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The Palgrave Handbook
of Kenyan History
Edited by
Wanjala S. Nasong’o
Maurice N. Amutabi
Toyin Falola
The Palgrave Handbook of Kenyan History
 Wanjala S. Nasong’o
Maurice N. Amutabi • Toyin Falola
Editors

The Palgrave
Handbook of Kenyan
History
Editors
Wanjala S. Nasong’o Maurice N. Amutabi
Rhodes College Technical University of Kenya
Memphis, TN, USA Nairobi, Kenya

Toyin Falola
Department of History
University of Texas at Austin
Austin, TX, USA

ISBN 978-3-031-09486-6    ISBN 978-3-031-09487-3 (eBook)

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-09487-3
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature
Switzerland AG 2023
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher,
whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation,
­reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any
other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation,
computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this
publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt
from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in
this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor
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­contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains
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This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature
Switzerland AG.
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
 Preface

The Palgrave Handbook of Kenyan History has benefitted from a diverse field of
intellectuals, academics, researchers, and university teaching staff from all parts
of the country and abroad. The scholars come from different disciplines and
backgrounds. The manner in which the twenty-one chapters are organized
captures events from the earliest precolonial period through colonial encoun-
ters to the time of the country’s independence from British colonialism. The
chapters contain in-depth research, analysis, and interpretation, allowing for
the representation of space, agency, and voices of all stakeholders.
The authors explore different aspects of the country’s national history, cul-
ture, economics, politics, and environment. Chapters 2–5 explore migration
histories, settlements, and the establishment of communities in pre-colonial
Kenya. Chapters 6 and 7 dig deep into the country’s social history, while Chap.
8 explores the country’s premodern political economy. From Chaps. 9–20, the
discourse turns to Kenya’s colonial history, underlining the development of
different politico-economic systems such as agriculture, gender politics and
Western-styled politics, trade union movement, social life in colonial settler
towns, and the transition from the rise of anticolonial nationalism to the attain-
ment of independence in 1963. Chapter 21 evaluates the dynamics of political
consolidation in the immediate post-independence period and the establish-
ment of single-party authoritarianism.
For ease of study and review, the book is divided into two parts, each focus-
ing on a specific time period and multiple themes therein. We are confident
that readers will find this division of the book into two chronological and the-
matic parts most convenient. Part I comprises Chaps. 2–8 and focuses on the
country’s precolonial period. Part II of the book, comprising Chaps. 9–21
covers the colonial period to the time of independence. The book presents a
holistic narration of the country’s historical trajectories. The chapters dealing
with the pre-colonial aspects of the country’s history showcase the ebb and
flow of pre-colonial communities, demonstrating how kingdoms were estab-
lished, flourished, and declined before the advent of British colonialism in the

v
vi PREFACE

country in 1888. The chapters on the country’s colonial history examine socio-­
cultural, political, and economic developmental trajectories in the country dur-
ing the colonial period. Major landmarks in the country’s colonial history that
are examined in this portraiture include the establishment of white settlements
in colonial Kenya in 1897, the outbreak of the First and the Second World
Wars in 1914 and 1939, the rise of anti-colonial nationalism in 1945, and the
attainment of independence in 1963.
The Palgrave Handbook of Kenyan History is rich in its scope, range, breadth,
and depth. Many previous works on Kenya’s history have missed vital themes
such as the arts, science, and technology. They have not captured the cultural
history of the country. They have also not examined the European occupation
using deeper and broad tools of analysis in order to unravel the colonial project
the way this book has done. The chapters are well written, by experts, and
represent the broadest interpretation of Kenya studies. Some of the chapter
writers are great Kenyan intellectuals who are respected globally, while others
are scholars based abroad whose focus of research is Kenya. Some have con-
ducted field research while others have provided analysis and interpretation
that many readers will find invigorating. The editors have paid attention to
factual accuracy although the burden still lies with the authors of individual
chapters. The editors have tried to create gender balance in the writing of the
book, with as many women as men, while being aware of the representation of
Kenya’s ethnic diversity. The editors have also paid attention to language issues
so that the chapters can be understood by the general reader, from high school
graduates to university professors, without suffering the burden of complexity
or oversimplification.
Many universities in the world are embracing interdisciplinary and multidis-
ciplinary approaches in knowledge creation. Many of them are also embracing
theories and research approaches that are holistic and objective. These are the
approaches that writers in this book have embraced. As editors, we have accom-
modated all views—left, right, and center—without compromising the subject
matter. It is our expectation that many readers will find the book different and
unique due to its liberal and open approach to many themes in Kenya studies.
We recommend the book for general readers and all research and academic
scholars interested in Kenya and African studies, all of whom should find the
book interesting.

Memphis, TN Wanjala S. Nasong’o

Nairobi, Kenya  Maurice N. Amutabi
Austin, TX  Toyin Falola
 Contents

1 Introduction:
 Kenya in Historical Perspective  1
Wanjala S. Nasong’o, Maurice N. Amutabi, and Toyin Falola

Part I The Long Precolonial Moment  11

2 The
 Bantu Origins, Migration, and Settlement in Kenya 13
Pius Kakai Wanyonyi

3 The
 Migration of Nilotes and Their Settlement 23
Opolot Okia

4 Cushitic
 Migration and Settlement in Kenya 35
Maurice N. Amutabi

5 The
 Arrival of Arabs and Asians in Kenya 45
Julius Simiyu Nabende

6 Kingdoms,
 Politics, and State Formation in Pre-­colonial Kenya 55
Kennedy M. Moindi

7 Traditional
 Families and Social Networks in Kenya 69
Tom G. Ondicho

8 Pre-colonial
 Economic Activities: Crafts, Industry, and Trade 85
Kennedy M. Moindi

vii
viii Contents

Part II Colonial Encounters  97

9 The
 Colonial Political Economy in Kenya 99
Kennedy M. Moindi

10 The
 Kenyan Shilling: History of an East African Currency115
Isaac Tarus

11 Colonial Agricultural Development125

Martin S. Shanguhyia

12 The
 Impact of the First and Second World Wars on Kenya139
Samuel A. Nyanchoga

13 Politics
 and Social Life in White Settler Towns149
Maurice N. Amutabi and Linnet Hamasi

14 The
 Environment Under Colonialism163
Martin S. Shanguhyia

15 The
 Mass Media and Cultural Change177
Kibiwott Kurgat and Caren Jerop

16 The
 Influence of Pioneer Schools and Makerere University
on Kenya’s Post-Colonial Development187
Peter O. Ojiambo and Margaret W. Njeru

17 African
 Women in Colonial Kenya, 1900–1963199
Julius Simiyu Nabende and Martha W. Musalia

18 The
 Trade Union Movement in Colonial and Postcolonial
Kenya211
Magdalene Ndeto Bore

19 The
 Rise of Anti-colonial Nationalism223
Robert M. Maxon

20 Lancaster
 House Independence Constitutional Negotiations,
1960–1963235
Robert M. Maxon
 Contents  ix

21 Political
 Consolidation and the Rise of Single-­Party
Authoritarianism245
Wanjala S. Nasong’o

Index257
 Notes on Contributors

Maurice N. Amutabi is Professor and Director of the Centre for Science and
Technology Studies at the Technical University of Kenya, Nairobi, Kenya. He
holds a Ph.D. in History from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Amutabi is author of over 60 books, and over 100 articles in refereed journals
and edited books. Amutabi has written five novels which include A Trip from the
Past and Facing the Unique Acacia Tree. Amutabi has taught at Moi University,
Central Washington University, Catholic University of Eastern Africa, Kisii
University, Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology, Hekima
University College, Lukenya University, the Technical University of Kenya, and
served as Visiting Professor at Linkoping University, Sweden. He is the
Chairperson of the Board of Management of the Centre for Democracy,
Research and Development. He is the President of African Interdisciplinary
Studies Association and Vice President of Kenya Scholars and Studies Association.
Magdalene Ndeto Bore holds a Ph.D. in Human Resource Management and
a Master of Science in Human Resource Management from Jomo Kenyatta
University of Agriculture and Technology, Kenya. Currently, she is the
Registrar, Administration at Pan African Christian University, Kenya. Magdalene
has previously served as the Dean of Academics at Amity Global Institute
Nairobi and the Head of Corporate Training. She has also served as the Dean,
School of Business at Lukenya University. Magdalene has taught Research and
human resource management in universities and actively supervised postgradu-
ate students for over ten years. She is a Certified Human Resource Professional
and a Certified Trainer of Trainers in Human Resource Management. Her
interest is in human resource development, knowledge management, and
employee relations. She has contributed many book chapters to academic
books and has also edited three book volumes in addition to peer-reviewed
journal articles and presented at conferences widely on various aspects of the
discipline of Human Resource Management.

