitate their studies abroad.
Studies abroad
21Throughout their time studying and gaining various qualifications abroad, as Black women – though they may have faced similar challenges to their male peers – Kenyan female students experienced additional issues, that demonstrate wider social inequalities brought about by globalisation. This is now interrogated through a discussion of women’s choice of further education or vocational training, location, as well as their lives abroad, examining experiences of racism, financial worries, academic performance, social life and mental health.
- 55 Letter from KSSF to Chokwe, August 30, 1961, KNA, Kenya High Commission: Miss J. W. Kibunja, Miss (...)
- 56 Letter from Warobi to Koinange, December 10, 1961, KNA, Kenya High Commission: Miss J. W. Kibunja, (...)
22As mentioned above, a popular vocational option for Kenyan women in Britain was nursing and midwifery, for which the KSSF assisted with sourcing training positions at hospitals across the country. For example, Etta Ezekiel trained at St Bartholomew’s Hospital in Kent, while her friend, Virginiah Warobi, obtained a position at Ormskirk County Hospital. Both women arrived in Britain from Nairobi in September 1961, and their letters written in the following months indicate difficulties settling into their new lives and roles. Ezekiel, for whom it was originally planned to train at Kidderminster Hospital, immediately transferred to St Bartholomew’s Hospital without informing the KSSF, as a friend had told her that the former would be poorly suited to her training needs. In later correspondence, Ezekiel apologised to the KSSF for the inconvenience she caused, as she admitted to “being misguided” by her friend, but stating that she was “quite happy at [St Bartholomew’s Hospital]”, that she was learning a lot and “everything now [seemed] to be quite good55”. Warobi, on the other hand, remained at Ormskirk County Hospital for three months, before requesting a change to St Bartholomew’s Hospital on the grounds that she “still [didn’t] […] like this place56”, presumably to be closer to Ezekiel.
- 57 Letter from Richards to Koinange, September 27, 1961, KNA, Kenya High Commission: Miss J. W. Kibun (...)
- 58 Letter from Koinange to Kibunja, September 25, 1961, KNA, Kenya High Commission: Miss J. W. Kibunj (...)
- 59 Letter from Koinange to John, September 25,1961, KNA, Hospitals Accepted Applicants, 1961-62, MSS/ (...)
23Some Kenyan nursing trainees struggled academically, either with the course material, or with the English language, which varied in levels of proficiency amongst students. For instance, in the case of Joyce Wanjeri Kibunja, a trainee nurse at The Memorial Hospital in Peterborough in 1961, the hospital Matron wrote to the KSSF, stating that she was too far behind the rest of the class academically, also hampered by her inadequate English language skills, and was setting the cohort back considerably57. KSSF Permanent Secretary Koinange wrote to Kibunja, expressing his displeasure with her poor report, and encouraged her to “devote […] [her] free time to reading and study in order to make up for [her] present deficiencies58”. Kibunja was not alone in this situation, as the KSSF asked of other Kenyan students to spend their spare time reading and catching up with their studies59.
- 60 Letter from Curtis to Jivanjee, August 26, 1954, KNA, Higher Education – Overseas, Miss Temina Jiv (...)
- 61 Hélène Charton, La genèse ambigüe de l’élite kenyane. Origines, formations et intégration de 1945 (...)
- 62 “The Africa Centre: Progress and prospects”, n.d. (est. 1967), BIA, Papers concerning JRSST grant, (...)
- 63 “Community studies for women: Report on pilot project and future plans”, n.d. (est. 1967), BIA, Pa (...)
24Other popular courses in Britain included Home Economics, Domestic Sciences or Typewriting, Shorthand and Secretarial Courses, which were offered at different colleges, such as Edinburgh College of Domestic Science, or Technical College and Kennington College, both in London, and which various Kenyan women indicated an interest in in their applications60. From 1952 onwards, some Kenyan women joined their husbands, who were students in Britain, and organisations like The Africa Centre in London offered short courses specifically designed for such wives61. The Centre offered weekly courses in English language, Home Economics, Nutrition, Social Sciences, First Aid, and World Affairs. It aimed to educate students on “social progress in African countries with special reference to the role of women”, as well as providing opportunities for socialisation at its international club62. The Africa Centre’s initiatives were attractive to African women accompanying their husbands, as “many … [were] anxious to gain further educational qualifications while they [were] [in London]”, even though they were “prevented from following fulltime courses either because they [had] small children to look after or because they [were] earning the family wage while their husbands [studied]63”.
- 64 Robert F. Stephens, Kenyan Student…, op. cit., p. 49-50.
- 65 Ibid., p. 50-51.
- 66 Letter from Gethaiga to Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education, October 23, 1962, KNA, Commonw (...)
- 67 Wangari Muta Maathai, Unbowed…, op. cit., p. 79-80, 94.
- 68 Robert F. Stephens, Kenyan Student…, op. cit., p. 34.
