There often comes a point in
time when a colony reaches its “breaking point”; the moment at which
impassioned, strong-willed, tenacious leaders arise and pledge to end the
oppression and exploitation of their followers.
Over the course of history, colonies around the world have reached the
pinnacle of their ire against their colonizers, and pursued varying methods of
ending their foreign domination. Before
the mid-1900s, global “powerhouses”, such as Britain, focused heavily on their
imperial agendas and snatched any piece of weakly inhabited land that seemed
promising. However, by 1945, a domino
chain of colonies were beginning to slip away from the established European
hegemony, determined to prove to the world that they were self-reliant and
could manage their own affairs. At the
same time, they could avoid economic exploitation and political manipulation
that they had previously faced under their colonizers.
Jomo Kenyatta |
However, Kenya’s independence would promise instability
for the new nation. Citizens would be
plagued with the burdens of a corrupt, biased administration. In following years, extreme poverty would
counterbalance the benefits of a moderately more steady government. However, despite the hardships that came with
independence, Kenya is gradually beginning to develop a more modern,
sophisticated political and economic structure on which it can participate in
global activities and hopefully provide a better quality of life for its
citizens in the future.