xi
xii NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS

Toyin Falola is Professor of History, University Distinguished Teaching

Professor, and the Jacob and Frances Sanger Mossiker Chair in the Humanities,
University of Texas at Austin. He is an Honorary Professor, University of Cape
Town, and Extraordinary Professor of Human Rights, University of the Free
State. He has served as the General Secretary of the Historical Society of
Nigeria, the President of the African Studies Association, Vice-­President of
UNESCO Slave Route Project, and the Kluge Chair of the Countries of the
South, Library of Congress. He is a member of the Scholars’ Council, Kluge
Center, the Library of Congress. He has received over 30 lifetime career awards
and 14 honorary doctorates. He has written extensively on Nigeria, including
A History of Nigeria, Nigerian Political Modernity, Violence in Nigeria, and
Colonialism and Violence in Nigeria.
Linnet Hamasi currently works as a Lecturer at Kenyatta University. She has
previously worked at Kisii University and the Catholic University of Eastern
Africa. Dr. Hamasi has published many books and refereed articles. She has had
visiting fellowships taking her to Sweden and Norway and serves on the edito-
rial boards of the Journal of Popular Education in Africa and the Journal of
African Interdisciplinary Studies and as CEO of African Interdisciplinary
Studies Association (AISA). She is a member of the African Studies Association.
She has received research awards from Action Aid, Swedish Council, and Social
Science Research Council-APN Network.
Caren Jerop is a qualitative researcher. She holds a Ph.D. in media and com-
munication, Master of Science in communication, and a Bachelor of Science in
communication and public relations. Her research interests are in the areas of
health communication, gender communication, and cultural communication.
Caren has co-authored several articles in refereed journals. She is currently a
faculty member of staff at Alupe University College, a constituent college of
Moi university based in Busia, Kenya.
Kibiwott Kurgat is currently Associate Professor of English and Communication
at the School of Arts and Social Sciences, Kisii University, Kenya. He has taught
linguistics, English, and communication in Egerton University, Moi University,
and the United States International University, all in Kenya. He has also been a
senior faculty member and Dean of the School of Information Sciences and
Technology at Kisii University. His research interests are in media and communi-
cation, political communication, academic writing, English for academic pur-
poses, English for specific purposes, vocabulary learning and teaching, general
and African linguistics, and multilingualism as a resource.
Robert M. Maxon is Emeritus Professor of History at West Virginia
University, Morgantown specializing in African history, East African history,
and world history. He served as an Education Officer in Kenya from 1961 to
1964. He obtained his Ph.D. in history from Syracuse University and has
served as a Visiting Professor of history at Moi University in Kenya on four
separate occasions. Maxon has carried out research in East Africa on numerous
 NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS xiii

visits since 1968. His publications include Majimbo in Kenya’s Past: Federalism
in the 1940s and 1950s (Cambria Press, 2017); Kenya’s Independence
Constitution: Constitution-Making and the End of Empire (Fairleigh Dickinson
University Press, 2011); and Britain and Kenya’s Constitutions, 1950–1960
(Cambria Press, 2011).
Kennedy M. Moindi teaches history and international relations at the
Catholic University of Eastern Africa, Nairobi. He earned his Ph.D. in Modern
African Studies from West Virginia University, USA. He has taught and carried
out research in many fields, including in Kenya and East Africa, and African
History in general. He has also taught world history, modern Europe, Asia,
methods of historical research, philosophy of history, gender history, history of
international relations and diplomacy, development studies, and historiogra-
phy, among others. He is a member of many refereed associations, including
the African Studies Association (ASA), of which he is a founding member, and
the Kenya Scholars and Studies Association (KESSA).
Martha W. Musalia Currently works with women entrepreneurs in Bowling
Green, Kentucky, helping them with health issues, entrepreneurship and wealth
making, and creating time to travel and have fun. She previously served as
Lecturer in the Department of History, Archeology, and Political Studies at
Kenyatta University, Nairobi, Kenya. Her scholarly specialization is in the areas
of gender history, women’s history, youth and child history, with research
focus on gender and agriculture in Kenya, youth and HIV/AIDS in Kenya.
Julius Simiyu Nabende is Senior Lecturer in the Department of History,
Archaeology and Political Studies at Kenyatta University. His research interests
are in human rights, gender, and disability studies. His publications include,
“Basic Concepts and Theories of Government” and “Elections and Citizenship
in Africa,” in S.A. Nyanchoga, et al, eds., Governments in Africa: Historical
and Contemporary Perspectives (Nairobi: Catholic University of Eastern Africa
Press, 2010); and The Works and Writings of Godfrey Muriuki: A Biographical
Essay (Nairobi: University of Nairobi press, 2013).
Wanjala S. Nasong’o is Professor of International Studies and former depart-
ment chair at Rhodes College, Memphis, Tennessee, where he has taught since
2005. He teaches courses in comparative politics, international relations, and
African politics. He has previously taught at the University of Tennessee,
Knoxville, University of Nairobi, and Kenyatta University, both in Kenya.
Additionally, Prof. Nasong’o has held summer fellowships at Riara University,
Egerton University, and St. Paul’s University, all in Kenya. A political compara-
tivist, Prof. Nasong’o’s research interest lies in the areas of democratization,
identity politics, social conflict, governance, and development. He is author,
editor, and co-editor of ten books, and dozens of peer reviewed book chapters
and articles in refereed journals. His latest publication is a coedited volume,
Beyond Disciplines: African Perspectives on Theory and Method (Dakar:
CODESRIA, 2022). For his prolific scholarly work, Prof. Nasong’o has been
xiv NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS

honored with the Rhodes College’s Clarence Day Award for Outstanding
Research and Creative Activity, and the Ali Mazrui Award for Research and
Scholarly Excellence from the University of Texas at Austin.
Margaret W. Njeru is an Independent Consultant and Researcher in Language
and Education. Previously, Dr. Njeru worked as a Senior Lecturer and Head of
the Department of Education at Riara University, Nairobi, Kenya. She has
taught at several universities in Kenya and abroad, including Riara University,
Kenya Methodist University, and Egerton University, all in Kenya, as well as
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA and Kampala International
University (Dar-es-salaam, Tanzania campus). Dr. Njeru is currently pursuing
several research projects, including the effects of COVID-19 on learning in
Kenya and language loss and its impact among children and the youth in
Kenyan urban areas. Dr. Njeru’s book chapter, “Mobile Open-Access
Revolutionizing Learning among University Students in Kenya: The Role of
the Smartphone” in the publication Empowering Learners with Mobile Open-
Access Learning Initiatives (eds. Mills, Michael & Wake, Donna, 2017) was
among chapters selected by the IGI Global Editorial team to feature in the
K-12 Online Learning E-Book Collection in the USA in 2020. She also co-
authored the article “Critical Thinking in the Classroom” in the Nairobi
Journal of Literature, 9, Special Issue, 2020).
Samuel A. Nyanchoga is Professor of history and the current Dean of the
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at the Catholic University of Eastern Africa,
Nairobi, Kenya. He is currently a researcher in African Abolitionism (AFRAB),
SLAMRANET project member: Slavery, Memory and Race in the Colonial
and Post-Colonial Worlds funded by CNRS (Centre National de la Recherché
Scientifique), and Project Researcher in Slavery in Africa Network (SLAFNET).
He has published books, book chapters, and journal articles on a wide range of
subjects, including slavery studies. For the AFRAB Project, Professor
Nyanchoga oversees research on slavery and abolitionism in coastal East Africa.
His own research focuses on the so-­called “Bombay Africans” and on slavery,
resistance, and abolition in Takaungu, Ghasi Shimoni, and Shimba Hills.
Peter O. Ojiambo is Associate Professor in the Department of African and
African-American Studies at the University of Kansas with several years of
teaching, research, and student supervision experience. He holds a Ph.D. in
Educational Studies from Gladys W. and David H. Patton College of Education,
Ohio University. Before joining the University of Kansas, he taught at Ohio
University and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His fields of
teaching, research, and publication include African-centered educational biog-
raphies; comparative and international education; educational leadership; edu-
cation, democracy, poverty, and development; nonwestern educational
thought; educational administration, curriculum, teaching, learning, and rela-
tional theories; school and society relations; and African languages (Kiswahili)
pedagogy. He holds the Center for Teaching Excellence Award and the
 NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS xv