25The pursuits of Kenyan women in the United States, which were largely enabled through Mboya’s student airlifts, varied greatly: some women, such as Mary Gichuru, Kathleen Mwihiya and Beatrice Njuguna, attended high school, in order to obtain the necessary qualifications for admission to academic degree programmes, even though they may already have had the Kenyan equivalent. Some wives of the “airlifters”, such as Beth Mugo, followed a similar path, which allowed them to remain with their husbands who were studying at college64. Pamela Odede, who would later become Tom Mboya’s wife, had previously studied for two years at Makerere College, before obtaining a position on an airlift, and an accompanying scholarship for Western College for Women in Ohio, from where she graduated with a BA in Sociology in 196165. Other examples of women students in the USA pursuing academic qualifications included Warimu Gethaiga, reading for a BA in Sociology and Anthropology in 1962 at Occidental College in Los Angeles, and who wished to embark on a career in the field of medical social work when she returned to Kenya, or Jennifer Adhiambo, who graduated from Spelman College in Atlanta in 1963, with a Bachelor’s degree, majoring in Sociology and with minors in French and History66. Arguably most famously is Wangari Maathai, who studied at Mount St Scholastica College, majoring in Biology and minoring in Chemistry and German, graduating in 1964. Her postgraduate studies between 1964 and 1966 saw her read Biological Sciences at the University of Pittsburgh67. After a period of adjustment to a new education system and cultural milieu, most of these women performed to outstanding levels in their studies68.
- 69 Daniel Branch, “Political traffic…”, art. cit., p. 826.
- 70 Political and Economic Planning (PEP), Colonial Students in Britain: A Report by PEP, London, PEP, (...)
- 71 Jordanna Bailkin, The Afterlife…, op. cit., p. 112; Louisa Rice, “Between empire and nation: Franc (...)
- 72 Sara Pugach, “African Students…, art. cit. See also: Julie Hessler, “Death of an African student i (...)
- 73 The 1955 report by PEP documents racialised experiences of sexism of Nigerian women nursing studen (...)
26During their time abroad, racism dogged many of the women’s experiences. Colonialism and slavery both contributed to structures of racial inequality that continuously worked to place Africans, and those of African heritage, at a disadvantage, while accruing benefits to Europeans. In studying abroad, often in former colonial metropoles, African students were exposed to the full weight of these unequal structures, as well as their symptoms – though many would have experienced these in different ways in their colonised home countries69. Experiences of racism were not identical, and differed depending on the location and social contexts women may have moved in. In Britain, for instance, in a 1955 report by Political and Economic Planning, it was found that 72% of African students experienced what was euphemistically termed “colour prejudice”70. A very common experience was racism encountered in accommodation search, with many private property lessors refusing to rent to Black students71. In places such as the German Democratic Republic, Eastern Europe and the USSR, African students faced the contradiction between communist government’s anti-racist discourse and supposed commitment to equality, and the everyday racism students encountered from different individuals72. Kenyan, and other African women, would have been specifically exposed to misogynoir, a form of anti-Black racism and misogyny73.
- 74 Robert F. Stephens, Kenyan Student…, op. cit., p. 35.
- 75 Ibid., p. 35.
- 76 Wangari Muta Maathai, Unbowed…, op. cit., p. 77-78.
- 77 Robert F. Stephens, Kenyan Student…, op. cit., p. 35.
27In the USA, students were exposed to the insidiousness of its racism to varying degrees, depending on geography, as they studied in states as varied as Texas, California, Wisconsin, Maine, and cities in the “Deep South”, such as Atlanta or Tuskegee74. Organisers of the student airlifts and those involved in international student exchange worried about the discrimination Kenyan students would face in some of these places in a time of social unrest that also involved the Civil Rights Movement75. In her memoirs, Wangari Maathai discusses her experiences of racism in the United States during her time studying at Mount St Scholastica College in Kansas, as she recalls an incident of herself and fellow Kenyan students being refused service in a café because of their race76. However, it seemed Kenyan students were not as disillusioned with the US as some had feared, as they had already encountered similar such discrimination and racial segregation in public spaces in colonial Kenya – in some ways even to a greater degree than in the USA77.
- 78 J. L. Keith, “African Students in Great Britain”, African Affairs, 45, 1946, n° 179, p. 65-72, p. (...)
- 79 Letter from Weiss to schools across the USA, December 9, 1960, airlifttoamerica.org.
- 80 “Kenya students’ welfare in Britain: A resolution to be submitted to the Kenya Ministry of Educati (...)
- 81 KNA, Mrs R. J. Cherono, MSS/29/15; KNA, Mrs Sarah Muttu, MSS/29/32.
- 82 Letter from Vintras to Cherono, March 23, 1965, KNA, Mrs R. J. Cherono, MSS/29/15, 5.
28Kenyan women students also faced numerous financial issues whilst studying abroad, and many struggled with the higher cost of living in the different countries they had located to, in comparison to Kenya78. For this reason, in the USA, the African American Students Foundation (AASF) created a fund for Kenyan students to provide any “emergency financial assistance”, should the need arise79. In Britain, students found that bursaries and grants received from the Kenyan government rarely sufficed, and in 1962, the Kenya Student Association wrote a report for the Ministry of Education in Nairobi, which addressed in detail the financial problems students faced. They requested larger bursaries, which was required for an allowance suitable for living costs in London, textbooks, warm clothing, as well as the occasional trip home to Kenya, to renew the spirits80. Some women students were in correspondence with the KSSF, applying for grants to fund their tuition at their respective colleges and universities81. One such example is Mrs Cherono, who was studying for a Home Economics course at Southgate Technical College in 1965, and who, to complete the academic year, requested the sum of £300 from the KSSF, which arranged the transfer details with Cherono’s husband82. Though financial struggles were a problem faced by men as well, this was a burden felt greater by women, due to limited means to earn additional money, as well as potential childcare duties.
- 83 PEP, Colonial Students…, op. cit., p. 94-96.
- 84 Letter from Richards to Koinange, August 28, 1961, KNA, Kenya High Commission: Miss J. W. Kibunja, (...)
- 85 PEP, Colonial Students…, op. cit., p. 87-90; Letter from Matron to Koinange, October 23, 1961, KNA (...)
- 86 Letter from Warobi to Koinange, December 10, 1961, KNA, “Kenya High Commission: Miss J. W. Kibunja (...)
- 87 Wangari Muta Maathai, Unbowed…, op. cit., p. 86.
- 88 Robert F. Stephens, Kenyan Student…, op. cit., p. 49.
29Additionally, the social lives of Kenyan and African women students are also worth examining. Though it is difficult to generalise, in Britain, many faced immense loneliness and social isolation, due to being far away from home, compacted by being a visible minority abroad83. Furthermore, cultural and racial barriers prevented Kenyan women from socialising and forming friendships with British women – this in spite of the fact that nursing trainees, for instance, may have shared accommodation with British women in the student Nurses’ Home84. It is unsurprising, therefore, that many sought the company of other Kenyan and international students, such as those from the Caribbean. An international club in Reading, Britain, for example, was regularly attended by the international nurses working at nearby hospitals85. One trainee nurse also requested a hospital transfer, presumably so she could work in the same hospital as her friend and colleague from Kenya86. Conversely, in her memoirs, Wangari Maathai recounts her diverse social circles during her undergraduate studies in the United States, as she befriended both fellow international students – including from Japan, China and India – and white American students, as well as the African American College support staff87. Other women, who were discussed above, also stayed with American families during their time in the US, which may have helped ease feelings of isolation and loneliness88.
- 89 PEP, Colonial Students…, op. cit., p. 125-126.
- 90 Letter from Tiras to Peterborough and Stamford Memorial Hospital Superintendent, May 25, 1962, KNA (...)
- 91 Letter from Njeri to Koinange, June 22, 1962, KNA, Kenya High Commission: Hospitals Accepted Appli (...)
30The effects of the varying difficulties Kenyan women faced during their time abroad, in addition to exposure to a colder climate they were not accustomed to at home, took its toll on the mental health of some of students. The pressure from family and funding bodies, such as the KSSF, to succeed was immense. In combination with the effects of racism and social isolation on mental health, this, in turn, negatively impacted students’ academic performance, as Nigerian psychiatrist Thomas Lambo argued in 195589. For Mary Njeri, a student nurse at The Memorial Hospital in Peterborough, the accumulation of these problems manifested itself physically in a nervous breakdown that led to her being “admitted [to] hospital suffering from […] mental illness” in May 196290. A month later in June 1962, when she recovered, Njeri gave her notice to her training hospital and decided to return to Kenya, expressing her regret at this decision in a letter to the KSSF, “after devoting [her] life [to] nursing”. She admitted that British climate “[had] been bad for [her]”, and that she was faring much better mentally in the summer91.
- 92 Daniel Branch, “Political traffic…”, art. cit., p. 814.
- 93 Hélène Charton, “The fabric of academic communities at the heart of the British Empire’s modernisa (...)
- 94 Wangari Muta Maathai, Unbowed…, op. cit., p. 85-86.
31The lives and experiences of Kenyan women students abroad varied, and many faced challenges with racism, financial difficulties, social isolation and academic struggles, which negatively impacted the mental health of some. The individual experiences interrogated here illuminate broader social inequalities that the globalisation that enabled student mobility only brought to the forefront. For instance, the experiences of racism, both everyday and structural, that Kenyan women were subject to, exposed the hypocrisy of host countries, as well as, as Branch argues, “the limits of the commitments […] to the liberty and equality of the new decolonised nation-states92”. In the case of Britain specifically, the Colonial Office’s attempts to remedy African students’ experiences of racism could be attributed to the ideological battleground of the Cold War. It worried that African students would be more likely to become politicised by communism and its accompanying discourse of anti-racism and equality, and therefore organised social and intellectual clubs for students to counteract any potential communist influence93. In the case of the USA, the country’s eagerness to invite African students stood in stark juxtaposition to the discrimination directed towards its African American citizens. Wangari Maathai was acutely aware of this, as she later recounted her growing interest in the Civil Rights Movement as a student in the USA, writing that she “wanted to understand it, and America in all its intricacy, and to see where [she] as a Kenyan and a black woman fit in94”.
