Abstract
Aboriginal hunter-gatherers—possibly ancestors of the Okiek who live on the Rift Valley’s Mau escarpment—were Kenya’s earliest inhabitants. Cushitic-speaking cattle-herders migrated south from the horn of Africa from around 1500 BC, followed by Nilo-Saharan pastoralists and, from early in the first millennium AD, Bantu-speaking farmers from western Cameroon settled. Prominent Bantu groups include the Kikuyu, the Kamba, the Luhya and the Meru, while speakers of Nilotic languages include the Luo, Maasai, Samburu and Turkana. Muslim seafarers from the Arabian peninsula (Oman) established trading settlements along the Kenyan coast from the seventh century, with thriving ports like Lamu and Mombasa developing a distinctive African-Arabic ‘Swahili’ culture.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Anderson, David, Histories of the Hanged: The Dirty War in Kenya and the End of Empire. 2005
Elkins, Caroline, Britain’s Gulag. 2005; US title: Imperial Reckoning: The Untold Story of the End of Empire in Kenya. 2005
Haugerud, A., The Culture of Politics in Modern Kenya. 1995
Kyle, Keith, The Politics of the Independence of Kenya. 1999
Miller, N. N., Kenya: the Quest for Prosperity. 2nd ed. 1994
Murunga, Godwin R. and Nasong’o, Shadrack W., Kenya: The Struggle for Democracy. 2007
Ogot, B. A. and Ochieng, W. R. (eds.) Decolonization and Independence in Kenya, 1940–93. 1995
Throup, David and Hornsby, Charles, Multi-Party Politics in Kenya. 1999
National Statistical Office: Kenya National Bureau of Statistics, PO Box 30266–00100 GPO, Nairobi.
Website:: http://www.knbs.or.ke
Author information
Consortia
Editor information
Copyright information
© 2016 The Editor(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Palgrave Macmillan. (2016). Kenya. In: The Statesman’s Yearbook. The Statesman’s Yearbook. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-68398-7_254
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-68398-7_254
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-137-44008-2
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-68398-7
eBook Packages: Political Science and International StudiesReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences