The meter gauge railway built by British colonialists in East Africa in 1896-1901, emblematic of Western civilization's expansive reach, piped white settlers to the African continent in pursuit of adventure and colonial conquest and witnessed Kenya's awakening process and struggle for independence.
NAIROBI, Jan. 29 (Xinhua) -- "It is not uncommon for a country to create a railway, but it is uncommon for a railway to create a country," Sir Charles Eliot, then commissioner of British East Africa, made the bold statement in 1903.
Eliot, "who initiated the policy of white supremacy in the British East Africa Protectorate (now Kenya)," according to the Encyclopaedia Britannica website, was referring to the meter gauge railway built by British colonialists in East Africa between 1896 and 1901.
The railway, emblematic of Western civilization's expansive reach, piped white settlers to the African continent in pursuit of adventure and colonial conquest and witnessed Kenya's awakening process and struggle for independence.
"There are those who praised it (the railway) as a key component in Kenya's birth, or we called the birth of a nation, and those who are more of saying that it played a role in colonizing Kenya," Dennis Munene, executive director of the China-Africa Center, told Xinhua in a recent interview.
"We're celebrating now our independence 60 years. And we will always continue to look behind on what happened. We are going to heal from the wounds and now push for Kenya to attain more development," Munene said.
EUROPEAN PARTITION OF AFRICA
At the entrance of the Nairobi Railway Museum, the century-old railway, initially named the Uganda Railway after its destination, was displayed on a map of East Africa.
Built between 1896 and 1901, it started in the port city of Mombasa on the coast of the Indian Ocean and extended northwest to stop at Port Florence, now Kisumu, on the shores of Lake Victoria.
