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Interview with Jeremy Prestholdt
Professor Jeremy Prestholdt will stay as a Visiting Fellow at the Institute for European Global Studies from March to June. In this interview, he introduces his research project, Politics of the Soil: Kenya, Decolonization, and Autochthony Discourse.
Welcome to the Institute for European Global Studies, Professor Prestholdt! What kind of research project will you pursue during your stay in Basel?
My work at the Europainstitut will address the limitations and possibilities that African political thinkers faced at the end of the colonial era. Specifically, I want to understand Kenyans’ divergent, and often conflicting, political visions at that critical juncture. These visions are important because they both determined the course of decolonization and defined national fault lines after colonialism. During my period as a fellow at the Europainstitut I will explore these themes through a focus on the perceived interdependence of social identity and territorial rights. I am particularly interested in how coastal Kenyans, at the interface of continental and Indian Ocean social spheres, articulated communal relationships to territory through the language of autochthony: the notion that certain groups deserve primary rights based on ‘original’ habitation.
As a political strategy, autochthony is not unique to Kenya or Africa. For instance, it has recently gained popularity in many western European countries. To better understand autochthony discourse in its contemporary contexts, it’s important to consider how its use has changed over time. In the era of decolonization, autochthony discourse, in it broadest usage, acted as an integrating force against British domination in Kenya. It bound nationalist political organizations and galvanized supranationalist solidarities. Yet, the concept of autochthony also informed divisive subnational spatial imaginations—including those of separatist and irredentist movements—which also affected the path towards independence. These narrow, regional manifestations of autochthony discourse were ubiquitous in the decolonizing world, from Nigeria to Kenya and India. Moreover, nativist territoriality, like other forms of nationalism, did not disappear with the creation of postcolonial nations. Rather, it continued to shape politics (and conflicts) long after the dissolution of empire. Recent violence in Kenya is in part a legacy of the disintegrative spatial imaginations of the late colonial era. My work aims to elucidate these deeper histories of autochthony as a political concept. I hope that this can add nuance to our assessment of decolonization and generate new insights into political cleavages in the postcolonial world.
Why did you choose this specific topic?
I’ve been interested in the intersections of social identity, politics, and power since my first visit to East Africa over two decades ago. The early 1990s was a heady period in Kenya’s history because the nation was returning to multi-party politics after decades of one-party rule. However, it was also a time of great uncertainty since political tensions sparked internal strife. I was in Kenya in 1997 when martial law was declared in Coast Province following a rash of violence ahead of national elections. I was there again in 2008 when the nation experienced the worst post-election violence in its history. During these and other moments I witnessed a popular attraction to autochthony rhetoric, but I also noticed that the uses of autochthony discourse were not always the same. In these periods of heightened uncertainty people claimed autochthony as a means to challenge perceived enemies, yet political thinkers modified definitions of the ‘authentic local’ to accommodate shifting political alliances.
This insight led me to question the idea that communal conflicts in Kenya evidence anachronistic forms of social and political organization. Indeed, my research suggests something rather different: while Kenyans intermittently employ autochthony discourse—often within provocative frames—they also frequently redraw the boundaries of autochthon communities. Therefore, to fully understand recurrent attraction to autochthony discourse and the tensions that it fuels, I believe that we should consider both enduring frames of political thought as well as how political thinkers reimagine the specific terms of belonging at each historical juncture.
How does the topic relate to European Global Studies?
We tend to think of decolonization as a radical break in world history: the end of European colonial rule and the beginning of a new political era for independent nations. While this interpretation is partially accurate, colonial administrative concepts and structures continued to affect political culture in most former colonies. In Kenya, colonial law codified the notion that discrete social groups belonged to distinct geographical areas. British administrators in Kenya developed economic and social policies, often influenced by local his torical forces, which fortified this concept of exclusive ethnic or racial ties to ‘the soil’. Late colonial and postcolonial political thinkers further elaborated many of these concepts and employed them in service of their particular political visions. In coastal Kenya, where my research is situated, this trajectory is plain. In this region defined by sociocultural diversity, colonial divisions based on race, religion, and ethnicity continue to shape the popular imagination. For instance, contemporary coastal separatists emphasize the ‘ownership’ of the region by specific ethnic groups. At the same time, separatists have gone so far as to call on Queen Elizabeth II to intervene on their behalf, invoking a late nineteenth century agreement between England and Zanzibar as legal basis for an autonomous coastal nation.
My research also addresses recent European and American foreign policy in East Africa. Political violence, which reached new heights with the September 2013 terrorist attack on Westgate Mall in Nairobi, has occasioned greater security aid from European nations and the US. My work suggests that while policy emphasis on counterterrorism is understandable, over the past decade security aid has indirectly exacerbated Kenyan religious, ethnic, and racial tensions. Since certain minority groups, notably ethnic Somalis, coastal Muslims, and people of Arab descent, have been primary targets of counterterrorism operations, investing Kenyan counterterrorism forces with greater security resources (and then pressuring them to act) has had the net effect of alienating a cross-section of Kenyan Muslims. In tandem with Kenya’s invasion of Somalia, this alienation has contributed to an increase in communal tension as evident in recent attacks on perceived symbols of Christian dominance.
What are you most excited about regarding your stay in Basel?
Firstly, it’s an honor to have been invited to the Europainstitut as a visiting fellow. I’m very excited to have the opportunity to work with so many leading scholars in the fields of European, African, and Global studies at the University of Basel. I am particularly excited about the Europainstitut’s interdisciplinary emphasis and programs, which make for an exceptionally stimulating intellectual environment. Finally, Basel is a charming, cosmopolitan city and a wonderful place to call home, even if only for a few months. I greatly look forward to my stay.
Thank you for the interview, Professor Prestholdt.