32The women’s experiences in Britain, detailed in their written correspondence, also highlighted inequalities along class and gendered lines. One such example is the case of Kibunja, who struggled with her traineeship and was encouraged by Koinange to devote her spare time to additional studying. Though it could be dismissed as a singular case of poor academic performance, the fact that the KSSF also urged this of other young women, is suggestive of a broader pattern: Kenyan women trainees in Britain may not have had a similar educational background to their British peers, indicative of the sparse basic educational opportunities for African women that was difficult for further education to remedy. The fact that many also struggled financially while abroad highlights a link between race and class, and though globalisation may have provided more opportunities for women, did not necessarily mean a more equitable distribution of wealth. Gendered divisions of labour in the household in a Kenyan context were also transported overseas: many women, in addition to their traineeships, were responsible for childcare, preventing them from pursuing longer courses, thereby further entrenching gendered inequalities. The experiences of Kenyan women who travelled for further education and training, while highlighting vivid instances of their agency, simultaneously demonstrate growing global structural inequalities.
Return to Kenya and conclusion
- 95 Letter from Swinfield-Wells to Provincial Education Officer, August 5, 1958, KNA, Higher Education (...)
- 96 “Bursary awards for higher education and training”, n.d. (est. 1961), KNA, Kenya High Commission: (...)
- 97 Daniel Branch, “Political traffic…”, art. cit., p. 812, 826.
33The women returnees in Kenya in the 1950s and 1960s who were holders of academic or vocational qualifications occupied a variety of positions as teachers and nurses, or in politics and community work, for example95. It is difficult to make an accurate assessment of their lives and professional paths post-return, due to the multiplicity of trajectories and the fact that, aside from the lives of prominent women, fewer records on this exist. A large number of returnees faced the challenge of a poor job market, with few vacancies within Kenyan institutions and industries for the recent highly skilled graduates. As a result, many joined foreign organisations operating in Kenya, which offered attractive working conditions and higher salaries96. Graduates returning from the United States or Britain were in higher demand, and found jobs more easily – as newspaper editors, cultural figures or in politics – than those from Eastern Europe, who were regarded with suspicion due to increasingly anti-Soviet sentiment as a result of Cold War politics97.
- 98 Robert F. Stephens, Kenyan Student…, op. cit., p. 55.
34In addition to tangible skills and knowledge, some women also reported returning home with an entirely different worldview, owing this to new interactions and exposure to people and ideas they would not encounter in Kenya. For instance, Josephine Kanoro and Priscilla Njeri, airlifters who were roommates at a college in Oregon, stated to have learned much about feminism and the position of women in both the US and in Kenya, and were determined to return home to be at the frontline of achieving gender equality in an independent Kenya. Kanoro had observed universal issues shared by women in both countries – such as gender-based discrimination and the challenges of juggling a career, family and childcare – and wanted to contribute to increasing public appreciation of women’s work in Kenya98.
- 99 Ibid; “Wangari Maathai: Facts”, The Nobel Prize, accessed 28 September 2020. URL: https://www.nobe (...)
- 100 Jim C. Harper, II, “Tom Mboya…”, art. cit., p. 100.
- 101 Tabitha Kanogo, African Womanhood…, op. cit., p. 198, 202.
- 102 Bernth Lindfors, “Interview with Grace Ogot”, World Literature Written in English, 18, 1979, n° 1, (...)
35Some women returnees occupied high-level positions in various institutions and organisations and became well-known for their contributions to Kenya. Wangari Maathai, for instance, received a PhD from the University College of Nairobi in Veterinary Medicine in 1971. She is known internationally today for her fight against environmental destruction in Kenya and was the first African woman to receive a Nobel Peace Prize99. Pamela Odede, discussed previously, is another example: after returning to Kenya in 1962, she became a prominent women’s rights activist, where she served on the YMCA, the National Council of Women of Kenya, as well as on the Board of Governors for different schools100. She later became Tom Mboya’s wife, and it is worth questioning whether she attained these positions in Kenya due to her marriage to a renowned figure, even though her academic achievements alone would have sufficed. Another prominent woman who had studied abroad is Grace Ogot: after qualifying as a nurse and midwife in 1950 at Mulago Hospital in Kampala, she moved to Britain in 1955 for further studies, returning to Kenya as the first State Certified Midwife of African origin101. Her medical background influenced her writing later, much of which includes themes grappling with traditional African versus Western medicine, and she became one of Kenya’s most renowned literary figures102. These women are examples of those who, upon their return to Kenya from their studies abroad, contributed to building the nation after independence.
36The decades following World War II constituted a turbulent period, and many students were beneficiaries of new education opportunities abroad that were the result of Cold War ideological battles. The Kenyan women gaining qualifications abroad were primarily nursing and midwifery trainees, though others also trained in Home Economics, Domestic Science and Secretarial work, in addition to academic subjects, such as History, Sociology, or French. Many women were interested in overseas education, and responses to scholarship and study opportunities abroad were met with much interest. During their time abroad, Kenyan women students struggled, as they often faced racism, sexism, loneliness, and economic difficulties. Upon their return to Kenya, though a large number struggled with the post-independence job market, many eventually occupied stable positions as teachers and nurses, and some became high-profile figures in an independent Kenya.
