Kenya – the Call of Africa

Behind all seen things lies something vaster; everything is but a path, a portal, or a window opening on something more than itself. ~Antoine de Saint-Exupery

The 19th, early 20th Centuries witnessed mass migrations of peoples especially in southern and east Africa. The mfecane  or "great scattering" of African peoples in the wake of the rise of king Shaka; the "Great Trek"  of Boers unhappy with British rule and the emancipation of slaves; and, the expansion of the British Empire leading to the Boer Wars were all manifestations of a migratory restlessness in the soul of people. This ultimately resulted in the unjustified domination, oppression, exploitation and wars, the wounds and scars that have continued to blight the African continent.

My Garvie ancestors were caught up in this demographic flux of colonial expansionism. The family had emigrated from Scotland to South Africa during the 1880s following the Scottish Clearances  (a form of "forced removals") and moved to Knysna (timber), Kimberley (diamonds), Johannesburg (gold), and eventually Kenya (coffee) at the end of the Boer War in their quest for their own little "acre of diamonds". Following the Boer War, circumstances in Johannesburg for the young Garvie brothers were dire. Then "opportunity" knocked at the door...

It was in January 1904 that John Garvie and his father met Mr Russell Bowker from British East Africa who was visiting Johannesburg. He informed them that the Government had decided to open up certain districts for settlement and was calling for settlers.

Bowker advised, says John Garvie, "that one or two members of the family should proceed to Nairobi and get in touch with the Land Officer there." So acting on Mr Bowker's advice the family delegated John and Lawrence to proceed to Nairobi and do their best each member agreeing to contribute a share toward expenses.

According to John, once in Nairobi "they immediately got in touch with the Land Officer Mr Barton Wright and in the course of a lengthy interview John told him all about the family of seven sons and the father ready to sell out and come to British East Africa and settle on the land. He was most sympathetic and promised to give them every assistance and there and then advised they go and see what he called 'the Plum of British East Africa', the Nandi Plateau."

So my grandfather, George, and several of his brothers, including John and Donald, settled in Kenya. However the so-called "plum" turned out to be a prune! Richard Meinertzhagen wrote in his Kenya Diary:

"It is absurd that settlers should be allowed in Nandi at present, as the country is by no means safe. Not only that, it is very bad for my men to be away from me and the strength of my company will not stand many such detachments. I have reported the whole affair to Nairobi for confirmation. These Boers (sic) came up here without anyone's permission and are squatting on Nandi-owned land for which they pay no rent. I asked Mayes if they had any right to be there; he said no and that they squatted at their own risk. Seems to me a pretty poor arrangement." (Meinertzhagen, Kenya Diary, page 186.)

They were duped. They had permission to settle....from a corrupt official! So there they were in 1904, illegal immigrants,  in Nandi territory granted leasehold of extensive lands by a corrupt official, who according to Meinertzhagen was none other than Mayes himself. Mayes was reported and dismissed. The farms then came to be referred to as the "Garvie Concession". They were victims of systems that were corrupt, exploitive, and expansionist. The "squatters" were fortunate not to have fallen victim to the incensed Nandis. Meinertzhagen provided some protection. Eventually it was mosquitoes and malaria that drove the Garvies except for Donald back home to South Africa. Donald Garvie moved to Nairobi where he introduced "bioscope" to Kenya.

But was there not another reason, other than security and wealth, driving this wanderlust? What was the big picture here?  ""Behind all seen things lies something vaster," says Antoine de Saint-Exupery. Kenyan historian, Errol Trzebinski, once scribbled on the back of an envelope to me that "Jung said.... 'the dark continent of Africa and its aboriginal people attracted Europeans because it provoked what was forgotten in their primitive selves." That intrigued me. I am not sure where Jung said that. By "primitive selves" I think Jung meant "our primal selves". Those who have been to Africa will know the feeling...a feeling of reverence and awe rather than domination and exploitation.  I mused, was this "back to Africa" theory not an irresistible migratory instinct, a "homing instinct", a deep ancestral memory connecting and drawing us back to our ancient African roots? I think so.

When he visited Kenya, Jung wrote:

"I was enchanted...it was a picture of something utterly alien and outside my experience...a most intense sentiment du déjà vu. I had the feeling that I had already experienced this moment and had always known this world which was separated from me only by distance in time. It was as if I were this moment returning to the land of my youth, and as if I knew that darkskinned man who had been waiting for me for five thousand years." (Carl Jung on arriving in Kenya, Memories, Dreams, Reflections, p. 283)

Kenya....Africa stirs something deep within one. "We carry with us the wonders we seek without us: there is all Africa and her prodigies in us," said Thomas Browne.

©Colin G Garvie
HomePage: http://www.garvies.co.za

Richard Meinertzhagen, Kenya Diary (1902-1906)
Errol Trzebinski, THE KENYA PIONEERS.