Decolonising the Master’s Gift: East Africa’s Railways and the Limits of Regional Unity, 1945–65

Abstract

As historians of the British Empire have increasingly turned to consider decolonisation beyond the framework of the nation-state, so too have transport historians begun to examine how workers, passengers, and communities influenced the railway infrastructures with which they engaged. Yet, despite substantial scholarship dedicated to colonial railways and what historians have described as the ‘federal moment’, limited attention has been given to railway systems as one of the regional experiments trialled by colonial powers. This thesis addresses this gap through a case study of East Africa’s railways, focusing on Kenya, Uganda, and Tanganyika in the post-war era and towards their independence in the 1960s.By considering how East Africa’s railways operated as an inter-territorial system from 1948, and, in turn, how far regional – or local – dynamics shaped its operations, this thesis uses railways as a prism though which to examine processes of claims-making alongside federation-building, statecraft, and anti-colonial resistance. Overall, it argues that regional constraints created a context in which it was possible for East Africans to challenge the idea of how a colonial and post-colonial railway system was supposed to work, and the role it was expected to play in local, national, and transnational contexts. From cabinet ministers and parliamentarians to railway managers and their engineers, British officials projected ideological agendas onto East Africa’s railways. Yet, at the same time, East African politicians, workers, and communities staked their own claims in railway infrastructure, brokering formal and informal relationships with those who administered it, ultimately shaping the British model.In addressing the above concerns, this thesis uncovers previously unheard voices, whose influence reveals the limits of East Africa’s railway infrastructure as its footprint grew across the region. In doing so, it provides a model for examining how other regional entities worked during the British Empire, and how far these supra-national parameters enabled or restricted the agency of the individuals and communities who interacted with them.

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Identifiers

ORCID for Charlotte Lydia Riley: orcid.org/0000-0003-4901-6073

ORCID for Christopher Prior: orcid.org/0000-0002-1014-0598

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