37An examination of women students’ movements specifically reveals the social contradictions that characterised the globalisation of the post-war decades. Greater educational opportunities were afforded to young Kenyan women, which increased after independence in 1963, and their eagerness to take advantage of these, as well as their professional ambition, is reflected in the letters they wrote in this period. However, at the same time, this mobility exposed already existing social inequalities that were exacerbated by increased globalisation, as women moved in new geographical and social spaces. The very fact that their ability to travel abroad for education was partly only enabled through patriarchal figures, such as fathers, husbands, or actors like Mboya, reveals the limitations imposed on women’s agency. Once abroad, comparatively poor academic performance can be attributed to inadequate basic education for African girls’ in Kenya – in comparison to boys or European children – that may have hindered immediate success. The inabilities that women faced to pursue an academic course or vocational training for reasons such as childcare further demonstrates household inequalities that could become a social pattern. Additionally, movements to and within the Global North exposed Kenyan women to forms of racism and misogyny. The fact that many were accustomed to this from Kenya is revealing of globalised structures of racism that the mobility of Black historical actors brought to the forefront. Kenyan women students’ experiences as Black women studying overseas are important to understand a previously unexamined aspect of histories of African student mobility. An examination of the experiences of comparatively marginalised actors reveals the coexistence of both greater agency and social inequalities, which characterised this period and were illuminated by post-war globalisation.
Notes
1 Peter Fryer, Staying Power: The History of Black People in Britain, London, Pluto Press, 1984, p. 324-325.
2 Ibid, p. 438.
3 Marc Matera, Black London: The Imperial Metropolis and Decolonisation in the Twentieth Century, Oakland, University of California Press, 2015, p. 100.
4 Daniel Branch, “Political traffic: Kenyan students in Eastern and Central Europe, 1958-69”, Journal of Contemporary History, 53, 2018, n° 4, p. 811-831; Eric Burton, “Decolonisation, the Cold War, and Africans’ routes to higher education overseas, 1957-65”, Journal of Global History, 15, 2020, n° 1, p. 169-191.
5 David Mills, “Life on the hill: Students and the social history of Makerere”, Africa: Journal of the International African Institute, 76, 2006, n° 2, p. 247-266, p. 254.
6 House of Commons, Hansard, 631, 6 December 1960, accessed 8 December 2020. URL: https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/1960-12-06/debates/89ef578f-3089-40ad-9d77-7fa6bb23634a/Students; Jordanna Bailkin, The Afterlife of Empire, London, University of California Press, 2012, p. 96-97.
7 House of Commons, Hansard, art. cit.; Jim C. Harper, II, “Tom Mboya and the African students airlifts: Inclusion, equity and higher education among Kenyan women and men”, Africology: The Journal of Pan African Studies, 10, 2017, n° 9, p. 99.
8 House of Commons, Hansard, art. cit.
9 Eric Burton, “Decolonisation…”, art. cit., p. 173; Jim C. Harper, II, “Tom Mboya…”, art. cit., p. 89; Hakim Adi, West Africans in Britain, 1900-1960: Nationalism, Pan-Africanism and Communism, London, Lawrence & Wishart Limited, 1998, p. 3.
10 For examples of discussions of African women’s movements for education and training, see: Jim C. Harper, II, “Tom Mboya…”, art. cit.; Tatiana Smirnova, Ophélie Rillon, “Quand des Maliennes regardaient vers l’URSS (1961-1991): Enjeux d’une coopération éducative au féminin”, Cahiers d’études africaines, 2, 2017, n° 226, p. 331-354; Sara Pugach, “African students and the politics of race and gender in the German Democratic Republic”, in Quinn Slobodian (ed.), Comrades of Colour: East Germany in the Cold War World, New York, Berghahn Books, 2015, p. 131-156; Pascale Barthélémy, Africaines et diplômées à l’époque coloniale (1918-1957), Rennes, Presses universitaires de Rennes, 2010.
11 Moya Bailey and Trudy, “On misogynoir: Citation, erasure, and plagiarism”, Feminist Media Studies, 18, 2018, n° 4, p. 762-768.
12 See, for example: Marisa J. Fuentes, Dispossessed Lives: Enslaved Women, Violence, and the Archive, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania University Press, 2016; Ashley D. Farmer, “In search of the Black women’s history archive”, Modern American History, 1, 2018, n° 2, p. 289-293; Deborah Gray White, “Mining the forgotten: manuscript sources for Black women’s history”, The Journal of American History, 74, 1987, n° 1, p. 237-242.
13 Jim C. Harper, II, “Tom Mboya…”, art. cit., p. 89.
14 J. E. Goldthorpe, An African Elite: Makerere College Students 1922-1960, Nairobi, Oxford University Press, 1965, p. 63; Colonial Office, “Report of the Commission on Higher Education in the colonies”, London, His Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1945.
