Nine Faces Of Kenya

by Elspeth Huxley

  The East African Coast: Select Documents G. S. P. Freeman-Grenville.

  The Siege of Mombasa

  In 1632 the Portuguese reoccupied Mombasa to find it a wilderness: buildings razed, palm trees felled and only one survivor. They rebuilt the city and held it uneasily until 15 March 1696 when an Arab fleet sailed into Kilindini harbour and the entire population, Christian and Muslim, numbering over 2,500 souls, fled into Fort Jesus. So began a siege which was to last for thirty-three months. At the end of 1696 a relief fleet from Goa managed to land supplies and a few reinforcements, but with them came “the swelling sickness”, probably bubonic plague, which swept through the garrison.

  As early as 28 January 1697 the Captain was reporting that three or four men were dying every day. It was mostly the pure-bred Portuguese, and especially the men, who succumbed; the immunity of the women they sought to explain by the fact that they were not exposed to the hardships of the watch. No drug or medicament appeared to be of any use….

  Things went from bad to worse. At the end of January there were only 20 men, that is, no doubt, reckoning only the Portuguese, under arms in the Fort. The ships had left without taking any letters and without, as had been promised, freeing the garrison of its useless members….

  Matters then became even worse. At the end of June the only Portuguese survivors were the Captain, the Augustinian Prior, who was a useful man-at-arms as well as a priest, two soldiers and two young children. Yet these, together with a few surviving native troops, managed to repulse an assault made with ladders by the enemy one night. Even African women were armed and had to help and they did what was required of them courageously. A few days later three more Portuguese died, leaving alive only the Captain António Mogo de Mello. His hour too was at hand, and anticipating his end, he had his grave dug in the chapel of the Fort on 24 August. On 28 August he too died.

  Upon his death the command passed, in name at least, to a sick Goan called Pascoal Diniz. In fact he was nothing more than the keeper of the keys of the Fort for the few days which he still survived. The seventeen-year old Bwana Daud bin Sheikh, the Prince of Faza, was actually in command of the Fort….

  The authorities in Goa roused themselves to make one more effort to save the threatened Fort. At the end of 1698 a third relief fleet was hastily fitted out, this time with money lent personally by the Viceroy. This fleet, which consisted of four frigates and a galliot with about 500 landing troops and 700 crew on board … reached Mombasa on 13 or 14 December, 1698. The effort had been in vain, for the red Arab flag was already flying over the Fort. It had fallen only a few days previously, possibly only one day before the arrival of the fleet. The fleet sailed on to Zanzibar without attacking the Arabs, and without even approaching land. Nothing was known in Zanzibar of the fall of Mombasa….

  An Arab ballad gives the date of the fall of Mombasa as 9 Jamada Alkhir of the year 1110, i.e. 12 December 1698. There is no confirmation of this date in official Portuguese reports of the period. No Portuguese survived who might have given information about events at the end of the siege…. A year later an enquiry was ordered from Lisbon, but it was not for another two years that some light was shed on the darkness of the last days. On 29 September 1701, an Indian called Braz Fialho arrived in Goa, who had been employed on board Luis de Mello Sampaio’s frigate. He arrived after escaping from Muscat and claimed to have participated in the last days of Mombasa.

  His story was briefly as follows. On the eve of St Lucia’s Day, 12 December 1698, the sick Captain, Leandro Barbosa, sent an African youth out of the Fort to fetch fresh leaves to use as wound dressings. This youth was captured and betrayed to the Arabs the weakness of the defenders, whose total number was only eight Portuguese, three Indians and two women. That same night the Arabs attacked at two points, namely on the flag bastion (on the town side) and on the bastion where the emergency door was situated. The few defenders withdrew into the cavalier bastion, called Santo Antonio, and here turned the guns inwards on to the attackers. They defended themselves until midday on the following day. When however, the Captain, who had stepped forward a few paces, received two fatal wounds, the rest of the defenders laid down their arms. They were led away in chains but their lives were spared, for the Arabs hoped to obtain from them information as to where certain treasure, which was supposed to be hidden away, was concealed. In the end only two Portuguese remained alive, and these became servants of the Arabs in the Fort. On the pretext of revealing the whereabouts of the treasure, one went into the church and the other into the storeroom and they there managed to fire off the stocks of gunpowder, thus blowing up themselves and two hundred Arabs.

