IS KENYA A NN BITE MAN'S COUNTRY ?
By Dr. L. S. B. LEAKEY
AT a time when Germany and Italy are both demand- ing colonial possessions in those parts of Africa �v Mich are considered to be suitable for colonisation— with the implication of permanent white settlement—it is reasonable to ask whether in fact any of the equatorial regions of Africa do provide " a white man's country " in the fullest sense of those words. And since Kenya Colony is probably the healthiest and the best of the British equatorial possessions in Africa, we may as well consider the question from the point of view of that country. At. the present time the European population of Kenya Colony is estimated to be about 16,000, and efforts are . continually being made to attract more and more settlers .to. come and take up land. Actually, a very large part of Kenya is universally admitted to be unsuitable for permanent white settlement, but on the other hand there are many responsible people who hold the view that the highland areas, with an altitude of 5,000 feet or more, do fulfil all the requirements of " a white man's country." In consequence, a large part of the highlands has been set ,aside. for. European settlement.
Now, if a country is to be regarded as a white man's .country it must be shown that it is possible for successive generations to live there successfully without the necessity of '".going on leave " to Europe from time to time for health. reasons. It must also be shown that economically itis possible for a European who has no private income to make a reasonable living in the country and from the country itself.
Virst of all, let us consider the health question. There is po ,doubt at all that the climate of the Highlands of Kenya is very agreeable indeed—many people would even say. that it . was ideal. In the hot weather it is seldom too hot to be .bearable, while in the cold season, when fires in the house, plenty of blankets at night, and warm clothes by day, are almost necessary, there is usually some bright sunshine each day. In fact, the climate of the highlands is not really tropical at all in spite of being on the equator. As a result, people are apt to forget that the reason why they have such an enjoyable climate is that they are living at a very high altitude, and that this in itself can be a severe strain to the health. Since native tribes such as the Kikuyu have adapted themselves to living continuously at an altitude of six thousand feet, it would be unwise to say categorically that the white man cannot also so adapt himself, but the impression that one receives from meeting a number of Europeans who have lived in the highlands of Kenya for a very long time without going away is that they are less physically fit and more "nervy" than those who do go home on leave more or less regularly. In recent years this. particular problem of the effect of the altitude upon health has been partially solved by increasing facilities for spending a holiday at sea level on the coast during the cool season,. and .the beneficial effect of an annual holiday at a low altitude for the children of the Colony has been widely realised. But, unfortunately, the sea is over three hundred miles from the Highlands, and the cost of such a holiday is therefore great.
Another aspect of the health problem that has to be seriously considered in connexion with the question of permanent white settlement in equatorial regions, is the effect of the tropics upon growing children. It would probably be difficult to find more healthy young children anywhere than those born and living in Kenya, but there seems to be a growing body of opinion that considers that there is something about the climate or the altitude or the latitude or possibly simply the greater amount of bright sunshine per annum that causes children to reach puberty earlier than is normal in Europe, and this undue acceleration of physical growth seems to have a distinctly bad effect upon general health.
This widely-held view leads parents, whenever possible, to send their children to Europe at this critical stage of their growth. In these days of scientific research it should be possible to obtain exact data upon this problem. Until this has been done, it is not really fair to state categorically—as many people do —" at least from the health point of view Kenya is a white man's country." If the prevalent opinion is accurate, then on that score alone we should have to admit that Kenya is not a white man's country in the fullest sense of the term.
But assuming, for the sake of argument, that on health grounds parts of Kenya can be regarded as suitable for white settlement, let us consider for a moment the economic prospect. The white people who have really settled and made their homes in Kenya can be roughly divided into two groups, the commercial and the farming communities. Among the latter there is, and there always will be, a proportion who have assured Private incomes in the form of pensions, &c., and for them Kenya will probably always provide an ideal home where, as the advertisements say, the taxation is light according to English standards, the surroundings and social amenities arc good, and possibilities of all kinds of sport are excellent. But retired business, professional and service men with pensions who come to Kenya to end their days in comfort do not constitute permanent white settlement, unless their children arc going to continue in the country after them. Many of these descendants will presumably be in the same position as the man who has invested all the capital which he possesses in his plot of land and house, and whose sole source of income is to he the produce of his farm. If therefore the prospects for this type of white settlement are good, then (provided the question of growing children's health, &e., is also satisfactorily answered) we might be justified in saying that Kenya is a white man's country. But what is the outlook before the Kenya settler who has no private, . income and who must live on what his farm can produce ? By paying low wages to his native labour and by working very hard himself, a man who plants one of the high- priced crops like tea or coffee, on not too small a scale, can make a very reasonable profit when Nature is kind to him. But the trouble in Kenya is that Nature is very often unkind. The rainy seasons are far from being reliable, and there is even evidence of progressive desiccation during the last thirty years. Insect pests of all kinds take a heavy toll, as do plant and animal diseases, and the man who has no private income to tide him over a bad year is very liable to find himself forced to borrow extensively from the banks, and, once he has done this, it is very difficult ever to get free of debt again.
Those who acquire farms in areas where the soil is unsuitable for the high-priced crops like tea and coffee are likely to be in a still more serious position. The whole of a man's crops of maize or wheat can be almost completely destroyed in a few days by a swarm of locusts, by a plant disease such as wheat rust, or by either too much or too little rain, and even if the season is a good one, the distances of many of the farms from the railway, and of the highland area as a whole from the sea, means that much of what would otherwise be profit is swallowed up by handling and transport costs.
In short, the economic position of the settler with no private income is a very precarious one, and one that can probably only be maintained by Government subsidies of one kind or another. That, it may be argued, is equally true of the farmer anywhere else. Possibly ; but a country with such comparatively small financial resources as Kenya cannot surely afford to subsidise its white settlement indefinitely, especially when most, if not all, of the export crops could be equally well produced by the native peasant populations (under European guidance at first, perhaps) and by big com- panies with sufficient reserves to be able to tide over bad years.
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