15 Thomas Owen Eisemon, “Private initiatives in higher education in Kenya”, Higher Education, 24, 1992, p. 157-175.
16 Tabitha Kanogo, African Womanhood in Colonial Kenya, 1900-1950, Oxford, James Currey, 2005, p. 205; Damiano Matasci, Miguel Bandeira Jerónimo, Hugo Gonçalves Dores, “Introduction: Historical trajectories and development in (post)colonial Africa”, in id. (eds.) Education and Development in Colonial and Postcolonial Africa: Policies, Paradigms, and Entanglements, 1890s-1980s, Cham, Palgrave Macmillan, 2020, p. 1-28.
17 Ibid; Daniel Branch, “Political traffic…”, art. cit., p. 822; Earl De La Warr, Higher Education in East Africa: Report of the Commission Appointed by the Secretary of State for the Colonies, London, His Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1937, in Joy C. Kwesiga, Women’s Access to Higher Education in Africa: Uganda’s Experience, Kampala, Fountain Publishers, 2002, p. 217-218.
18 Tabitha Kanogo, African Womanhood…, op. cit., p. 232.
19 Ibid., p. 206; Rajab Ngashira, oral interview, Ebumanyi, Mumias, 22 January 1997, ibid., p. 209.
20 Joy C. Kwesiga, Women’s Access…, op. cit., p. 165-170.
21 Robert F. Stephens, Kenyan Student Airlifts to America, 1959-1961: An Educational Odyssey, Nairobi, East African Educational Publishers, 2013, p. 49.
22 Letter from Curtis to Director of Colonial Scholars, November 9, 1954, Kenya National Archives (KNA), Higher Education – Overseas, Miss Lalita Tampi, 1954-56, ED/3/694, 4.
23 Teresia Mbari Hinga, The Role of Religious Networks in the Provision of Education to Women in Africa: Kenyan Case, Nairobi, 1995, in Joy C. Kwesiga, Women’s Access…, op. cit., p. 233.
24 KNA, Higher Education – Overseas, Miss Zarina Mamujee, 1954-58, ED/3/695; KNA, Higher Education – Overseas, Miss Temina Jivanjee, 1954, ED/3/814; Letter from Micha to Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education, October 6, 1965, Committee on Studying and Training in USA. Applications, 1965, KNA, ED/3/26, 291.
25 Letter from Wadeley to Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Defence, August 3, 1962, British National Archives, PRO FCO 141/7140, 2, in Daniel Branch, “Political traffic…”, art. cit. p. 822-823.
26 “Kenya Shortage of Nurses”, June 22, 1961, KNA, Kenya High Commission: The Kenyan Students Scholarship Fund, 1961, MSS/29/30, 73.
27 Letter from Koinange to hospital matrons across Britain, May 13, 1961, KNA, Kenya High Commission: The Kenyan Students Scholarship Fund, 1961, MSS/29/30, 65.
28 “Kenya Scholarship Fund: Widespread Appeal Pending”, The Times Educational Supplement, 2, 1961, p. 328.
29 Ibid.
30 Letter from Koinange to hospital matrons across Britain, May 13, 1961, KNA, Kenya High Commission: The Kenyan Students Scholarship Fund, 1961, MSS/29/30, 65.
31 KNA, Education: Nursing, ED/3/343; KNA, Kenya High Commission: Applications to study in Europe, MSS/29/62.
32 Bweya to Permanent Secretary for Education, June 14, 1962, KNA, Education: Nursing, ED/3/343, 163.
33 Ibid.
34 Ibid.
35 George A. Barnett, Reggie Yingli Wo, “The international student exchange network: 1970 & 1989”, Higher Education, 3, 1995, n° 4, p. 353-368, p. 360.
36 Daniel Branch, “Political traffic…”, art. cit., p. 812, 819.
37 Jim C. Harper, II, “Tom Mboya…”, art. cit., p. 85.
38 Ibid., p. 91.
39 Ibid., p. 86; Eric Burton, “Decolonisation…”, art. cit., p. 182.; Wangari Muta Maathai, Unbowed: A Memoir, London, Arrow Books, 2008, p. 74.
40 Tom Mboya, Freedom and After, London, Andre Deutsch, 1963, p. 160; Wangari Muta Maathai, Unbowed…, op. cit., p. 74.
41 Robert F. Stephens, Kenyan Student…, op. cit., p. 49.
42 Tom Mboya, Freedom and After, op. cit., p. 160.
43 “Report of activities 1959-1961”, airlifttoamerica.org; “Report on Project Air-Lift Africa 1959”, airlifttoamerica.org. See also: Robert F. Stephens, Kenyan Student…, op. cit.
44 Daniel Branch, “Political traffic…”, art. cit., p. 822-823.
45 Jordanna Bailkin, The Afterlife…, op. cit., p. 95-96.
46 Hilary Perraton, Learning Abroad: A History of the Commonwealth Scholarship and Fellowship Plan, Newcastle upon Tyne, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2009, p. 26-27.