  In 1728 a fleet from Goa reached Mombasa and, overcoming a feeble resistance, reoccupied Fort Jesus. But not for long. Thirteen months later, the townsmen fell upon the Portuguese outside the fort and murdered them all. Those inside the fort held out for eight months before hunger forced them to surrender.

  The story ended when on 26 November 1729, they sailed off to Mozambique, in two dhows given to them by the Mombasans. Each man was allowed to take with him only what he could carry. This was the final farewell and the collapse of Portuguese rule in northern East Africa. The exiles did not reach Mozambique until 3 February 1730, and the only survivors were the Governor, the factor, three captains, five warrant officers and twenty men.

  The Portuguese Period in East Africa Justus Strandes.

  Cities and Thrones and Towers

  Stand in Time’s eye

  Almost as long as Flowers

  Which daily die.

  But, as new buds put forth

  To glad new men,

  Out of the spent and unconsidered earth

  The Cities rise again.

  Rudyard Kipling

  Colonial Conflicts

  The establishment of British rule over the peoples of the interior, roughly between 1890 and 1905, though on the whole peaceful was not without resistance, first by the Kikuyu and then by the Nandi. A party led by a Swahili headman named Maktub sent out in 1891 from Fort Smith, near Dagoretti, to buy food, was ambushed and wiped out to a man. An expedition commanded by Captain Macdonald sent to impose a fine of goats and cattle repulsed an attack by eight hundred to a thousand Kikuyu warriors.

  Next day we continued our advance. Village after village was occupied and searched, and in some we found tokens, such as portions of the dead men’s accoutrements, which clearly showed that the inhabitants had participated in the attack on Maktub. All this time the enemy hovered round at a distance, but did not venture near; only once, when their position was a very good one on the far side of a particularly difficult ravine, did they make a stand. They drew up and taunted us, inviting us to come on and share the fate of Maktub and his men, as they wanted more clothes and arms; but when our two leading companies accepted the challenge and advanced up the slope, their hearts failed them, and they retired rather hastily into some villages.

  On gaining the high ground, we found ourselves on a great open clearing, surrounded by seven large villages, and, as soon as the main body came up, these were attacked. Pringle advanced on three strong kraals on the left, Austin took two in the centre, and Purkiss cleared the right flank. In no case did the enemy make more than a shadow of resistance, and soon seven pillars of smoke rising skyward announced to the countryside that the enemy’s main stronghold had shared the fate of the other hostile encampments we had already destroyed.

  Back at Fort Smith one of the officers, Purkiss, was in his room when the local chief, Wyaki, suddenly appeared.

  He looked in at the messroom window and passed on to Purkiss’ room. In a few minutes we heard a tremendous row, and rushed out to see Purkiss and Wyaki emerge from the former’s room, locked in a deadly struggle. Before we could reach the combatants, Purkiss snatched away Wyaki’s sword, and gave him a violent blow on the head. We now dashed forwards and separated them, and in less time than it takes to tell the story Wyaki was bound and helpless. It was with great difficulty
that we prevented Purkiss’ infuriated followers from spearing his treacherous assailant on the spot. The news had by this time spread outside the fort, and we heard the alarm-cry echoing far and wide across the countryside, and the cattle being hastily driven off to the woods. However, the two friendly Kikuyu chiefs were still with us, and these we sent with the message that Wyaki should be tried for his offence next day, and that we did not intend to make a casus belli of his unsupported action. For several hours we heard nothing, and meanwhile all the sentries were doubled, and everything made ready to repulse an attack. About 11 pm our envoys returned to say that Wyaki’s relatives had decided not to take up his quarrel, and that the country was settling down.

  It appeared that Wyaki, who was rather drunk, went into Purkiss’ room to taunt him with his failure to secure the cattle of Guruguru. Purkiss, seeing the state he was in, ordered him out of the house, and on Wyaki becoming still more insolent, pushed him towards the door. Wyaki at once drew his sword and attacked Purkiss, who was unarmed, and could not get to the weapons he had laid aside on entering his room. An unequal struggle now commenced, and Purkiss grappled with the Kikuyu chief, in an endeavour to deprive him of his sword. The rest of the struggle we had ourselves witnessed.

  Wyaki was tried next day in the presence of seventeen of his brother chiefs, to whom all the evidence was translated. Of the verdict there could be no doubt, nor had Wyaki any defence to make, except that he was drunk. So we decided to take him away with us to the coast, and deport him permanently from the country, where he had proved such a treacherous enemy, and the cause of so much bloodshed. This decision was far more lenient than the Kikuyu chiefs had expected, and they then and there made a treaty of friendship with Purkiss.

  Wyaki, apparently none the worse for his wound, was marched down to the coast with Macdonald’s party, but died on the way at Kibwezi from complications following a fractured skull.

  Strange to say, poor Purkiss died at the same station a few years afterwards, on his way down from Uganda, and the graves of the two combatants lie close together.

  Soldiering and Surveying in British East Africa J. R. L. Macdonald.

  Some sixty years later Wyaki was re-born as a folk hero, and his story retold.

  Because the Kikuyu from early times have attached great importance to their land and to their property, the people of Waiyaki’s time were very pleased with his actions and words, because he was the most important leader then…. Thus when the white people came they tried very hard to bribe people so that, through cunning, they might steal the rich earth.

  But Waiyaki himself did not like what the white people were trying to do because he was aware of the importance of the rich earth. Also his destiny had been foretold by the prophet Mugo son of Kibero, who had prophesied what would happen. So with his army of many people he endeavoured to prevent them. But because the Europeans came with guns it was not possible to drive them away completely, although the warriors were very strong and brave.

  During those days when he was working against the white people they had cunning plans to arrest him. When the white people had completed their plans they sent for the respected leader, Waiyaki, telling him to go to the place where he had given the white people a plot of land to build on [Fort Smith] so that they would negotiate a settlement. When he arrived one of the servants who had come with the white people said to him: “Do not go in for the white man is very angry”. But because Waiyaki had no fear, and because he was a leader, and also because he knew that he was in his own country, he was very stubborn when he heard that he should not enter, especially as it was he who had given them the land.

  So, being a brave man he was not afraid; so he entered. When he had entered he saw that the white man was really very angry. He pulled out his sword, but the Europeans combined to hold him and disarmed him. Indeed he was wounded on the face. When the young people saw that their leader was arrested they shed tears of rage. But as you know, Waiyaki was a fighter for justice and peace and a lover of his people. He knew that if the young people fought the Europeans they would be wiped out by the guns.

  When he saw that fighting might break out he spoke with a loud voice, saying: “I beseech you, my people, beware of fighting, for it is not good that you should lose your lives because of me. Let me be taken where I shall be taken. If I die, I die, so be it”.

  And the people present were astounded and offered much property, goats and cows, so that Waiyaki might be released. But the Europeans were adamant in their refusal. When the Europeans refused to release Waiyaki the people went home, hearing his words of wisdom, for without doubt he was highly respected….

  When Waiyaki died he prayed earnestly to God to resurrect him because he saw that he had left his country in a state of much hardship. Let us say that Waiyaki, when he died, went to the right hand of God, and because God loved His people He heard Waiyaki’s prayers that it should be made possible for him to reach the white man’s country to learn his customs so that he might return again to his own country to lead his people from slavery.

