Eroding the Commons

Colonial Baringo was in many respects an unexceptional place, a backwater in the semi-arid Rift Valley of Kenya, lacking in cash crops and distant from larger markets. But in the middle years of colonial rule Baringo's anonymity gave way to notoriety. Prolonged drought and localized famine in the district from the mid-1920s led to claims that Baringo was a land of dramatic decay, brought on by overcrowding and livestock mismanagement. In response to the alarm over erosion, the state embarked upon a programme for rehabilitation, conservation and development. Baringo's experience became a point of reference for similar programmes elsewhere in British Africa, especially in the 1950s when state-led rural development encompassed not just economic growth but an accelerated transformation of African society. The politics of African nationalism was fuelled by opposition to colonial development policies, and in Baringo the politics of the nationalist era was the politics of ecology. The longevity of colonial interventions in Baringo provides an excellent focus for the study of the broader evolution of colonial ideologies and practices of development. These ideologies and practices are fundamental to an understanding of the history of development in all parts of Africa.

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'...an exceptional study... one of a handful of such studies that have important things to say to wider non-specialist audiences: to historians of empire interested in the commonalities of a world-wide imperial project; and to those in the development community who accept that, if rural development is to have a future, its past must be fully acknowledged and understood...Eroding the Commons challenges historians' as well as developers' narratives by confronting us with complexity. Officials and settlers were mostly reluctant oppressors and the Tuken were not the inept pastoralists that the narrative insisted that they must be. There were and are no easy answers to development, in Baringo or elsewhere, but there is now a clear, informed and thoughtful account of its history.' - Richard Waller in International Journal of African Historical Studies 'This volume will be an important addition to the literature of East African pastoral peoples and is accessible to the specialist and nonspecialist alike.' - J. Terrence McCabe in Anthropos 'Cette monographie du district de Baringo au Kenya, centree sur la periode coloniale, est issue du travail de these de D. M. Anderson, realise au debut des annees 1980, complete et precise au cours des vingt annees qui ont suivi. Au-dela de l'interet porte a une discipline (histoire) ou a cette partie du continent africain (l'Afrique de l'Est), les themes abordes par cet ouvrage meritent de retenir toute l'attention de ceux qui s'interrogent sur les politiques de developpement et de preservation de l'environnement.' - Politique Africaine 'The book is a wonderful "read," chock full of interesting (often amazing!) narratives of early European encounters with Baringo's pastoral and agro-pastoral populations. While a relatively small piece of space in Britain's massive territorial possessions, Anderson convincingly shows how Baringo was central to early colonial policies and biases about African ecology and agriculture, particularly misunderstandings about the role of pastoralism in environmental degradation. ...Eroding the Commons nicely balances detailed analyses of local histories and processes in Baringo with assessments of larger colonial issues and projects. The theme of environmental conservation is a good example of how early colonial pilot schemes in Baringo actually affected programs elsewhere in Kenya and East Africa. Baringo became a "laboratory" for colonial meddling in local husbandry practices and ecosystems where "lessons learned" could be applied elsewhere in the empire. ... In sum, Eroding the Commons is a "must read" for historians and social scientists concerned with history, pastoralism, and colonial development in East Africa. It is written in clear, jargon-free text that will appeal to a broad audience of scholars.' - Peter D. Little in International Journal of African Historical Studies 'In this dense, scholarly book; David Anderson explores the complicated and often contradictory politics of African-settler-colonial government relations as the three groups struggled over the control and use of land in Baringo District, Kenya. Through the skilful integration of oral and archival sources, Anderson carefully details the social, economic and environmental shifts in the landscape from the pre-colonial period, through the drought and depression of the early 1900s, to the intensive state development interventions of the late colonial period. His point is to use history to show the "politics of ecology", that is, how and why certain environments, such as Baringo District, become sites of political disputes, and how these political tensions in part produce ecological problems such as overgrazing, drought and famine. The book contributed to the emerging scholarship on the history of development and environment in colonial Africa. ... The strengths of this work are many and varied.' - Dorothy L. Hodgson in African History 'This monogra

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Development, environment & colonial history - Baringo in the nineteenth century, c. 1840-1900 - Lines on a map: moving frontiers c. 1900-20 - Kiplel kowo, 'the white bones': drought & depression 1917-39 - The Baringo range war 1918-48 - Grazing, goats & responsible government: the Kenya Land Commission 1932-4 - Reconditioning the range: the emerging politics of ecology 1930-40s - The politics of property: African land development in Baringo 1948-63 - The captured forest: Lembus 1904-63 - Watering the shamba: the Perkerra irrigation scheme, 1952-63 - Colonial development in lowland Baringo: misreading history - Appendix, the Baringo historical texts - Bibliography

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