47 Letter from Papa to Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education, September 25, 1967, KNA, Higher Education – Commonwealth scholarships and fellowships plan United Kingdom applications, 1965-67, ED/3/341, 286.
48 Letter from Brotherton to Ambrose, November 1, 1962, KNA, Commonwealth Scholarship – 1962-63, United Kingdom Awards, ED/3/30, 443.
49 Letter from Dhanani to Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education, September 22, 1967, KNA, Commonwealth Scholarship – 1962-63, United Kingdom Awards, ED/3/30, 285.
50 Letter from Price to Ministry of Education, September 18, 1967, KNA, Commonwealth Scholarship – 1962-63, United Kingdom Awards, ED/3/30, 260.
51 Letter from Achoki to Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education, September 4, 1965, KNA, Higher Education – Commonwealth Scholarships and Fellowships Plan United Kingdom Applications, 1965-67, ED/3/341, 64.
52 Letter from Kheel to Shriver, September 13, 1960, airlifttoamerica.org.
53 Letter from Kamolo to Koinange, April 9, 1962, KNA, Hospitals Accepted Applicants, 1961-62, MSS/29/84, 225.
54 Letter from Vintras to Akumu, March 5, 1965, KNA, Kenya High Commission: Mrs T Akumu”, MSS/29/41, 13.
55 Letter from KSSF to Chokwe, August 30, 1961, KNA, Kenya High Commission: Miss J. W. Kibunja, Miss Ezekiel, Miss Warobi, MSS/29/22, 68; Letter from Ezekiel to Koinange, November 3, 1961, Kenya High Commission: Miss J. W. Kibunja, Miss Ezekiel, Miss Warobi, MSS/29/22, 72; Letter from Ezekiel to Koinange, November 26, 1961, Kenya High Commission: Miss J. W. Kibunja, Miss Ezekiel, Miss Warobi, MSS/29/22, 75.
56 Letter from Warobi to Koinange, December 10, 1961, KNA, Kenya High Commission: Miss J. W. Kibunja, Miss Ezekiel, Miss Warobi, MSS/29/22, 30.
57 Letter from Richards to Koinange, September 27, 1961, KNA, Kenya High Commission: Miss J. W. Kibunja, Miss Ezekiel, Miss Warobi, MSS/29/22, 47.
58 Letter from Koinange to Kibunja, September 25, 1961, KNA, Kenya High Commission: Miss J. W. Kibunja, Miss Ezekiel, Miss Warobi, MSS/29/22, 47.
59 Letter from Koinange to John, September 25,1961, KNA, Hospitals Accepted Applicants, 1961-62, MSS/29/84, 58.
60 Letter from Curtis to Jivanjee, August 26, 1954, KNA, Higher Education – Overseas, Miss Temina Jivanjee, 1954, ED/3/814, 8; Letter from Cherono to KSSF, est. Feb/March 1965, KNA, Kenya High Commission: Mrs R. J. Cherono, MSS/29/15, 1; Letter from Fletcher to Vintras, March 3, 1965, KNA, Kenya High Commission: Mrs Sarah Muttu, MSS/29/32, 20.
61 Hélène Charton, La genèse ambigüe de l’élite kenyane. Origines, formations et intégration de 1945 à l’indépendance, tomes 1 et 2, PhD thesis, université Paris Diderot, 2002, p. 183; Borthwick Institute for Archives (BIA) (University of York), Papers concerning JRSST grant to The Africa Centre Ltd in London for the purpose of running educational courses for wives of African workers in Britain, JRRT/4/71.
62 “The Africa Centre: Progress and prospects”, n.d. (est. 1967), BIA, Papers concerning JRSST grant, JRRT/4/71.
63 “Community studies for women: Report on pilot project and future plans”, n.d. (est. 1967), BIA, Papers concerning JRSST grant, JRRT/4/71.
64 Robert F. Stephens, Kenyan Student…, op. cit., p. 49-50.
65 Ibid., p. 50-51.
66 Letter from Gethaiga to Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education, October 23, 1962, KNA, Commonwealth Scholarship, 1962-63, United Kingdom Awards, ED/3/30, 433; 301, Letter from Adhiambo to Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education, October 5, 1962, KNA, Commonwealth Scholarship, 1962-63, United Kingdom Awards, ED/3/30, 433.
67 Wangari Muta Maathai, Unbowed…, op. cit., p. 79-80, 94.
68 Robert F. Stephens, Kenyan Student…, op. cit., p. 34.
69 Daniel Branch, “Political traffic…”, art. cit., p. 826.
70 Political and Economic Planning (PEP), Colonial Students in Britain: A Report by PEP, London, PEP, 1955.
71 Jordanna Bailkin, The Afterlife…, op. cit., p. 112; Louisa Rice, “Between empire and nation: Francophone West African students and decolonisation”, Atlantic Studies, 10, 2013, n° 1, p. 131-147, p. 136.
72 Sara Pugach, “African Students…, art. cit. See also: Julie Hessler, “Death of an African student in Moscow: Race, politics, and the Cold War”, Cahiers du Monde russe, 47, 2006, n° 1/2, p. 33-63; and Eric Burton, “Decolonisation…”, art. cit., p. 186-189.
