Godriver Wanga-Odhiambo. The Political Economy of Sugar Production in Colonial Kenya

What do you say about a book that is both flawless and deeply flawed? Godriver Wanga-Odhiambo has written the definitive history of the Asian farmers involved in the sugar industry in the Kibos-Muhoroni locations of Central Nyanza, a district in colonial Kenya (1). She argues that they faced a variety of forms of discrimination at the hands of the colonial government, which persisted in subsidizing the less profitable crops grown by white settlers. Nonetheless, these Asian farmers showed extraordinary resilience by overcoming various challenges, primarily by collaborating on banking and milling, and using their presence on the Legislative Council to obtain a degree of political support for their interests. This book is authoritative, comprehensive, and scrupulously documented. While the first two chapters on the causes of migration and the position of Asians in the colony lean heavily on secondary sources, the sections on sugarcane farming, transportation, and labor reveal Wanga-Odhiambo’s mastery of the archives. From the precise types of leases signed by the earliest pioneers to the exact IHC cultivator models suitable to Nyanza’s capricious soils, Wanga-Odhiambo takes readers deep into the striga weeds of colonial sugar production.

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