University Scholarly Achievement Award from the University of Kansas. His

recent book publications include Kenyan Youth Education in Colonial and
Post-colonial Times: Joseph Kamiru Gikubu’s Impact (Palgrave Macmillan,
2017) and Erasing Invisibility, Inequity and Social Injustice of Africans in the
Diaspora and the Continent (London: Cambridge Scholars, 2017).
Opolot Okia is Professor of African History at Wright State University in
Dayton, Ohio, USA. His research has focused on the issue of colonial-era
forced labor in Africa. He is the author of Communal Labor in Colonial Kenya:
The Legitimization of Coercion, 1912–1930 (Palgrave Macmillan, 2012) and
Labor in Colonial Kenya after the Forced Labor Convention, 1930–1963
(Palgrave Macmillan, 2019). He previously was a Fulbright Scholar at Makerere
University in Uganda and Moi University in Kenya.
Tom G. Ondicho is Associate Professor of Anthropology in the Department
of Anthropology, Gender and African Studies, University of Nairobi, Kenya.
He holds a PhD in Anthropology from Massey University in New Zealand. His
areas of specialization include anthropology of tourism, conservation, gender,
violence and conflicts, and poverty. He is currently the editor- in- chief of the
African Journal of Gender, Society and Development (AJGSD). His most recent
works include HIV status disclosure and antiretroviral therapy adherence
among children in the Masaka region, Uganda, African Journal of AIDS
Research, (3):251-260 (co-authored with Kairania R, Onyango-Ouma W,
Kigozi G); The economic impact of COVID-19 on women’s empowerment
in Kenya, Pathways to African Feminism and Development, 6 (2): 104-116;
Impact of Corona Virus (COVID-19) Pandemic and Implications on the
Tourism Sector: The Experience of Kenya, Journal of African Interdisciplinary
Studies, 5(6): 31-44 (co-authored with E.M. Irandu, 2021), Students’ per-
spectives on online learning at the University of Nairobi during COVID-19, in
W. Shiino & I. Karusigarira (eds). Youths in Struggles: Unemployment, Politics
and Cultures in Contemporary Africa, pp. 233-250 (Research Institute for
Languages and Cultures of Asia & Africa, 2021).
Martin S. Shanguhyia is Associate Professor of African History and O’Hanley
Faculty Scholar in the History Department, Maxwell School of Citizenship and
Public Affairs at Syracuse University. He is also Director of Maxwell African
Studies Union in the Moynihan Institute of Global Affairs. Dr. Shanguhyia is
author of Population, Tradition & Environmental Control in Colonial Kenya,
1920–1963 (University of Rochester Press, 2015), and coauthor (with Toyin
Falola) of Palgrave Handbook of African Colonial and Postcolonial History
(London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018) and Development in Modern Africa: Past
and Present Perspectives (London: Routledge, 2020). Shanguhyia’s work has
also been published in multiple peer-reviewed edited volumes as well as peer-
reviewed journals, including African Economic History, Canadian Journal of
African Studies, Journal of East African Studies, International Journal of
xvi NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS

African Historical Studies, and Journal of Colonialism and Colonial History.

His research interests focus on the intersection between environmental and
economic developments.
Isaac Tarus is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Philosophy, History, and
Religious Studies at Egerton University. He was Head of Department from
May 2017 to June 2021. He holds a BA (honors) and MA (history) from the
University of Nairobi and a Ph.D. from Rhodes University, Grahamstown,
South Africa. His Ph.D. thesis was on the “Direct taxation of Africans in
Kenya” which has generated a number of articles published in refereed jour-
nals, among them CODESRIA’s Africa Development. He has successfully
supervised more than twenty MA (history) students and one Ph.D. He is cur-
rently serving as External Examiner for Kenyatta University and the University
of Nairobi. In addition, he has served as Postgraduate External Examiner for
Kabarak University, Kisii University, Mount Kenya University, and Laikipia
University. Between May and August 2021, he was a Carnegie Africa Diaspora
Fellowship Program Host for Prof. Wanjala S. Nasong’o, Rhodes College,
Memphis, Tennessee, USA.
Pius Kakai Wanyonyi holds a Ph.D. from Kenyatta University where he is
currently a Senior Lecturer in the Department of History, Archaeology and
Political Studies. He is a consultant with Kenya’s Commission on University
Education and is an external examiner at several Kenyan universities. Some of
the positions he has held include: Secretary, Historical Association of Kenya;
Chair, Department of History, Archaeology and Political Studies, Kenyatta
University; Member of the Academic Committee of the Institute of African
Studies of Kenyatta University; and Chair, Departmental Curriculum
Committee and Departmental Representative to the School of Humanities and
Social Science Curriculum Committee. Dr. Kakai has research experience in,
among others, the role of international and regional bodies in monitoring elec-
tions in Kenya; African historiography in the twentieth century; religion and
politics in Kenya; democratization and constitutionalism in Kenya; ethnicity
and politics; globalization and social policy; US-Kenya cultural and educational
relations; and initiation rituals among the Abatachoni. He has coauthored the
book Constitutionalism and Democratisation in Kenya: 1945–2007 (Nairobi:
CUEA, 2008), and written various chapters in books, and several articles and
papers featured in various publications.
 CHAPTER 1

Introduction: Kenya in Historical Perspective

Wanjala S. Nasong’o, Maurice N. Amutabi, and Toyin Falola

Introduction
The Palgrave Handbook of Kenyan History is an attempt to address a wide range
of themes and ideas in one volume covering Kenyan history in its multiple
manifestations including social, cultural, economic, and political thematic
areas. We contend that the book is pioneering in many ways because it seeks to
capture Kenyan history in a comprehensive way, including areas previously
ignored by other books. The book is divided into two major parts covering
twenty-one chapters that focus on many themes, ideas, and discourses on
Kenya history from the precolonial period through the colonial period to the
political dimensions in the immediate post-independence period. The chapters
on precolonial Kenya demonstrate that there has been a transformation in soci-
eties that have led to the present development dynamics. The chapters on the
colonial state point to the extractive and oppressive logic of the colonial state
and confirm to us that the colonial project was based on the exploitation and
marginalization of Africans. The chapters demonstrate that although a lot has
already been written about Kenya, more needs to be done to address the
knowledge gap between what has and has not been written. The chapters show

W. S. Nasong’o (*)
Rhodes College, Memphis, TN, USA
e-mail: nasongos@rhodes.edu
M. N. Amutabi
Technical University of Kenya, Nairobi, Kenya
T. Falola
Department of History, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA
e-mail: toyinfalola@austin.utexas.edu

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature 1

Switzerland AG 2023
W. S. Nasong’o et al. (eds.), The Palgrave Handbook of Kenyan History,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-09487-3_1
2 W. S. NASONG’O ET AL.

that some assumptions held about Kenya require revision to provide full
accounts of the major historical events that have taken place in the country.
The book makes significant strides in addressing topics previously ignored cen-
tering on the social, political, and economic dynamics of the long precolonial
moment, and the impact and implications of the colonial enterprise on Kenya
and its communities.
Based on research on Kenya by Kenyan scholars, The Palgrave Handbook of
Kenyan History breaks tradition in analyzing previous accounts that white
scholars presented to inject African voices and agency. The book contends that
the story of Kenya cannot be complete without paying attention to the various
actors who have facilitated transformation from stories about conquest and
colonization to accounts of development led by Africans. This handbook has
given Kenyan scholars an opportunity to revisit, rewrite, and at the same time
correct some previous assumptions and wrongly held views about Kenya. The
book also breaks up with the previous notions where the voices of ordinary
people have been ignored by incorporating them in many of the accounts pre-
sented here. By interviewing and holding discussions with such people, the
book demonstrates that history does not necessarily have to champion the
views of the most powerful in society. By inviting ordinary people to share
accounts of their history, this book shows that ordinary voices have a place in
creating knowledge and new ideas.

