Race Resistance and the Boy Scout Movement In British Colonial Africa: In British Colonial Africa

7. Independence and After

7 Independence and After THE PROSPECT OF INDEPENDENCE, popularly known in Swahili as uhuru, and African majority rule put official Kenyan Scouting in a difficult position that typified the problems faced by territorial Scout associations throughout anglophone Africa.The Kenya Boy Scout Association (KBSA) had allied itself with the colonial regime against African nationalism and had specifically demonized Jomo Kenyatta as the sinister force behind the Mau Mau Emergency. In the late s the European Scouters who made up the Kenyan Scout establishment were largely unaware of, or chose to ignore, the increasingly obvious indications that Britain intended to withdraw from Africa. They were slow to promote Africans to senior leadership positions and to adopt an interpretation of the Fourth Scout Law that would integrate the movement at the local level. In , with Kenyan independence just two years away, the KBSA was still telling African boys that the colony’s segregated school system prevented them from joining European troops.1 Many young Africans found Scouting less appealing as its imperial and settler connections became more obvious.The KBSA’sAfrican membership plunged as uhuru grew closer. Scouting’s close ties to the colonial regime now became a liability. Instead of deferring to uniformed Scouts, many Africans, emboldened by the prospect of independence, now scorned them as government lackeys.In the Kikuyu districts,members of the Kenya African National Union’s youth wing threw stones at Scouts who wore their uniforms in public. Even more problematic from the standpoint of 237 You are reading copyrighted material published by Ohio University Press/Swallow Press. Unauthorized posting, copying, or distributing of this work except as permitted under U.S. copyright law is illegal and injures the author and publisher. the Scout establishment, African Scoutmasters and Scouts attended antigovernment rallies as partisans of the new political parties.The Girl Guides were also troubled a growing lack of deference from theirAfrican Guiders. Kikuyu Guides in Kiambu refused to drill or get out of bed on time on camping expeditions, and their African leaders were openly hostile to the European Guide establishment. Nyeri Guide authorities complained that Kikuyu girls had become “flippant, giggly, inclined to be cheeky.” Clearly the appeal of the uniformed colonial youth movements wore thin during the waning days of British rule in Africa.2 The Scout authorities in Africa tried to defend their monopoly on legitimacy , limit the scope of independency, and codify their reading of the Scout canon by forming close ties with the colonial regime. Most European Scouters were administrators, missionaries, teachers, businessmen , and settlers. Few doubted the morality or utility of the British imperial enterprise. Decolonization and independence reconfigured the lines of political authority in Africa and shifted the ground under the feet of the territorial Scout associations.The Scout leadership had to scramble to court the new African political leaders, come to terms with African nationalism , and abandon their toleration of racial segregation. In only a few years the KBSA went from condemning Kenyatta as the sinister force behind Mau Mau to pleading with him to become their ceremonial chief Scout once he became prime minister, and later president, of Kenya. South African Scouting, which did not have to deal with an African head of state until , struggled to forge a working relationship with the new national African Scout associations, most of whom were harshly critical of the SABSA’s interpretation of the Scout canon. Independent African scouting lost much of its appeal onceAfricans took control of the Scout establishment after the transfer of power.Yet the Scout canon still remained open to interpretation in the postcolonial era. Informal and unauthorized scouting survived throughout the continent because the failure of the postcolonial states to bring about widespread prosperity created an incentive for individuals to trade on the respectability of the movement to either eke out a living or, in the case of the more audacious imposters, enrich themselves. The most serious challenge to official Scouting came from the youth wings of ruling parties and government-sponsored youth groups, which competed with the Scouts for legitimacy, resources, and members. The new states often concluded that uniformed youth movements had too much potential power and influence to be left in private voluntary hands. Many preferred the Israeli model of a paramilitary youth organization that 238 chapter 7 You are reading copyrighted material published by Ohio University Press/Swallow Press. Unauthorized posting, copying, or distributing of this work except as permitted under U.S. copyright law is illegal and injures the author...