What was Kenya like before Colonization!?

Question

I'm doing a s.s project and I need to know what Kenya was like before colonization

Answer 1

Hopefully better than the current mess.

Answer 2

Kenya Before Colonization

Answer 3

Kenya and the Origins of Mankind

Kenya has been called the ‘cradle of mankind’: the place where the first humans appeared. Fossils found in the Great Rift Valley, around Lake Turkana (in the north of Kenya) suggest that hominids (the family of man apes and humans) walked around there several millions of years ago. But there are little remains and a new find could change the theories quickly. A key figure in researching Kenya’s prehistoric past was the British-Kenyan anthropologist Louis Leakey. Many remains are displayed in the famous Kenya National Museum in Nairobi, where they have met with fierce opposition from Kenyan Christians, who find them to be insulting to their religion.



Tribes Moving In

The current tribes in Kenya – like elsewhere in East Africa – can be divided into three (language) groups: the Bantus, Nilotes and Cushites. The Cushitic-speaking peoples moved into what is now Kenya from north African territory around 2000 BC. They were hunterer-gatherers, but also livestock herders and farmers. A new phase in Kenya history was born. Today they form only a small part of the population: for example the Somali, Boni, Rendille and Wata tribes are Cushitic.



More important for Kenya were the Bantu and Nilotic peoples, who moved into the area from about 400 AD on - an important phase in Kenya history. The Bantu peoples came from the Nigeria and Cameroon region (in West-Africa). From them, the Kikuyu, Mijikenda, Dawida, Taveta and Akamba tribes emerged. The Masai, Luo, Kalenjin and Turkana tribes are Nilotic. Together they form the bulk of the Kenyan people nowadays. Especially the Bantus brought new technologies, such as iron working. They were mainly farmers but they supplemented this with herding, fishing, hunting, gathering and trading their iron products with the other tribes who mainly limited themselves to hunting and gathering. By 1000 AD the techniques from the Stone Age had been replaced by those from the Iron Age throughout Kenya, and more sophisticated farming methods were developed.



Arab domination

From about the 7th century on, Kenya history underwent a big change when Arab traders started coming to Kenya by dhows (boats) over the Indian Ocean.



During the 8th century, Arabs and Persians founded colonies along the coast and came to dominate a large part of what is now Kenya for many centuries to come. This is how Swahili (together with English the official language of Kenya) appeared: a Bantu language with many Arabic loan words. Swahili became the ‘lingua franca’ (general language) between the many tribes.



The Arab and Persian traders also brought religion with them – today the majority of the people in the coast region are Muslim – and from the beginning they traded slaves, transporting them to the Arab Peninsula, the Persian Gulf and other Asian regions.

Answer 4

Well, Kenya is an African country and Africans have different values from the Japanese ( or from us in the West, too, come to that. ). In Kenya, "infrastructure" is not seen as being the absolute "be all and end all" that we all tend to get hung up on. Africans can be happy without infrastructure, I know what you are getting at with this question, but we have to respect different cultures. If Kenyans have been quite happy to live for over 180,000 years without proper sewage systems, roads or clean water, who are we to criticise? I see this as a diversity issue, NOT an economic one.

Answer 5

i dont think they did have colonization and i have learnt that in school but im not sure. maybe u should see on ask jeeves and u probably would find out

Answer 6

Site of the Great Mosque of Gedi which dates from the 13th century



Cushitic-speaking people, as termed by Schloezer, from northern Africa, moved into the area that is now Kenya beginning around 2000 BCE.[11] Arab traders began frequenting the Kenya coast around the 1st century CE. Kenya's proximity to the Arabian Peninsula invited colonisation, and Arab and Persian settlements sprouted along the coast by the 8th century, though some of the "Arabs", like in much of East Africa, were Afro-Arabs. During the first millennium CE, Nilotic and Bantu-speaking peoples moved into the region, and the latter now comprise three-quarters of Kenya's population.[citation needed] The Kenyan coast had served host to communities of ironworkers and communities of subsistence farmers, hunters and fishers who supported the economy with agriculture, fishing, metal production and trade with foreign countries.[11] Around the 6th or 9th century CE Kenya switched to a maritime-based economy and began to specialize in shipbuilding to travel south by sea to other port cities such as Kilwa and Shanga along the East African coast. Mombasa became the major port city of pre-colonial Kenya in the Middle Ages and was used to trade with other African port cities, Persia, Arab traders, Yemen and even India.[12] 15th century Portuguese voyager Duarte Barbosa claimed, "[Mombasa] is a place of great traffic and has a good harbour in which there are always moored small craft of many kinds and also great ships, both of which are bound from Sofala and others which come from Cambay and Melinde and others which sail to the island of Zanzibar."[13]



In the centuries preceding colonisation, the Swahili coast of Kenya was part of the east African region which traded with the Arab world and India especially for ivory and slaves (the Ameru tribe is said to have originated from slaves escaping from Arab lands some time around the year 1700. Initially these traders came mainly from Arab states, but later many also came from Zanzibar (such as Tippu Tip).[14]



Swahili, a Bantu language with Arabic, Persian and other Middle Eastern and South Asian loan words, later developed as a lingua franca for trade between the different peoples.[11]



The Luo of Kenya descend from early agricultural and herding communities from western Kenya's early pre-colonial history. The Luo along with other tribes associated with the Nilotic language group, are known to have originated from the north of Kenya, probably the northern regions of modern Sudan. The Nilotes as they are known, are an anthropological group that originated from the northeastern regions of Africa. They may have moved south because of the wars that characterized the growth of territories such as Kush and Egypt. In Kenya, this group comprises the Luo, Kalenjin, the Turkana and the Maasai as the main groups. This is clearly evidenced by the presence of similar dialects among certain tribes in modern day Sudan. These tribes, include the Acoli and Lwo (not same as Luo) who occupy modern Darfur region.[citation needed]



There are also other tribes belonging to this group in Uganda and Tanzania. This is attributed mainly to the Luo's affinity to Lake Victoria, which they have stuck to throughout the three countries (Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya). In Uganda, they are known to have established the Buganda Kingdom and the Toro Kingdom. The Luo in Kenya are known to have fought numerous wars with their neighbors, notably the Kalenjin, for control of the lake.[citation needed]



Throughout the centuries, the Kenyan Coast has played host to many merchants and explorers. Among the cities that line the Kenyan coast is the City of Malindi. It has remained an important Swahili settlement since the 14th century and once rivaled Mombasa for dominance in this part of East Africa. Malindi has traditionally been a friendly port city for foreign powers. In 1414, the Arab Sultan of Malindi initiated diplomatic relations with Ming Dynasty China during the voyages of the explorer Zheng He. [15] Malindi authorities welcomed the great Portuguese explorer, Vasco da Gama, in 1498.