"The British say that unlike Ghana we are not ready. The only difference between us and Ghana is they have more mosquitoes"-Tom Mboya on why Britain was reluctant to leave Kenya

there were 2 types of British... The empire and the colonizers. the colonizers had figured out some nice Malaria free "highlands" and they were not willing to leave them behind. if it was not atrocities like the Hola massacre that came to the forefront - the British empire (the decision makers in the UK) would have never given us the brand of independence we got.

reading widely?

Great link there @ hardwood

Its not a bad thing to admit that someone is better than you or does something better than you. We can learn a lot from others. But we don't have to do nonsense like sending 85 MPs to Tennessee to lavish themselves with daily stipends while pretending to learn something. This is where Mwafrigha fails.

But the first step is to admit that other countries are far more advanced than us. The next step is to figure out what we need to do in order to close the gap.

Haiti is a wrong example. Do you know that when the slaves in Haiti rebelled and kicked out the french slave owners and established the first black republic in 1825, they were forced to accept to pay france USD 21 billion to compensate the french colonist slave and land owners they had conquered? They only finished repaying the loan juzi. NB this is akin to the british in 1963 asking kenya to pay USD 21B to compensate the whjite settlers who had been kicked out of the country. Basically haitians won independence about 200yrs ago but continued being slaves working for the french until recently. And all the colonial powers supported France coz they feared the slaves in their colonies could copy haiti nd revolt. That is why Haiti punishment was so severe ndio iwe funzo for any other nyeuthi hoping to also kick out "the master". Also note that all francophone countries in Africa are also still paying France todate for their freedom.

https://www.forbes.com/s...y-it-back/#4da2bb93312b

https://urbanintellectua...ps-countries-refuse-pay/

Going back to the topic at hand. A good comparison is South Korea vs Kenya. Both countries had similar GDP in 1963. What did these two countries do differently? There are a number of factors:

1. Korea made it easy to do business and invest by enforcing transparency. Kenya made it difficult to invest via opaque deals and corruption.

2. South Korea invested heavily in technology. Kenyan politicians directed government revenues to themselves and cronies

3. South Korea partnered with Chaebols by investing in them, exempting them from import duties and gave them access to resources. Kenyan politicians gave themselves import duties so they can import commodities made overseas and sell them cheap thus undercutting local industries.

4. Land reform: Starting in 1945, Korea redsitributed land that was previously owned by Japanese colonialists with a view towards collectivism i.e. projects that would benefit large populations. Kenyan bigwigs redistributed land previously owned by colonialists to themselves.

Yes we can learn something from Korea. But will we?

I will argue that human beings and different races are inherently different. White people for example are by nature restless, more restless than us. The reason why they were called wazungus was because they came but could not stay in one place and they also had many questions, what is the name of that hill, what do you call this river where does this river come from.

Africans were puzzled, what do you mean where does this river come from, who cares, its always been here. You might think those were old time ignorant guys but I challenge you to try this, go outside right now and see how many trees, grasses, birds, insects and flowers you can name. I bet if you pick a random mzungu on the street they will probably have more information of this kind than a random African. A random African will however be more informed on things like politics or the procedure for marrying or funeral than the mzungu. It is quite normal for a Kenyan who has stayed in say the US for about 2 years to know more about US politics than an American who has lived there all his life but whose work does not involve politics. It is also quite common that a mzungu who has lived in Kenya for 2 years has traveled to more places and knows more about the Geography, plants, animals etc than most Kenyans who have lived here all their lives. We are just curious about different things.

If you go to a high end neighborhood that has both Africans and Wazungus there is very high likelihood that without meeting the people who live there you can tell which houses belong to wazungus simply by looking at the lawns, fences, hedges and gardens. We have different interests which means we take care of things differently.

Comparing Kenya to South Korea just by looking at GDP numbers is in my opinion rather shallow and myopic. It is like getting 2 people and measuring them by the amount of money in their pockets and then declaring that they are equal because they have the same amount of money. One guy is a chokora who has never gone to school puffs glue and collects and sells plastic bottles the other one is a university graduate who has fallen on hard times because his family has just been displaced by tribal clashes. They now both have 2,000 shillings in their pockets but that does not mean they are equal.

Korea is homogeneous. The country has a history as a nation going back 2000 years. The period that Kenyans like to site as Korea being equal to Kenya is the period after the Korean war in which about a million people died. After independence in 1963 many of the British with expertise in different fields were leaving Kenya (about 10,000 whites left in 1963) In South Korea after the war they were benefiting from expertise coming into the country with some Americans who had participated in the war staying and even more American companies investing.

The fact that Mzungu now behaves in that way does not mean it's 'his nature'. hardly 1000 years ago they used to be as myopic and insular as us. did this nature suddenly appear in their population genetically? it's all attitude. Competition between the kingdoms. China came to Africa before Wazungu but because it did not have competition - it did not cash in on it's might. Wazungu developed through competition and institutions. What you see is a fruit of a system of institutions and incentives in a society. Party politics in Africa determine whether "we eat" or not. so it's a bread and butter issue. in Europe - not really. The system and institutions point you to prioritize different things. incentives there drive people into this curiosity.

I have to somehow agree with this because msungus take landscaping and gardening more seriously. Back in their countries you can be sued by the local council or even neigbours if your garden or front yard is unkempt. Note that they do not have concrete fences over there and so a neglected lawn or garden would be an eyesore to all.

Also note that many of the msungus sent to work in kenya would be middle level employees back home, who most likely can only afford to live in apartments back in london or new york. So when the NGO or embassy secures them "appropriate and secure housing" in nairobi, which is most likely a house in karen or runda which comes with a garden and a gardener, they enthusiastically venture into gardening and thus very well maintain their homes, lawns and gardens not just for their enjoyment but also to maintain standards expected by their employer who secured the housing for them. On the other hand the msungus next door neighbour, Kamau doesn't have a gardener and sees the lawn as a headache and a money pit, a place full of weeds and matope when it rains, reminding him of the village life in Tuthu, Muranga, so he plants maize or sukuma or puts cabro in the whole compound.