Part I: The Long Precolonial Moment

The book’s first part covers seven chapters, Chaps. 2–8. Chapter 2 on Bantu
migration and settlement in Kenya demonstrates that Bantu migration needs to
be revisited due to new ways of analyzing and interpreting data. Although the
chapter reaffirms existing narratives on Bantu migration, there is a need to
revisit the whole question of Bantu migration based on new archeological find-
ings that reveal new points of convergence, intermarriage, and exchange of
cultural ideas leading to new hybridities. The chapter brings out many issues
that speak to the importance of language to reconstruct Africa’s past. The
chapter shows that assimilation needs to find new impetus and interpretation
against declining groups such as Abasuba, who face strong influence from their
neighboring Luo and are likely to lose their grip on their social and cultural
attributes in the near future. The fact that the three Bantu ethnic groups
(Luhya, Kikuyu, and Kamba) occupy the top five positions in terms of popula-
tion in Kenya is an indication that the Bantu are likely to play leading roles in
Kenya’s transformation in the future.
Chapter 3 on the Nilotic people addresses an important group that has been
responsible for the occupation of vast areas of Kenya. The Nilotic migration
caused a lot of tensions and conflicts in many parts of the region in which
indigenous and Bantu groups already settled. The fact that Nilotes occupy two
(Luo and Kalenjin) of the five top positions in the population figures indicates
their likely influence in future events in Kenya. Although the Maasai are not as
 1 INTRODUCTION: KENYA IN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE 3

plenteous as the Luo and Kalenjin, they caused great upheavals among their
neighboring groups as a result of their advanced mechanics of warfare and
organization along with the age set system. It is perhaps for this reason that the
Maasai interacted with almost all the ethnic groups in Kenya through raiding,
intermarriage, nomadic pursuits, and displacement of other ethnic groups.
Chapter 4 examines the migration and settlement into Kenya of Cushites
who occupy vast parts of northern and parts of southern Kenya. Cushites
belong to the cattle complex corridor of Africa, which stretches from Somalia
in the East to Senegal in the West. The chapter notes that Cushites have not
received adequate attention among historians. There are very few studies on
the Cushitic political, social, economic, and cultural aspects. Many historians
tend to focus on the history of the Bantu and Nilotic migrations (see Chaps. 2
and 3). The chapter explains this in terms of the colonial neglect of the pasto-
ralist Cushites and privileging of agricultural communities; the early penetra-
tion of Islam in Cushitic areas; which discouraged Christian missionaries from
venturing into these areas; and the difficult and unforgiving terrain of the
region that rendered it a hardship area that was closed off from the modern-
izing processes happening in the rest of the country.
The arrival and settlement of Asians and Arabs in Kenya is the subject of the
fifth chapter. The Asian and Arab connection to East Africa goes back many
centuries, mainly through trade. There are many accounts and archeological
findings that have shown that a great deal of business contacts existed between
the groups. There was an exchange of goods and cultural ideas that go back
many centuries. However, significant Arab arrival in East Africa occurred after
the rise of Islam and the advent of Jihads, which led to the significant arrival of
Arab princesses and sultans at the Coast of Kenya. Although Kenya had trade
links with Asians going back millennia, the construction of the Kenya-Uganda
Railway witnessed the influx of Asians who arrived as workers of the railway
known as the Indian Coolies. Many Coolies remained behind on the comple-
tion of the railway and are responsible for the significant population of Asians
in Kenya. The chapter shows that Asians and Arabs wield enormous economic
power and are likely to remain a powerful minority in Kenya’s commercial,
industrial, social, and cultural dispensation in the future.
State formation in colonial Kenya remains unclear. This is the subject of
Chap. 6, which addresses an important part of pre-colonial Kenya where the
Wanga Kingdom controlled vast areas, from the shores of Lake Victoria up to
Naivasha. Existing alongside chiefdoms operating under various state struc-
tures, state formation in precolonial Kenya was accompanied by a lot of con-
flicts and civil wars, which led to the displacement of populations that triggered
countermovements. These movements ended with colonization. Kenya had
only one centralized precolonial state in Wanga Kingdom compared to the
majority of decentralized states in the country. Very little comparisons have
been made between the two systems, and more research is needed in this realm,
especially on the parameters that made the Maasai state under Ole Mbatian or
4 W. S. NASONG’O ET AL.

Ole Lenana to be seen as decentralized compared to the centralized Wanga

kingdom.
The colonial state did not understand African families and their networks.
This is the subject of Chap. 7. The chapter reveals that African families had
working networks used for social protection. It shows that Africans had vast
alliances formed between ethnic groups, which led to the formation of great
states involved in elaborate trade networks. The chapter demonstrates that
there was the existence of collaboration through intermarriages, formation of
military and economic alliances, successful batter trade and other exchanges,
and agreements based on the economic mode of production. The mixed econ-
omy pursued by this group gave them tremendous advantages in dealing with
their neighbors, allowing them to survive beyond the precolonial state. The
chapter leads us to ask questions about the poor, modern forms of social pro-
tection, and why we should not revisit the good practices from indigenous
social protection.
Chapter 8 focuses on the nature of the precolonial economy in Kenya. The
chapter argues that in precolonial Kenya, resource accumulation was depen-
dent on whether a community group was agrarian or pastoral. The agricultural-
ists depended on tilling the land for crop production while for the pastoralists
livestock rearing was their principal preoccupation, which, they believed, was
given to them by God. However, there were many important economic activi-
ties among precolonial communities in Kenya, simply because of the adequate
food production from the agricultural sector. These economic activities
included handcrafts and manufacturing industries which produced goods that
were important to the society, supplementing and complementing agricultural
and pastoral activities. The chapter posits that in precolonial Kenya different
craft industries emerged as specialization took place beyond agricultural activi-
ties. These crafts included pottery, basketry, cloth making, house building,
carving, and canoe making, just to mention a few, while, on the other hand,
manufacturing industries included iron and copper industries. More signifi-
cantly, the chapter shows, iron was a very crucial tool to both pastoralists and
farmers.

Part II: Colonial Encounters

This part of the book explicates the colonial encounters in Kenya and the
struggles for political independence in all its multifaceted forms. This analysis
of colonial encounters is critical to understanding the linkages between the
colonial and postcolonial Kenyan contexts and their implications for the
dynamics of change and continuity. Kenya’s colonial political economy contin-
ues to attract scholarly attention. This is the subject of Chap. 9, which is on the
colonial political economy that revolved around the exploitation of resources.
Slaves, ivory, gold, timber, copper, iron, and other resources were exploited
and shipped overseas. In order to maximize the exploitation, this chapter shows
that the colonial project instituted massive infrastructure such as railways, ports
 1 INTRODUCTION: KENYA IN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE 5

and harbors to reach the hinterland of Kenya. Additionally, the Europeans cre-
ated a dependent agricultural sector dominated by cash crops such as tea, sugar,
coffee, maize, wheat, barley, and pyrethrum, which were tied to the metropo-
lis, London. Africans were taxed heavily to supplement state income through
direct taxes such as poll tax, hut tax, income tax, and forced labor. The chapter
illustrates the ways the colonial state was extractive and exploitative, whose
legacy is retained in the remnants of multinational corporations (MNCs) still
operating in Kenya today, on which there are debates about the neocolonial
project in Kenya.
Chapter 10 examines the origin and history of the Kenya Shilling as an East
African currency, noting that it has remained a ubiquitous colonial legacy. For
many societies, nations and among individuals, currencies in whatever form
have been used to express sublime feelings for the past, the present, and the
indefinite future. Kenya has been part of this historical process, and the saga of
its currency shows the many characteristics of images, colors, attributes, and
patterns that have taken many forms of subtle maneuverings. Two of the most
important images that have adorned the Kenyan currency are the coat of arms
and the portraits of Jomo Kenyatta and Daniel arap Moi that reflect the coun-
try’s historical landscape and the “big man” image of Africa’s political econ-
omy. The chapter sheds a lot of light on our understanding of how the financial
sector in Kenya emerged and developed over time.
The subject of Chap. 11 is colonial agricultural development. From this
chapter, we learn that it favored cash crops at the expense of subsistence crops.
The chapter shows that a great deal of resources were invested in cash crops
such as coffee, tea, sugar, pyrethrum, and cotton, among others, which pro-
moted the welfare of Europeans. The policies in agriculture favored European
farmers and settlers and disadvantaged African peasants who were tied down by
many structures. The policies also favored farmers more than herders, thereby
marginalizing pastoralists in Kenya and creating binary oppositional systems
that are in operation to this day and cause many conflicts between farmers and
herders. The divide between farmers and pastoralists has led to conflicts, civil
wars, and many deaths and displacements in Kenya, which are still experienced
by the present populations, and we are under no illusion that this will end soon.
There is no doubt that World Wars I and II had a great impact on Kenya.
This is the subject of Chap. 12, which examines the impacts of the two world
wars on Kenya. The chapter shows that exposure of African soldiers who fought
in WWI and WWII injected new ideas into the minds of Africans. The veterans
returned home with ideas of freedom and democracy and were prepared to
champion this among native populations. WWI veterans were the first people
to voice a demand for independence and freedom led by Harry Thuku in 1922.
Even after Harry Thuku was arrested and detained in Kismayu, the national
spirit ignited through the Young Kikuyu Association did not die. The spirit was
taken up by WWII veterans who actively took to armed struggle led by Dedan
Kimathi and the Mau Mau movement. Mau Mau, Kenya’s liberation move-
ment, was a realization of the need to take up arms against European
Another random document with
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 He was not used to dealing with women of her class, and though he was
ready to bully or bluster, he found nothing in her self-possessed, impersonal
manner which he could take hold of. Besides, he reflected, it was far better
not to frighten her. If he did, she might produce lawyers, or such other
undesired persons, to take part in the proceedings. He knew, far better than
she, the flimsiness of his own claims. He was not the girl's legal guardian,
and never had been. A moral claim was all that he could urge, joined to a
cunning by means of which he hoped to attain his end, for he was
convinced that it would be well worth his while to get hold of Rona. She
had grown into just such a woman as he had foreseen. He did not feel any
doubt of being able, with little difficulty, to reconcile her to the way of life
he had in view for her, when once she realized her own power, and what a
splendid time she could have if she were but sensible. But he knew well that
the tactics he had formerly adopted were woefully mistaken. Of all things
now, he must not scare her. As his mind flew rapidly over his intended
course, he felt that he could not do better than accept this dinner invitation.
He helped the two ladies into the carriage, little dreaming how the heart of
the haughty-looking Miss Rawson was knocking against her side.