  So Waiyaki was born again as a young child with another name and he was brought up and became a man with his own home. It came to pass, as God wished, whose wisdom never fails, that he followed the very route he had followed to Kibwezi, and he went to Europe, where, through the kindness of God and the diligence of our hero, he worked with all his heart to overcome many hardships until he finally obtained what had caused him to go to the land of the strangers for some eighteen years….

  Now the Waiyaki of whom I am speaking, the one who was born again, is, of course, Jomo Kenyatta. Therefore because I believe that there is no one who does not wish that Waiyaki had lived, know ye all that he has been resurrected.

  Mahoya ma Waiyaki Mbugua Njama, trans. James Ngugi.

  From The Scottish Mission in Kenya 1891–1923 Brian Mackintosh.

  One of the first tasks of the British administrators was to put a stop to inter-tribal warfare.

  The Wakamba make up for lack of warlike discipline by craft and cunning. At all times, day and night, they have scouts located in the outlying hills north of Machako’s; anxiously looking out for Masai war-parties on the Kapote plains. These scouts are also greatly assisted by their hunters, who follow the antelope even into the plains beyond the Athi River. Should any of these discover that the Masai kraals are greatly weakened in Elmoran [warriors] by the departure of strong war-parties to distant raiding-grounds, word is at once passed to the Wakamba, who assemble a force of fighting men and elect their war-leaders. This force is then divided into two or more battalions, and moves north, under cover of the hills, to the edge of the great grass plains on which are dotted the low black kraals of the enemy.

  The Wakamba then wait till dark, when, by a rapid and noiseless march, they approach the hostile kraal. But they know better than to dream of surprising the ever-vigilant Masai, and it is now their craft comes in. With much uproar, one battalion advances on the kraal, and the alarm is hardly sounded before the Masai Elmoran spring out to confront the foe. The battle is soon being hotly waged, but the Wakamba battalion, avoiding too close a combat, retires slowly, covered by flights of poisoned arrows, which whistle through the darkness. The impetuous Masai warriors, eager to flesh their spears, press forward in triumph, and are led farther and farther from the kraal by the cunning foe.

  Meanwhile, the other division of the Wakamba creeps round and falls on the now undefended village camp. Short work is made of the few feeble old men who attempt to defend it, and women and children, cattle, sheep, goats, and donkeys are hastily driven off. After having allowed sufficient time for this manœuvre, the first Wakamba battalion makes some show of resistance, and thus prevents the Elmoran from detailing any large number to recover the cattle, and under shelter of the darkness and confusion a good deal of the booty is often triumphantly carried off. They are not, however, always so successful, for the Masai, having learnt caution from previous raids, sometimes divide their force, and the Wakamba
find great spears flashing up to oppose both their parties, and are forced to retire discomfited.

  On the other hand, the Masai freely raid the Wakamba, and cause great loss in cattle, if not in life. The Wakamba scouts are sometimes caught napping, or more frequently the raiders make such a rapid advance that no preparations can be made to offer a combined resistance. In such a case each little Wakamba village thinks only of its own safety. The women and children flee to the mountains, and the men, instead of assembling to resist the invaders, endeavour to drive off their flocks and herds to the same haven of refuge. When each village is thus playing for its own hand, the disciplined Masai find it an easy matter to cut off some of these isolated parties, and retreat with their spoil, with hardly the loss of a single man. These raids are often carried out successfully by parties of only a couple of hundred; but they are mostly confined to the other Wakamba districts, for the Masai, after an experience they had some years ago, are chary of becoming entangled in the mountain gorges.

  On that occasion they raided deep into the mountains, and reached Kilungu. They had been successful, and had collected a large number of cattle, for the Wakamba, as usual, had offered only a feeble resistance. The Masai, however, had proceeded too leisurely, and those of the Wakamba who had got their property to the safety of the rocks and caves now joined those who had been caught en route, and as the Masai, encumbered with herds of cattle, began to retire, the Wakamba bowmen made good practice from every bush and clump of jungle that commanded the road. Again and again the Masai charged to the flank and rear, and as often the Wakamba fled, but only to return and ply afresh the death-dealing bow.