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Pulp Rift Valley

Page history last edited by Michael 13 years, 7 months ago

 

 

 

The Rift Valley Province is the largest in the Colony and Protectorate of Kenya. It is dominated by the Great Rift Valley, running north-south through it.

 

Nakuru

 

The capital is at the township of Nakuru ("the cleanest town in Africa"), population 25,000 -- of which 85% are Africans. The town is located between a large dormant volcano to the north, and a large soda lake to the south (where many flamingos nest). A hospital and police barracks are present. A company of the King's African Rifles is based at Lanet, about 6 miles east of Nakuru; and Egerton University has just (1934) been established 12 miles southwest of Nakuru. There's a telephone system within the town, and to the airstrip, university and the KAR base; telegraph lines follow the railway lines.

 

Several safari and tourist lodges and camps exist in the province, some quite well developed. The Imperial Hotel (owned by Miguel Gomez) in Nakuru caters to well-off travellers; and there are a few lesser lodgings available. Movies are shown at an outdoor 'cinema' most nights (though new films only show up every month or two). Cricket is a popular sport, not just among the British. A couple of stores specialize in hunting equipment, guns and ammunition. No weapons in .303", .450 Martini, or .455 Webley calibers may be owned by civilians in the colony (a reason to join the KDF).

 

I don't think there's a newspaper in Nakuru at this time, but the East African Standard (published in Nairobi) no doubt shows up every day before lunch. As might be expected, it's a very pro-colonist paper.

 

Military

 

The main military force in Kenya is the 3rd Battalion of the King's African Rifles regiment, based at Nairobi, but with companies in each province. The entire regiment is only about 2800 other ranks and 160 British officers and NCOs, in three battalions -- so the Kenya battalion is only about 1,000 men, and the company based near Nakuru is probably about 300 men. And, much of that company is spread around the Rift Valley province, hunting criminals, assisting the police, etc.

 

The 3rd Battalion is commanded by Major P.C. Marindin, since August of 1933. 2IC is Captain Allen; company commanders are captains Matthews, Phillips and Asplin. Six lieutenants command detachments etc. from the battalion. None of these officers has been in the KAR since before 1927 at the earliest; however, Major T.M. Brick OBE, in charge of the regiment's Supply and Transport Corps, has been with the KAR since July of 1917.

 

The language of instruction and (all but the simplest) commands in the KAR is Swahili. The company at Nakuru has  "Boys Platoon", composed of the sons of enlisted men, provided with simple uniforms, drill instruction and trade training, and 1 shilling per week.

 

There's also a KAR Reserve (former officers and enlisted men) with a couple hundred men in the colony.

 

The Kenya Defense Force, commanded by Brigadier General A.C. Lewin CB, CMG, DSO, is a voluntary reserve unit, composed entirely of European (mostly Boer and British) males. The KDF (aka the "Kenya Damn Fools") is mostly untrained -- few of the men have prior military service, and at best they attend a 5-day training camp each year, with heavy drinking each night at camp. Most are settlers outside the bigger towns, and thus are capable shots and hunters at least. The KDF actually has an "air unit", which possesses a surplus de Havilland D.H.4 biplane and a couple of other small, fragile unarmed aircraft (donated or abandoned by their previous owners). The KAR has no authority over the KDF; and the colonial government's control of the KDF is not very firm, either. In fact, the KAR, the Governor, and the Colonial Office are a bit worried about possible "settler risings" (there was one in 1922, and a Vigilance Committee is formed in 1935 with some underhanded aims). Suppressing native unrest (including work and wage issues) and maintaining a sort of veiled threat to the colonial government seem to be the KDF's main interests.

 

The Cadet Corps at the Prince of Wales School (near Nairobi) are better trained in military matters, perhaps; it is a boarding high school for boys.

 


 

 

Population of Kenya circa 1925:

 

Europeans:  8,451 (of which 3,000 or less own land)

Indians:  32,932

Goans:  3,421

Arabs:  16,102

others:  627 (mostly Chinese)

Africans:  2,827,103 (of which about half are from the Kikuyu tribe)

 

Hundreds of Boer families arrived in Kenya between 1903 and 1914; probably a fifth of the European population speaks Afrikaans. Between assimiliation and further migration, the Boer population is declining.