"If you would kindly give me the address," he said.

Miss Rawson was seated in the victoria. She opened her card-case.
"Home," said she to the coachman, in the act of handing the card to Mr.
Leigh, with a bow and a condescending smile. The man touched his hat,
and started. They glided away, leaving Mr. Leigh staring fixedly at the card,
with a face suddenly crimson.

"Normansgrave!" he repeated over and over to himself. "Why, that's the

Vanstons' place! His brother's place! Well, of all the fools, that detective of
mine, Burnett, was the worst! And yet, of all the places that I should have
thought he would not have taken her to, his brother's place was certainly the
one." He was so thoroughly disconcerted that he actually grinned. "I
thought they had slipped through his fingers somewhere," he reflected. "He
said he was certain that he sent her across from Plymouth—such stuff! I
told him. I said, 'He left her somewhere between London and Basingstoke,
or my name's not Rankin Leigh.' But they always think they know best,
these blooming detectives! Well, it's a queer thing! Young Vanston must
have brought her here, yet I'll swear that he never went near the place
himself, and, what's more, I can swear that his brother didn't know where he
was, unless Denzil Vanston, Esq., is the most finished liar on the face of the
earth. Why, at that very time, he was paying the police a pretty penny to
find the ticket-of-leaver—or his corpse! Humph! Well, I thought I had only
a woman to deal with, but if the two Vanstons are in it the difficulties will
be greater than I had foreseen. What did become of the other one, after all?
Well, there may be some information to be got up at the hotel yonder, that's
one thing."

He hurried back to the second-rate inn where he had put up, and, in the
course of an hour or two, had found out something of some importance. The
Squire had just gone abroad—very unexpectedly. It was even known at the
post-office that he had had a cable from Siberia. This was good news. Leigh
determined upon his plan of action. He would ask humbly, but with
firmness, so as to imply that he could enforce obedience if he chose—he
would ask that his niece be allowed to come and stay with him in his flat in
London, to show that all was right between them. He would speculate; he
would hire a furnished flat in a good position for a month, no matter at what
cost. And he would take the girl about—give her clothes and a few jewels;
take her to the theater and to race-meetings—he believed that the men to
whom he could introduce her would do the rest.

For all the latter part of his life, the man had been a hanger-on at stage
doors, a theatrical agent, a go-between of the profession. He believed all
women to be like those with whom he was in daily contact—greedy,
grasping, pleasure-loving, non-moral. To him, the life he found Rona living
—going to church with a maiden lady—was a life from which any
handsome young girl would escape, if she could.

If she once found that her beauty would bring to her—and incidentally
to him—diamonds, motors, life on the champagne standard, he literally
could not conceive that she could hesitate. What was the good of having a
girl like that in your power if you could not make her keep you? He was
determined to have an old age of comfort, as a result of the earnings of
Rona. He knew all the ropes. He knew all there was to know about the
"Profession." He knew that, given material of the quality of that girl,
success, with the right steps taken, the right course adopted, was quite
certain.

He sat smoking, and thinking it over, with his whisky on the table
beside him. He considered what, or how much, he could or should tell Rona
of what he suspected of her parentage. He was himself the son of a solicitor,
and had received a good education. But there was a bad strain in the blood.
Both he and his brother had gone to the bad, and his brother had died
young, leaving an orphan girl, whose early associations were those of a life
of discreditable shifts, but who had developed the backbone lacking in her
father and uncle, had insisted upon qualifying to teach, and when her
education was complete, had obtained a post as governess in the family of
Mauleverer, a well-known old house of the Roman faith in the North of
England. But it seemed as if this girl, too, were infected by the obliquity of
the family morals, for, after a time, she disappeared from her uncle's view,
his letters being returned to him marked "Gone away. Address unknown."
One day he received a letter with a London postmark, written at her
dictation. It said that she was married, that she had just become a mother,
that she was dying. The letter, which bore no address, was only to be posted
in case of her actual death, and then not until after a month had elapsed. She
did not reveal the name of her husband, but said that her tiny daughter was
to be brought up in a certain convent—the address of which she gave him—
under the name of Leigh. She begged him to inquire from time to time of
the child's health.

Her uncle and she had never been in sympathy. Evidently she had
nobody else at all to whom she could appeal for her baby's sake to take
some interest in her. She had always been a good and very quiet, steady girl,
yet her uncle found it a little hard to believe in the story of her marriage.

There was a young man at Vane Abbey—John Mauleverer, the eldest

son. But he was a shy, retiring, delicate youth, by no means the kind of man
whom one suspects of making love to the governess. Rankin Leigh had
made a few inquiries at the time, but had learnt nothing to confirm such a
suspicion.

Other young men had come and gone, visitors at the Abbey; and as all
these were Roman Catholics, the fact of the baby's being sent to a convent
was not of much significance. Young Mauleverer married, a wife of his own
rank, not long after the death of Veronica's mother. If he were the man, this
gave some color to the dead girl's solemn assertion that she had been
actually married. The fact that the supplies for Veronica's maintenance
stopped upon John Mauleverer's death made Rankin Leigh morally certain
that he was, after all, the father. He left a family of several children. Had
Veronica been a boy, it would have been worth her uncle's while to incur the
expense and trouble of hunting up evidence, and establishing her claims on
the property. But since she was a girl, and her father had sons, he did not
care to follow up the clew. And when, summoned to the convent by a letter
from the solicitors explaining that the supplies had ceased, he saw his niece,
he felt that she would be a more lucrative and less risky source of income
than the levying of blackmail.

But what he had not cared to set on foot, he had little doubt that the
Vanstons might be willing to undertake, if he told them the truth. Should
he? He was still meditating on the subject, when the waiter looked in.

"Mr. Leigh! Gentleman of the name of Burnett to see you, sir."

"Burnett! Well, that's a coincidence! Burnett, by all that's wonderful!

The very man!"

Burnett, the detective, came in with a twinkle. He sat down, and when
he had refreshed himself at his host's invitation, he produced a letter from
his pocket. "You're wanted, Leigh, seemin'ly," he remarked, with humor.

"I'm wanted, am I?" said Rankin, with a stare. "And who wants me?"

"No less a person than Squire Vanston, of Normansgrave, has written to

me to trace you out."

"Well, I'm——" remarked Leigh, in amazement.

"Here's the letter, if you don't believe me. Got it yesterday. So I've come
to ask—do you want to be traced or don't you?"
 "No need, my dear friend," said Leigh, in an off-hand way. "I introduced
myself this morning to Mr. Vanston's aunt, and to my own niece, who has
lived with them ever since I had the pleasure of putting you on her track. If
ever there was a confounded fool, it is you, Burnett, if you'll give me leave
to pass the remark. I'm dining there Tuesday," he added, with nonchalance.

