The Experience of Colonization

To one degree or another, the characters, situations, and events in each of the stories in the collection are all defined by experiences of colonization.

In socio-anthropological terms, colonization is defined as an outside culture settling into an area of land already populated by an indigenous culture, with that outside culture eventually establishing itself as a dominating, governing, and reshaping influence in that area, and over that population. There are many examples of colonization throughout history; many of these are associated with Caucasian and/or European cultures moving into areas where there are non-Caucasian / non-European cultures and establishing dominance. That dominance is often defined by trade and economic concerns, but also by a sense of superiority (e.g. cultural, religious, and/or moral). In the case of this collection of short stories, the emphasis is on the colonization of Kenya, with its indigenous...