ABSTRACT
In the previous two chapters we have shown how the concern over the loss of productive force and the recognition of the emergence of a relative surplus population were the stimuli for development thought and practice. We now turn our attention to the case of Kenya. As was noted in Chapter 5, development doctrine originally came to the fore in an African setting as a part of Joseph Chamberlain’s abortive project of constructive imperial development. Ultimately, it was the Lugardian ‘dual mandate’ which replaced Chamberlain’s constructivism. Although at the level of rhetoric the intent of this policy was the mutual benefit of Britain and its African colonies, by the late 1930s it had become increasingly clear to the higher orders of colonial officialdom that this policy of non-development had faltered. Bernard Bourdillon, the then Governor of Nigeria, wrote to the Colonial Office in April 1939 in terms which made these failures clear:
Our duty to the people themselves is to promote their social and economic welfare, to stimulate their desire for, and facilitate the[ir] attainment of a higher standard of living. In so far as we have fallen short in the performance of our duty to the world by allowing the natural resources to deteriorate, and in that of our duty to the British taxpayer by failing to expand with sufficient rapidity the market for British goods, we have also failed in our duty to promote the economic welfare of the people. 1
