Missionaries, the State, and Labour in Colonial Kenya c.1909-c.1919: the 'Gospel of Work' and the 'Able-Bodied Male Native'

Abstract

This article is a study of the role of the Church of Scotland Mission within the labour system in colonial Kenya at the start of the twentieth century. With their 'Gospel of Work', their government-funded technical apprenticeship scheme, and a series of legal-political interventions to regulate the settler economy, the Mission played a crucial role in the augmentation of the colonial state and capitalism in Kenya's highlands. Examining how this ostensibly 'benign' Christian project became entangled within colonial networks incarceration, coercion, and abuse, this article offers a fresh perspective onto established histories of labour, violence, and colonial rule in Kenya.