CHAPTER XXIII

THE ESCAPE OF AUNT BEE

I should have cleaved to her who did not dwell
In splendor, was not hostess unto kings,
But lived contented among simple things,
And had a heart, and loved me long and well.
—WILLIAM WATSON.

The victoria fled swiftly along the pretty country road for some
moments without either occupant saying a word. Rona sat as if the falling
of the long-expected blow had stunned her. Aunt Bee, watching her set lips
and tragic eyes, felt vaguely alarmed.

"Rona," she said, in low tones, almost a whisper, "had you any sort of
idea that he was in the neighborhood—before we set out for church?"

The girl hesitated. At last—"I thought I saw him," she said, reluctantly,
"at the station the other day, when we went to see Denzil off. A race train
came in from Virginia Water, and I turned, glancing idly along the carriage
windows, and felt almost sure that I saw his face. I had the idea that he had
suddenly risen from his seat, and was looking at me. But at that moment the
train moved, and I—I could not be sure. But he must have been sure, and he
must have spent all these days searching the neighborhood for me. It was a
clever idea to go to church, wasn't it?"

Aunt Bee remained silent for a swift moment or two. Then she turned
suddenly, stooping, her lips close to the girl's ear. "Rona—how long shall
you take to pack?"

The girl started, a light came into her eyes and color into her cheeks.
"For how long?" she rejoined, with bated breath.

"For a journey,—one hardly knows how long. One trunk, a hat-box, a

hand-bag."

"Two hours, if there is time. Twenty minutes if there isn't."

"Good girl. I expect we can have our two hours. But I must study a
time-table. I see nothing for it but flight, and before he can suspect us of
anything of the sort. I cannot deal with him in Denzil's absence."

"No," said Rona, her eyes glowing. "You are simply splendid! Oh, what
a relief! I have been so sick with fear. I am not a coward, really, but my
nerves cannot bear the sight of him. If you could know the things he recalls!
I feel like a thrashed slave when you show her the whip."

Miss Rawson caught her hand and held it tight. "Courage, darling! You
know Denzil does not think he can really do much. Of course, it depends a
great deal upon the exact terms of your father's will. But even if he is
legally your guardian, I don't think he can actually force you to live with
him. If he is not, Denzil says we can snap our fingers. But, for all that, I
dare not tackle him alone. We must be off, and at once. And nobody must
know, not even the servants, that we are going beyond London. I have about
fifteen pounds in the house here, and I will write to my bankers, with a
check, instructing them to cable out more money to me to Paris, or
Brussels, or wherever it is we start from—I'll look out the route."

"Where are we going?"

"To St. Petersburg, I think—don't you?"

 Rona gasped. She repeated the words mechanically. "To St. Petersburg!
Oh, Aunt Bee!"

"It seems to me the safest course. The man looked to me as if he were

prepared to be very disagreeable. If we simply go to Paris, he might follow
us. But I should judge that the state of his exchequer would render Russia
quite out of the question——"

"Oh, how wonderful you are! But we shall want a passport for Russia,
shall we not?"

"I could get that anywhere where there is an English Embassy. Let me
see, we had better take Gorham, I think."

Gorham was Miss Rawson's maid, a middle-aged, superior woman,

attached to her mistress, and fond of Rona. "We will not tell anyone our
destination until we are safely off," went on Miss Rawson; "Gorham must
be told that we shall be away for a month, at least, but the servants here
must be left under the impression that we return without fail on Tuesday
evening. I will even order the dinner for that night before I go, and tell cook
that I expect a gentleman to dine with us. Then if he does hear that we are
away, and makes inquiries, his suspicions will be lulled."

Upon consulting the time-table, they found that all Was easy. By driving
to Weybridge they could catch a 5.56 train, reaching Waterloo at 6.49, in
plenty of time to dine comfortably and catch the 9 p.m. boat train, by which
means they would arrive in Paris at five o'clock next morning.

Miss Rawson had a cousin—one Mrs. Townsend, known in the family

as Cousin Sophy—who lived in Kensington and was in feeble health. Aunt
Bee unblushingly told her household that she had news that this good lady
was suddenly taken worse, and that she must go at once. As she did not like
to leave Miss Rona at home alone, she should take her; and as they must put
up at an hotel, she should also take Gorham. As they should probably stay
only a night, or perhaps two, she wished nothing said in the village of their
absence; and, as the Squire was known to dislike Sunday traveling, she
wished Jones to drive the luggage cart out by the back way and go along the
lane, and not by the high road, that the village might not be scandalized.
 "I don't think," said the newly fledged conspirator, "that he will suspect
us of bolting, after my asking him to dinner like that. Was it not a good
thought of mine to say we were engaged to-day and Monday? Conspiracy
comes terribly easy when once one tries it! Cheer up, darling, we shall get
off with no trouble at all. And on Tuesday afternoon I will dispatch a
telegram to him, saying that I am sorry to have been suddenly called away.
Mercifully, I have a balance of several hundred pounds in the bank just
now, which I have been saving up to buy furniture with when Denzil and
you turn me out! We shall do admirably."

Rona flung her arms about her neck. "I think it is too much," she said, in
a choked voice. "Let me go—let me disappear! Why should you lavish
money, time, health, on me? Who am I? Nobody knows. And I have done
nothing but harm. I have made them both unhappy. Give me ten pounds and
let me go away and hide, and earn my own living—ah, let me!"

Her mouth was stopped with a kiss, and an injunction not to be a little
fool. "I enjoy it," said Aunt Bee, with an air of evident sincerity. "I never
got a chance to do a desperate thing like this before. Who would think of
staid old Miss Rawson, the mainstay of the Girls' Friendly Society and the
Clothing Club, telling tarradiddles to her servants, and rushing off across
Europe, in defense of a helpless beauty with villains in pursuit! I feel as if I
were in a book by Stanley Weyman!"

In fact, her capacity and energy carried all before them, and triumphed
even over Gorham's consternation when, upon arriving in London, she
found that, so far from having reached their goal, they were but at the
starting-point of their journey.

The obtaining of their passport and waiting for their money delayed
them in Paris for four-and-twenty hours. But they felt fairly safe, and made
up their minds not to worry. They arrived at St. Petersburg absolutely
without adventure, and found themselves in a spacious, well-appointed
hotel, where English was spoken, and in a capital which did not seem to
differ much from other foreign capitals, except in the totally unknown
character of the language, and a curious Oriental feeling which seemed to
hover in the air rather than to express itself in any form of which me could
take note.
 Miss Rawson was much inclined to plume herself upon her successful
disappearance. They had written to Denzil to inform him of the step they
had taken, and why. On reaching St. Petersburg, they telegraphed to him
their arrival and address. If all had gone well with his journey, he should
have been almost a week at Savlinsky by now, and might have important
news for them.

A telegram arrived the following morning. "No news Felix. Please await
letter—Denzil."

That was all. They could not tell, from its necessary brevity, whether he
was displeased at their daring dash or no. But there was nothing for it but to
stay on in their hotel for a week or two, until the arrival of the letter alluded
to.

And in truth there was plenty to see, plenty to interest them. It

disappointed Rona that the ice and snow which she had associated with the
idea of Russia were absent—that the weather was fine, and, if anything, too
hot to be comfortable. But this enabled them to go about and to enjoy the
sights of the place.

And then their first misfortune suddenly befell them. Miss Rawson, in
stepping out of a droshky, wrenched the knee which had been troubling her
that summer, displacing the bone in its socket, and tearing and bruising the
ligaments, so as to produce acute inflammation.

It was the kind of accident which happens one hardly knows how or
why. One may get out of a cab every morning for five-and-twenty years,
and the following day injure oneself seriously in so doing. The doctor called
in—an English doctor was at once forthcoming—thought very gravely of it.
It was a far worse matter than a simple fracture, he said. Absolute rest was
the only thing possible. He used every effort to reduce the inflammation.
But the pain was so great and so continuous that the patient could not obtain
any sleep; and the day after the accident she was so ill that Rona was very
anxious about her.