73 The 1955 report by PEP documents racialised experiences of sexism of Nigerian women nursing students in Britain. Incidents include patients refusing treatment by Black nurses, doctors ignoring the Black nurses, or showing surprise, should they be in a position of responsibility. Though these were the experiences of Nigerian nurses, it can be reasonably assumed that Kenyan nursing students in the 1950 and 1960s would have encountered similar behaviour from patients and colleagues. See: PEP, Colonial Students…, op. cit., p. 86-87.
74 Robert F. Stephens, Kenyan Student…, op. cit., p. 35.
75 Ibid., p. 35.
76 Wangari Muta Maathai, Unbowed…, op. cit., p. 77-78.
77 Robert F. Stephens, Kenyan Student…, op. cit., p. 35.
78 J. L. Keith, “African Students in Great Britain”, African Affairs, 45, 1946, n° 179, p. 65-72, p. 71; Robert F. Stephens, Kenyan Student…, op. cit., p. 34.
79 Letter from Weiss to schools across the USA, December 9, 1960, airlifttoamerica.org.
80 “Kenya students’ welfare in Britain: A resolution to be submitted to the Kenya Ministry of Education for immediate action”, 1962, KNA, Kenya High Commission: Ministry of Education, Nairobi, 1961, MSS/29/27, 54.
81 KNA, Mrs R. J. Cherono, MSS/29/15; KNA, Mrs Sarah Muttu, MSS/29/32.
82 Letter from Vintras to Cherono, March 23, 1965, KNA, Mrs R. J. Cherono, MSS/29/15, 5.
83 PEP, Colonial Students…, op. cit., p. 94-96.
84 Letter from Richards to Koinange, August 28, 1961, KNA, Kenya High Commission: Miss J. W. Kibunja, Miss Ezekiel, Miss Warobi, MSS/29/22, 44.
85 PEP, Colonial Students…, op. cit., p. 87-90; Letter from Matron to Koinange, October 23, 1961, KNA, Kenya High Commission: Hospitals Accepted Applicants, 1961-2, MSS/29/84, 147.
86 Letter from Warobi to Koinange, December 10, 1961, KNA, “Kenya High Commission: Miss J. W. Kibunja, Miss Ezekiel, Miss Warobi”, MSS/29/22, 30.
87 Wangari Muta Maathai, Unbowed…, op. cit., p. 86.
88 Robert F. Stephens, Kenyan Student…, op. cit., p. 49.
89 PEP, Colonial Students…, op. cit., p. 125-126.
90 Letter from Tiras to Peterborough and Stamford Memorial Hospital Superintendent, May 25, 1962, KNA, Kenya High Commission: Hospitals Accepted Applicants, 1961-2, MSS/29/84, 250.
91 Letter from Njeri to Koinange, June 22, 1962, KNA, Kenya High Commission: Hospitals Accepted Applicants, 1961-2, MSS/29/84, 206.
92 Daniel Branch, “Political traffic…”, art. cit., p. 814.
93 Hélène Charton, “The fabric of academic communities at the heart of the British Empire’s modernisation policies”, in Damiano Matasci, Miguel Bandeira Jerónimo and Hugo Gonçalves Dores (eds.), Education and Development in Colonial and Postcolonial Africa…, op. cit., p. 263-88, p. 278-279.
94 Wangari Muta Maathai, Unbowed…, op. cit., p. 85-86.
95 Letter from Swinfield-Wells to Provincial Education Officer, August 5, 1958, KNA, Higher Education – Overseas, Miss Zarina Mamujee, 1954-58, ED/3/695, 32; Letter from Koinange to hospital matrons across Britain, May 13, 1961, KNA, Kenya High Commission: The Kenyan Students Scholarship Fund, 1961, MSS/29/30, 65. Jim C. Harper, II, “Tom Mboya…”, art. cit., p. 100.
96 “Bursary awards for higher education and training”, n.d. (est. 1961), KNA, Kenya High Commission: Ministry of Education Nairobi, 1961, MSS/29/27, 6.
97 Daniel Branch, “Political traffic…”, art. cit., p. 812, 826.
98 Robert F. Stephens, Kenyan Student…, op. cit., p. 55.
99 Ibid; “Wangari Maathai: Facts”, The Nobel Prize, accessed 28 September 2020. URL: https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/2004/maathai/facts/.
100 Jim C. Harper, II, “Tom Mboya…”, art. cit., p. 100.
101 Tabitha Kanogo, African Womanhood…, op. cit., p. 198, 202.
102 Bernth Lindfors, “Interview with Grace Ogot”, World Literature Written in English, 18, 1979, n° 1, p. 57-68, p. 57.
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Anna Adima, « Exposed inequalities », Diasporas, 37 | 2021, 61-77.
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Anna Adima, « Exposed inequalities », Diasporas [En ligne], 37 | 2021, mis en ligne le 01 janvier 2021, consulté le 14 mars 2026. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/diasporas/6188 ; DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/diasporas.6188
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