Political Traffic

Kenyan Students in Eastern and Central Europe, 1958–69

Datos Bibliográficos

ID10076585
AutoresDaniel Branch (University of Warwick, autor de correspondencia)
Año2018
Volumen53
Número4
Páginas811-831
Fecha de publicación2018-07-23
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaJournal of Contemporary History (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0022-0094 • E-ISSN: 1461-7250
EditorialSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/0022009418761194
OpenAlexW2788665212
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas10
Referencias citadas7

This article explores the experiences of Kenyan students in the Soviet Union, Bulgaria and other communist states between 1958 and 1969. Existing studies of student mobility from Kenya in this period have concentrated on the experiences of students in the USA, a theme familiar to many readers because of Barack Obama’s family history. By contrast, and by using recently released sources from the British archives and material from Tom Mboya's papers at the Hoover Institute Archives, the article analyses the political debates that centred upon this much larger group of students who travelled East. The article demonstrates how newfound freedoms of movement were tempered by racism, colonial obstruction and domestic political considerations. The global opportunities that seemed to be presented by decolonization proved to be a chimera. The article locates the experiences of the students in a broader context of debates around decolonization and globalization, but emphasizes the importance of the students' experiences at home and abroad to the process of state-building being undertaken in Kenya at this time

Colonialism · Communism · Context (archaeology · Decolonization · Globalization · Kenya · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Theme (computing · Communism, Protests, Social Movements · European history and politics · Gender Studies · Historical Geopolitical and Social Dynamics · History · Law