That same day came a letter from Denzil. He said he was very glad to
hear that they had come out, though he could hardly have advised so
extreme a course had he known it to be in contemplation. As they were
there, he hoped they were fairly comfortable, and would not mind staying
on until he had some idea as to what was best to be done. He said that the
place where he was was far from civilization, and though the Russian,
Vronsky, did all he could for his comfort, he found himself very unwell, as
a result, he supposed, of his long journey, or the difference in climate, or
way of living, or anxiety. There was no news of Felix. He related the
circumstances of his disappearance, and of the pursuit of Cravatz. He said
that Vronsky was far from hopeless, for the Governor suggested that Felix
was perhaps keeping out of harm's way until he heard that the Nihilist was
laid by the heels. He himself could not but think that had Felix intended to
go into hiding, he would have informed Vronsky, and not left him to fret
and distress himself. Vronsky's devotion to his brother was touching. He
meant to leave him everything of which he died possessed. He was in a
large way of business. He had confided to Denzil that he believed Nadia
Stepanovna, the Governor's daughter, was interested in Felix——

("Dear me, what a good way out of our difficulty that would be!" sighed
Aunt Bee.)

They had every hope of hearing of the arrest of Cravatz in a few days.
The police had been put on his track by a wandering Kirgiz. ("What on
earth is a Kirgiz?" said Aunt Bee.) When his arrest was a known fact, they
might hope to ascertain where Felix was, unless he had been the victim of
foul play. But an exhaustive search all along the route between Nicolashof
and the mines had resulted in no discovery; and his attached servant, Max,
was missing also. He concluded by remarking how fortunate it was that,
owing to the proximity of the Governor's summer residence, they had a line
of telegraph in so remote a spot. He recounted his own journey there, and
added that he would write more, but that he felt increasingly unwell, and
was afraid he should have to go and lie down.

It was a disquieting letter. They did not like to think of Denzil being ill,
so far from them, or from a doctor, or from any friends. He could not speak
a word of Russian; and though Vronsky had improved in his English under
the tuition of Felix, he had had of late little use for that tongue, and it had
grown rusty.
 Aunt Bee almost forgot her pain in discussing the hard case in which
Denzil must find himself. They talked of little else all day.

Next morning, when poor Miss Rawson awoke from the only nap she
had been able to snatch during a night of agony, it was to hear that another
telegram had arrived.

"Vanston very ill, wishes you to come.—Vronsky."

Miss Rawson buried her face in the pillow and sobbed. What was to be
done? It was an impossibility for her to think of traveling. Yet the idea of
Denzil alone and ill in that awful place was torment to her. Rona made up
her mind.

If she could not offer to the man who loved her the devotion which he
craved, she could at least offer service. She remembered his extreme
kindness when she, the frightened, penniless little fugitive, had lain ill at the
Cottage Hospital.

The least she could do would be to hasten to him, ill as he was, and
lonely among aliens.

"I shall go, Aunt Bee," she said, quietly. "It is of no use your trying to
stop me. I can manage quite well. I have Denzil's letter here, giving a full
account of his journey. I have only got to get into the right train at Moscow,
get out of it at Gretz, and hire a carriage to take me on. You have Gorham
here to stay with you, and I shall be all right, I have plenty of common
sense."

"Rona, it is impossible—impossible, and you know it! A girl of your

age and appearance to go a drive of five hundred miles, alone, with these
savages—what would Denzil say?"

"Denzil will not know until it is over," was the quiet answer. "Now,
dear, it is of no use to fuss. What have the two Vanstons done for me? What
have I ever done in return? Here is a thing I can do. Why, women do such
things every day. I know a girl who went back to her husband from England
to Japan, right along this trans-Siberian line, by herself. You must not
hinder me, for I am going, dearest."

It was in vain to argue with her. Her mind was quite made up. She went
out to Cook's Office, took her ticket, made her passport arrangements, and
came back triumphant to pack her trunks. The doctor, when called into
consultation, thought the plan a little daring, but by no means beyond the
bounds of possibility. He had, as it chanced, a patient, a lady who lived
farther along the line, and who was, by a fortunate coincidence, going that
way, so that she could travel with Rona as far as Gretz. "As for the drive,"
he said, "it is a main road almost all the way; there are posting-stations and
good horses. I think the drivers are an honest set of men; and I do not see
why she should not be safe."

In short, the girl's determination carried the day. "Do not let us think of
Mrs. Grundy," said she; "let us only think that Denzil is ill, and wants me.
He has every right to have me, if I can get to him by any means in my
power."
 CHAPTER XXIV

VERONICA "ON HER OWN"

And so I look upon your face again.
What have the years done for me since we met?
Which has prevailed, the joy of life or pain?
Do you recall our parting, or forget?

Show me your face. No! Turn it from my sight!

It is a mask. I would lay bare your heart.
You will not show me that? I have no right
To read it? ... Then I know my doom. We part.
Words for a Song.

In after days, when Veronica looked back upon that journey, it seemed
to her as if it had lasted for months.

As its slow hours crept by, she grew to have a feeling that she had been
traveling ever since she could remember, and must go on traveling till she
died. The train moved on, and on, and on, like a thing which, once started,
can never stop again. After the first twelve hours she had a bad attack of
train sickness, an ailment from which she had never before suffered; and
she lay sleepless during the night hours, with aching head and parched
mouth, tossing about on her berth, and with her mind unable to detach
itself, even for a moment, from a thought so dreadful that never, till faced
by this dreary solitude, had she dared to put it into words.

She knew, she had known, ever since their interview in the rock garden,
that she no more loved Denzil than she loved his absent brother. She did not
love him, and she vehemently desired not to marry him. Yet, somehow or
other, she had caused him to believe that she returned his affection. She
was, practically, engaged to him. She had deceived both brothers, and it
seemed to her that, search as deeply as might be into her own heart, she had
not done so wittingly.
 The case simply was that her heart had never been aroused. Her hour
had not come. She did not know love. Each of these two young men had
wanted of her something which she had not to bestow. To each she had
offered in return something else. There was, however, one notable
distinction between the two affairs. Felix had excited her best feelings. She
had felt for him pity, sympathy, the instinctive womanly desire to comfort
and sympathize with the lonely, the unfortunate. Denzil, on the other hand,
had stood in her imagination for home, peace, safety, well-being. It had
been her selfishness which had responded to his call. He could give her an
assured position, and life in the surroundings which she loved. Felix was
the asker, Denzil the bestower. To marry Felix demanded sacrifice; to marry
Denzil was to accept benefits at his hands.

But, if she considered which of the two had the more claim upon her
allegiance, she found herself bewildered, divided. Felix had saved her life,
but Denzil had preserved it. As she envisaged the situation, she felt that the
die was cast. Her letter to Felix had bound her to Denzil. She wondered,
over and over to herself, whether Felix had received that letter, and what he
had felt upon reading it. Here, in her isolated loneliness, far from Aunt Bee,
far from Denzil, she began to have an inkling as to what letters would mean
to the exile, and to realize what Felix might have experienced, upon seeing
her writing, snatching open the envelope, and reading the complete
extinction of her own feeling for himself....

Was his present disappearance—could it be—the result of her cruelty?

Had it made him reckless?

Such thoughts poisoned the weary hours of the endless night. And
through them all beat upon her brain the knowledge that Denzil was ill, so
ill that he had wired for them to come to him. He would not have taken so
extreme a course, had his sickness not been serious—had he not been in
danger.

What should she do, if after the bitter strain of her long journey, she
found him dead when she arrived at Savlinsky?

She pictured herself alone, in the mining village, with no woman near,
with nobody but Vronsky, the Russian! Was it, after all, mad of her to
undertake such a journey?

She was thankful to rise from her sleepless couch, and shake off the
wild dreams which visited her with every moment of unconsciousness. The
varying country, the dim Ural Mountains, into the heart of which they
ascended, the increasingly strange garb of the people, left hardly any
impression upon her usually active mind. But during the day she rallied
from her misgivings of the previous night, and girded at herself for a
coward.

There was nothing to take off her mind from its treadmill of
apprehensions. The lady who was her fellow-traveler spoke English, but
was very dull, and most likely herself thought the girl unresponsive. It had
proved impossible to get English books for the journey, and she was
without refuge from the harassing thoughts which yelped about her like
snapping wolves.

As the train bore her along the endless road, as day faded into night and
morning dawned again along the illimitable plain, and sun shone and wind
blew and clouds drifted, and meal-times came and passed like telegraph
posts, the thought of her treachery—her double treachery—was ever in her
mind, aching, desolating.

