‘The Nairobi General Strike [1950]: from protest to insurgency’

Article


Hyde, D. 2002. ‘The Nairobi General Strike [1950]: from protest to insurgency’. Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa. 36-37 (1), pp. 235-253. https://doi.org/10.1080/00672700109511710
AuthorsHyde, D.
Abstract

The Nairobi General Strike [1950] was the culmination of Kenya’s post war strike wave and urban upheaval. An unprecedented upsurge occurred with the general strikes in Mombasa [1947] led by the African Workers Federation [A.W.F.] and in Nairobi by the East African Trades Union Congress [E.A.T.U.C.]. While this has been termed and treated as a city wide strike, there is enough evidence to suggest a movement that went some way beyond Nairobi. The extent of the cohesion and reciprocal impacts amongst urban and rural Africans involved in the strike were underplayed by the colonial government and the media that followed it. Amongst other issues, this account has attempted to address the social physiognomy and scope of this struggle, the embryonic dual power within the city, the character of the E.A.T.U.C. leadership and its relationship to the Kenya African Union [K.A.U.]. Overall, what began as an urban led struggle with organised labour at the helm was subsequently reoriented into the forests and highlands.

Keywordstrade unions; Mau Mau
JournalAzania: Archaeological Research in Africa
Journal citation36-37 (1), pp. 235-253
ISSN0067-270X
Year2002
PublisherTaylor & Francis for British Institute in Eastern Africa
Accepted author manuscript
License
CC BY
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.1080/00672700109511710
Web address (URL)http://hdl.handle.net/10552/1210
Publication dates
Print2002
Publication process dates
Deposited27 Apr 2011
Copyright informationThis is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa in 2002, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/00672700109511710
Additional information

A version of this paper was published in: Andrew Burton [Editor], 2002,The Urban Experience in Eastern Africa c.1750-2000, ISBN 1-872566-26-X http://hdl.handle.net/10552/6414

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