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Meridional French

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Meridional French ( French : français méridional ), also referred to as Francitan (a portmanteau of français and occitan ), is the regional variant of the French language spoken in the area of Marseille , Avignon and Toulouse . It is influenced by the Occitan language .

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77-427: There are speakers of Meridional French in all generations, but the accent is most marked among the elderly, who often speak Occitan as their first language . The phonology, morphology, syntax and lexicon of Occitan have all influenced Meridional French, but the phonological effects are perhaps the most salient by producing the characteristic accent, which is used by speakers of Meridional French. Those effects include

154-443: A second language is any language that one speaks other than one's first language. A related concept is bilingualism . One definition is that a person is bilingual if they are equally proficient in two languages. Someone who grows up speaking Spanish and then learns English for four years is bilingual only if they speak the two languages with equal fluency. Pearl and Lambert were the first to test only "balanced" bilinguals—that is,

231-581: A Bantu cultural core. DNA evidence has found that the Swahili people were of mixed African and Asian (particularly Persian) ancestry. The Kilwa Sultanate was a medieval sultanate centred at Kilwa , in modern-day Tanzania. At its height, its authority stretched over the entire length of the Swahili Coast , including Kenya. Since the 10th century, rulers of Kilwa would go on to build elaborate coral mosques and introduce copper coinage. Swahili,

308-566: A Bantu language with Arabic , Persian , and other Middle-Eastern and South Asian loanwords , later developed as a lingua franca for trade between the different peoples. Since the turn of the 20th century, Swahili has adopted numerous loanwords and calques from English, many of them originating during English colonial rule. The Swahili built Mombasa into a major port city and established trade links with other nearby city-states, as well as commercial centres in Persia, Arabia, and even India. By

385-403: A child who is completely fluent in two languages and feels that neither is their "native" language because they grasp both so perfectly. This study found that One can have two or more native languages, thus being a native bilingual or indeed multilingual . The order in which these languages are learned is not necessarily the order of proficiency. For instance, if a French-speaking couple have

462-553: A child who learned French first but then grew up in an English-speaking country, the child would likely be most proficient in English. Defining what constitutes a native speaker is difficult, and there is no test which can identify one. It is not known whether native speakers are a defined group of people, or if the concept should be thought of as a perfect prototype to which actual speakers may or may not conform. An article titled "The Native Speaker: An Achievable Model?" published by

539-596: A colonist's perspective is found in the memoir Out of Africa by Danish author Baroness Karen von Blixen-Finecke, published in 1937. By the 1930s, approximately 30,000 white settlers lived in the area and gained a political voice because of their contribution to the market economy. The central highlands were already home to over a million members of the Kikuyu people, most of whom had no land claims in European terms and lived as itinerant farmers. To protect their interests,

616-574: A country in East Africa . With a population of more than 47.6 million in the 2019 census, Kenya is the 28th-most-populous country in the world and 7th most populous in Africa. Kenya's capital and largest city is Nairobi , while its oldest and second-largest city, is the major port city of Mombasa , situated on Mombasa Island in the Indian Ocean and the surrounding mainland. Mombasa was

693-541: A great amount of land, in the plains where people did not put up much resistance. The Nandi peoples managed to oppose the Masai, while the Taveta peoples fled to the forests on the eastern edge of Mount Kilimanjaro , although they later were forced to leave the land due to the threat of smallpox . An outbreak of either rinderpest or pleuropneumonia greatly affected the Masai's cattle, while an epidemic of smallpox affected

770-411: A non-native speaker may develop fluency in a targeted language after about two years of immersion, it can take between five and seven years for that child to be on the same working level as their native speaking counterparts. On 17 November 1999, UNESCO designated 21 February as International Mother Language Day . The person qualifies as a "native speaker" of a language by being born and immersed in

847-399: Is one of the most distinctive sub-dialects of Meridional French. First language A first language ( L1 ), native language , native tongue , or mother tongue is the first language a person has been exposed to from birth or within the critical period . In some countries, the term native language or mother tongue refers to the language of one's ethnic group rather than

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924-460: Is quite possible that the first language learned is no longer a speaker's dominant language. That includes young immigrant children whose families have moved to a new linguistic environment as well as people who learned their mother tongue as a young child at home (rather than the language of the majority of the community), who may have lost, in part or in totality, the language they first acquired (see language attrition ). According to Ivan Illich ,

1001-602: Is strictly adhered to by speakers of Meridional French, in contrast to those of other varieties of French. A number of words are peculiar to Meridional French. For example, péguer (Occitan pegar ), "to be sticky" (Standard French poisser ), chocolatine (Southwest), " pain au chocolat ", cagade (Occitan cagat ) or flûte (a larger baguette), known as a pain parisien (Parisian loaf) in Paris . Some phrases are used with meanings that differ from those of Standard French. For example, s'il faut , literally meaning "if necessary",