 

The Colonial Governor, Sir Joseph Byrne, KCMG, KBE, CB began in February of 1931 with a tough, hard-line reputation, and instructions to break corruption and "unofficial influence" (by rich planters and merchants). He has proposed (in 1933) the first income tax in the colony (5% of incomes over £500 per year, and a surtax of 2.5% of any income over £5000 per year), and better education for Africans. As might be guessed, he is controversial and widely disliked by the Boers and other whites. He appears as a character in the film Out of Africa.

 

Currency used in Kenya is the East African shilling, worth exactly the same as a regular 'sterling' shilling, but divided into 100 cents. Bronze coins (with central holes) are issued for 5 and 10 cents; silver coins are 50 cents and 1 shilling. Notes are printed for 5, 10, 20, 100, 200, 1000 and 10,000 shillings (and the notes for 20 shillings or more carry their 'pound sterling' equivalent on them). 

 

Unskilled (farm labor) natives expect 6 to 8 shillings per month in pay; semi-skilled or town labor gets twice that. Africans seeking employment are subject to a harassing and oppressive set of wage and registration rules, and must carry their kipande (showing where and who they work for, and rate of pay) at all times.

 

Here's a link to the 1911 entry for Kenya in the Encyclopedia Britannica.

 

Travel

 

Four-engined Imperial Airways AW.15 "Atalanta" passenger planes fly over the province every day or two, on their flights between Kisumu (on Lake Victoria) and Nairobi; all part of the Cape Town-to-London route. A rude airstrip exists, about 4 miles outside of Nakuru, in the middle of nowhere -- no hangars, just a guard hut, telephone and some fuel drums (intended for emergency landings by the Imperial Airways planes). No scheduled flights, though, and rarely any (working) aircraft present.

 

See the African Trains page for information on the Kenya & Uganda Railways.

 

Motor cars and light trucks can be hired in the provincial capitals.

 


 

While some other tribal languages are found, the Kikiyu, Turkana and Masai languages dominate this province -- Swahili, Arabic and Masai are probably the best for trade and travel. Many Indians and some Chinese can be found in Nakuru and at the larger villages and plantations. Coffee, wheat, dairies and cattle are the main agricultural activities -- however, natives are not allowed to grow coffee on their land.

 

The great escarpments along the valley are flanked by high mountains, including many dormant volcanoes -- most notably Mount Longonot (height 9,108', last erupted 1863, 40 miles northwest of Nairobi), Mount Suswa (height 7,730', about 40 miles west of Nairobi, with a complicated crater interior and many lava tubes), Emuruangogolak (4357' high, last erupted 1910, located in the center of the province) and Menengai Crater (height 7,474', last erupted about 6050 BC, 6 miles north of Nakuru). All of this is nearly right on the Equator.

 

Also in the province (though not really in the Rift Valley, geographically), on the border between Kenya and the Uganda Protectorate, is Mount Elgon -- the largest solitary volcano in Africa (height 14,177'). It contains the famous Kitum Cave, which elephants enter to obtain salt. [For modern viewers of the Pulp Adventure serials, the real likelihood that the Marburg and Ebola viruses originated in this cave adds an extra frisson of terror ... ]

 

Louis Leakey

 

The noted archaeologist Louis Leakey discovered the settlement site at Hyrax Hill in 1926, and leads excavations there in 1936. Louis Leakey (age 31 in 1934) speaks several of the local languages (Kikuyu and Swahili, at least) fluently, and is on very good terms with the Kikuyu tribe. He's still married to his first wife, Frida (who doesn't divorce him until 1936) but he's living with 20-year-old Mary Nicol (big scandal ...). He was last in Africa in 1932, and returns in 1935.

 

Hyrax Hill is a prehistoric site near Nakuru [less than two miles from the town] in the Rift Valley province of Kenya. It is considered one of the country's most important neolithic excavation sites. Hyrax Hill dates from 1500 B.C. and was excavated by Louis and Mary Leakey in 1936.

 

Excavations started in 1937, directed by Mary Leakey. Remains of settlements, tombs and a fortress built of stone were found, as well as 19 bodies, beheaded in an unusual way and in a crooked posture ... and the long-forgotten tombs where ancient people were laid to rest.

 

Hyrax Hill was probably an island back then, as Lake Nakuru spread across much of the Rift Valley at the time.

 

Here's a map of Kenya from 1925, and a modern map of the country:

 

 

The British miniseries "Heat of the Sun" was set in early-Thirties Kenya; "Out Of Africa" also has scenes in Kenya Colony in the period.

 

 

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