Her fellow-traveler's encouraging assurance that they would be at Gretz

in an hour or two was an untold relief. At Gretz she hoped for tidings of
Denzil. She had telegraphed, before leaving St. Petersburg, that she was
starting, and asked to have news wired to Gretz. Her telegram, in its brevity,
said nothing of the fact that she was coming alone.

Of itself, the idea of escape from the noise and motion of the train was
something to be eagerly anticipated. To walk upon firm ground, to stand
still, to sit upon a chair—these were boons indeed.

But when the train had departed, bearing with it the one creature with
whom she was on speaking terms, and she stood upon the platform at the
station and looked around at the dull, dirty town and the wild-looking
people, she had a moment of sheer panic. How isolated she was! How the
days had rolled by, without her being able to hear, either from the beloved
aunt she had left, or the lover to whom she journeyed!

She shivered as she stood, for a heavy rainstorm had but just passed
over the town, and everything seemed dank and dripping.

She drew out her paper, upon which the doctor had written down for
her, "Drive me to the Moscow Hotel." "I want to stop at the post-office." "I
want a carriage and horses to go to Savlinsky," and various such necessary
formulæ.

It was only half-past ten o'clock in the morning, so she was determined,
if a carriage could be secured, to stay only for lunch at the hotel, and start
upon her journey at once. The friendly St. Petersburg doctor had seen that
she had a store of tinned food with her, but it was with a sharp pang that she
realized that however much she wished to supplement her stores she could
not do so, as she could not say one word of Russian.

She found herself the center of a gesticulating crowd of men, all

proffering unintelligible service, saying to her things which she could not
understand. She could not pronounce the words the doctor had written
down for her, though she had tried to learn. She had to show the written
paper to the barbarian crowd that surrounded her. Its purport was,
apparently, understood, for, with many gesticulations, and noises which she
hoped and believed were of a friendly nature, she found herself conducted
to a curious-looking vehicle in waiting outside; and, earnestly repeating
"Hotel, Post Office, Posting-house," she got in, and was driven through
such a slop of mud as she had never before encountered. Pausing presently,
she found they were at what looked like a stable doorway. Her driver made
signs for her to alight, and she concluded that he was explaining that he had
brought her first to the posting-house to give her order, as it was on the way.
She dismounted trembling, almost slipping in the filth, and, peeping
through the half-open gate, saw a dirty courtyard within, where one or two
ostlers were at work; and, facing her, across an incredible swamp of stable
refuse, the door of a house, which was presumably the place where she
must give her order. Gathering her skirts about her, she entered the
disgusting place, and stood wavering, glancing round in desperation, and
despising herself for her want of resource.
 She saw that she had been imprudent in trusting herself, with no
knowledge of the language, in such regions. But she was in for this journey
now, and meant to win through to Denzil if she died in the attempt. She
must not be deterred by the smells nor the mire of the stable yard: and she
advanced with determination.

Just as she did so, two men came out from the door-way which she was
approaching, and stood upon the stone step in the full light of day. One was
presumably the Russian stable-keeper, a wild kind of person, but apparently
amiable. He was in eager converse with a tall man, very well dressed, who
held a cigar between his fingers.

The clouds were breaking, and a watery sun at this moment lit up the
squalid scene. It shone upon this unexpected figure, and it shone also upon
the far more surprising appearance of the English girl, in her dainty apparel,
picking her way through the muck.

The stranger's keen, alert gray eyes grew fixed, and for a moment he
stood, rigid and still as a stone, while his bronzed, finely-cut face turned
pale.

Rona stopped short. There was no recognition at first upon her face. But
something in the change which passed over his struck a wild conviction into
her mind.

It was the missing man—Felix Vanston.

* * * * * *
*

How changed! That was her first thought. The image in her memory of
a gaunt, pale, bearded youth, thin and stooping, faded and died away. This
was a Man, in the fullest sense of all that word can mean. It was fortunate
that his own recognition of her had been instantaneous. Even now she was
not sure, until he came towards her, through the rotting straw.

His color had not changed, while hers was now fading visibly from the
cheeks to which it had rushed in tumult. He was wholly self-possessed and
dignified, though his surprise must have been greater than hers. As he came
nearer she had a conviction, deep and certain. He had received and read her
letter. She could have declared that the lines of his mouth expressed a light,
scornful contempt.

Without a word said, she knew and felt herself condemned.

But, whatever the young man's feelings at the meeting, hers must be
predominantly those of relief. In spite of the violent shock which his
appearance gave her, she was conscious of almost frantic joy, at sight, in
that weird place, not merely of a compatriot, but of a friend.

"David!" she uttered at length, using in her confusion the name by

which she had always known him. "Then you are alive—you are safe, after
all."

He was quite close to her now. She felt dizzy, and as though she could
hardly bear such nearness. She thought, suddenly and irrelevantly, of the
way in which they had clung together, she and he, in the little arbor at
Normansgrave—clung each to each, and felt that to part was terrible.

... He was speaking. She must listen, must bear herself rationally. He
was holding her hand, lightly—for an instant—then he had dropped it, and
she heard his voice. That, too, was changed, with the subtle transmutation
which had passed over him.

"I am sorry," he said, "that my disappearance has apparently caused far

more anxiety and trouble than I could have anticipated." He hesitated, rather
as if he expected her to explain her miraculous appearance in Siberia. But
she could not have uttered a word. After a pause he went on—"Surely it
cannot be—on my account?—I mean, I am at a loss to explain your being
here."

She made a mighty effort then, and brought out a few gasping words.

"Denzil—he is at Savlinsky. He is very ill. I am on my way—to him."

 He looked oddly enlightened. The lines of contempt, or indifference,
deepened about his almost too expressive mouth. "May I ask if my brother
has any idea of the—er—remarkable course you are pursuing?"

She assented eagerly. "He is expecting me. I—I must go on directly."

For a moment she wrestled with her feelings, then commanded herself.
"You don't know what it is to see you—to see the face of a friend," she
faltered. "I feel so lost, so bewildered. You will help me, will you not? I
want a tarantasse."

"No," he replied, "what you must have is a povosska—a thing with a

hood. I was just ordering one for myself. I, too, am going to Savlinsky—"
he paused, eying her doubtfully. She forestalled him.

"Then, for pity's sake, let me travel with you! I—I will try not to be
troublesome. I hope you don't mind, but it would be such a relief—I feel
much less courageous than I expected. I can't understand a single word, and
it makes me feel helpless."

Felix bowed. "At what time would you wish to start?" he asked.

"As soon as I have had some lunch. I am very hungry. Eating upon the
train made me feel ill."

"Let me put you into your carriage, and, if you will wait a minute for
me, I will give the order and escort you to the inn."

He piloted her through the dirt, seated her in her carriage with a few
words to the driver, whose manner at once became more respectful, and,
having returned to the stable-keeper, soon rejoined her, and in a few
minutes they were seated, side by side, clattering through black, gluey mud,
among swarms and swarms of excited people, who thronged the streets in
dense crowds.

"What quantities of people," she said wonderingly, glad to have

something upon which she could remark naturally. "I never knew that such
a place could be so thickly populated."
 "Oh," he answered, with a certain frigid reluctance, "it is not always like
this. To-day is exceptional. These are sightseers."

"Indeed!" she replied, anxious only to avert silence, "what was the sight
they have come to see?"

There was a perceptible pause before he replied: "An execution."

She grew crimson, and flashed a look at him. He was staring in the
opposite direction. "Was it—was it Cravatz?" she asked, under her breath.

"It was." The words seemed to issue from a steel trap.

"Then you are free?" she breathed.

"And unattached," he responded, dryly.

She was silenced, and they drove on some little distance, until a thought
flashed into her mind.

"Oh," she said, "I was forgetting! Please ask him to drive to the post-
office. I must see if there is a message from Mr. Vronsky about Denzil."

Felix called an order to the driver, and then turned to her. "Do you really
tell me that my brother demanded of you that you should take this
formidable journey to him alone?"

"Oh, no, no! Please don't imagine that! He thought Miss Rawson would
come too. We were both at St. Petersburg, but Aunt Bee had an accident,
and hurt herself so seriously that she could not move. So I determined to
come alone. Mr. Vronsky's telegram was alarming."

"I congratulate you upon your devotion," remarked Felix, as the carriage
stopped at a wooden house. "My brother is a lucky man."

"He is a very good man," said the girl, nettled by the sneer. "Please ask
for the name of Rawson," she added, pettishly.

He soon came out, with a message. "Condition much improved."