Political Traffic: Kenyan Students in Eastern and Central Europe, 1958–69

Abstract

This article explores the experiences of Kenyan students in the Soviet Union, Bulgaria and other communist states between 1958 and 1969. Existing studies of student mobility from Kenya in this period have concentrated on the experiences of students in the USA, a theme familiar to many readers because of Barack Obama’s family history. By contrast, and by using recently released sources from the British archives and material from Tom Mboya's papers at the Hoover Institute Archives, the article analyses the political debates that centred upon this much larger group of students who travelled East. The article demonstrates how newfound freedoms of movement were tempered by racism, colonial obstruction and domestic political considerations. The global opportunities that seemed to be presented by decolonization proved to be a chimera. The article locates the experiences of the students in a broader context of debates around decolonization and globalization, but emphasizes the importance of the students' experiences at home and abroad to the process of state-building being undertaken in Kenya at this time.