‘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
Authors | Hyde, D. |
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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. |
Keywords | trade unions; Mau Mau |
Journal | Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa |
Journal citation | 36-37 (1), pp. 235-253 |
ISSN | 0067-270X |
Year | 2002 |
Publisher | Taylor & 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 | |
2002 | |
Publication process dates | |
Deposited | 27 Apr 2011 |
Copyright information | This 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 |
https://repository.uel.ac.uk/item/8699v
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