Book Review: Africa: Kenya: A Political History
| Author | Ali A. Mazrui |
| Published date | 01 March 1965 |
| Date | 01 March 1965 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/002070206502000129 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
136
INTERNATIONAL
JOURNAL
Two
studies, "British-Chinese
Steamship
Rivalry
in
China,
1873-85"
by
Kwang-Ching
Liu,
which
is
an
account
of
the early
history
of
the
Chinese-owned
China
Merchants' Steam Navigation
Company,
and
Albert
Feuerwerker's
paper "China's
Nineteenth-Century
Industrializa-
tion:
the
Case
of
the
Hanyehping
Coal
and
Iron
Company, Limited,"
can
be
read
in
conjunction
since
they
both
centre
around Sheng
Hsuan-
huai,
the
Chinese
official-cum-business-tycoon
who
already
headed
the
China
Merchants' Steam
Navigation
Company
when
he
assumed
direction
of
the
Hanyehping
Company
in
1896.
They
both help
to
ex-
plain
China's
unsuccessful
efforts
to
modernize
in
the
late
nineteenth
and
early
twentieth
centuries,
the
main
conclusions
being
that
the
tra-
ditional
'omnicompetent'
Chinese
officials
were
not,
in
fact,
competent
to
run
enterprises
involving
modern
industrial
technology,
and
also
that
government
aid
and
loans
impeded
the
development of
healthy
business concerns.
In
contrast
G.
C.
Allen
summarizes
the
reasons
for
Japan's
rapid
economic
growth and
continued
resilience
in
the
period
from
1870
onwards.
He
points
to
the
samurai
as
'a
ready
made
class
of
leaders,
many
of
whom
were
intent
upon
change'.
In
this
case
state
support
for
industry
succeeded
partly
because of
the
adaptability,
sense
of
responsibility
and
loyalty
of
the
samurai
class. This
is
in
direct
contrast
to
the
lack
of
these
particular
virtues
among
the
Chinese
officials
involved
in
similar
undertakings.
University
of
Toronto
J. L.
CRANMER-BYNG
Africa
KENYA:
A
POLITICAL
HISTORY.
The
Colonial
Period.
By
George
Bennett.
1963.
(London:
Toronto:
Oxford
University
Press.
v,
190pp.
$1.10)
With
newer
and
newer conceptual
tools
political
scientists
special-
izing
in
new
countries
have
gone out
for
"elite
studies."
The
tools
may
be
new,
the
countries
studied
might
be
new,
but
the
actual
phenomenon
of
studying
Olites
is
perhaps
as
old
as
the
study
of
man
itself.
For
a
long
time
the
study
of
man
meant,
in
fact,
the
study
of
the
aristocratic
man.
And
politics
as
a
discipline
meant
a study
of
those
who
rule.
If
Plato
was typical
in
nothing
else,
he was
certainly
typical
in
concen-
trating
on
the
system
of
selecting
guardians
and
the
kind
of
life
their
functions
demanded.
What has
all
this
to
do
with
George
Bennett's
little
paperback
on
Kenya's
history?
Simply
this-that
this,
too,
is
an
elite study
of
a
sort.
As
a
historian
colleague
here
at
Makerere
complained, Kenya's
history
is seen
by
Bennett
as
primarily
the
intrigues and
internal
politics
of
the
ruling
white
Olite
and
their
relations
with
the
Colonial
Office.
Mr.
Bennett
is
being
platonic
at
least
to
the
extent
of
concen-
trating
on
"the guardians."
And
yet
can
we
really
blame
Bennett
for this?
He
himself
starts
by
saying:
"Politics,
as
the
Greek
root
indicates,
is
an
occupation
of
cities.
By
implication modern
style
politics--certainly
in
its
European
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