ABSTRACT
The chapter examines how imperial scientific infrastructure provided foundation for development in colonial and post-independent East Africa. By organizing the review chronologically, the chapter provides a sense of time and events in the field of scientific research in East Africa. It shows how the “seeds” of African environmental crisis was planted during the pioneer years. During the regional and global economic depression (the 1930s) investments in scientific research declined and during the wars research work was abandoned. It was during the economic depression that the African environmental crisis gained popularity among researchers and colonial officials. The post-war years received greater investments in research and development. The problem was that the scale of research could not be effectively transferred to land-use scale. The majority of the research results did not therefore reflect the scales of development, resulting in project failures without exception. After independence, scientific research increasingly attracted international expertise on varieties of subjects.