1078-467: Is the lingua franca for most post-independence Singaporeans because of its use as the language of instruction in government schools and as a working language. In the context of population censuses conducted on the Canadian population, Statistics Canada defines the mother tongue as "the first language learned at home in childhood and still understood by the individual at the time of the census." It

1155-538: Is the second largest in eastern and central Africa, after Ethiopia, with Nairobi serving as a major regional commercial hub. Agriculture is the largest sector; tea and coffee are traditional cash crops, while fresh flowers are a fast-growing export. The service industry is also a major economic driver, particularly tourism. Kenya is a member of the East African Community trade bloc, though some international trade organisations categorise it as part of

1232-540: Is used to indicate the language of one's ethnic group in both common and journalistic parlance ("I have no apologies for not learning my mother tongue"), rather than one's first language. Also, in Singapore , "mother tongue" refers to the language of one's ethnic group regardless of actual proficiency, and the "first language" refers to English, which was established on the island under the British Empire , and

1309-587: Is used to mean "perhaps", which would be rendered in Standard French as peut-être . That is a calque of the Occitan se cal . Many sub-varieties of Meridional French exist, with distinctive features. Diatopic variation accounts for the differences between the French varieties spoken in the various areas of Southern France. Phonetics and vocabulary often change from one region to another. For instance,

1386-540: The Greater Horn of Africa . Africa is Kenya's largest export market, followed by the European Union. The Republic of Kenya is named after Mount Kenya . The earliest recorded version of the modern name was written by German explorer Johann Ludwig Krapf in the 19th century. While travelling with a Kamba caravan led by the long-distance trader Chief Kivoi , Krapf spotted the mountain peak and asked what it

1463-638: The Kalenjin , Samburu , Luo , Turkana , and Maasai . By the first millennium AD, Bantu -speaking farmers had moved into the region, initially along the coast. The Bantus originated in West Africa along the Benue River in what is now eastern Nigeria and western Cameroon . The Bantu migration brought new developments in agriculture and ironworking to the region. Bantu groups in Kenya include

1540-606: The Kikuyu , Luhya , Kamba , Kisii , Meru , Kuria , Aembu , Ambeere , Wadawida -Watuweta, Wapokomo, and Mijikenda , among others. Notable prehistoric sites in the interior of Kenya include the (possibly archaeoastronomical) site Namoratunga on the west side of Lake Turkana and the walled settlement of Thimlich Ohinga in Migori County . The Kenyan coast had served as host to communities of ironworkers and Bantu subsistence farmers, hunters, and fishers who supported

1617-639: The Ming Dynasty , visited the East African coast on one of his last ' treasure voyages '. Malindi authorities also welcomed the Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama in 1498. During the 18th and 19th century C.E, the Masai people moved into central and southern Rift Valley plains of Kenya, from a region north of Lake Rudolf (now Lake Turkana ). Although there were not many, they managed to conquer

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1694-524: The Pleistocene epoch. During excavations at Lake Turkana in 1984, palaeoanthropologist Richard Leakey , assisted by Kamoya Kimeu , discovered the Turkana Boy , a 1.6-million-year-old Homo erectus fossil. East Africa, including Kenya, is one of the earliest regions where modern humans ( Homo sapiens ) are believed to have lived. Evidence was found in 2018, dating to about 320,000 years ago, of

1771-707: The Somali Republic to the north. A ceasefire was eventually reached with the signing of the Arusha Memorandum in October 1967, but relative insecurity prevailed through 1969. To discourage further invasions, Kenya signed a defence pact with Ethiopia in 1969, which is still in effect. On 12 December 1964, the Republic of Kenya was proclaimed, and Jomo Kenyatta became Kenya's first president. Under Kenyatta, corruption became widespread throughout

1848-657: The "cradle tongue". The latter is the language one learns during early childhood, and one's true "native tongue" may be different, possibly determined by an inherited linguistic taste and may later in life be discovered by a strong emotional affinity to a specific dialect (Tolkien personally confessed to such an affinity to the Middle English of the West Midlands in particular). Children brought up speaking more than one language can have more than one native language, and be bilingual or multilingual . By contrast,

1925-410: The 15th century, Portuguese voyager Duarte Barbosa claimed that "Mombasa is a place of great traffic and has a good harbour in which there are always moored small craft of many kinds and also great ships, both of which are bound from Sofala and others which come from Cambay and Melinde and others which sail to the island of Zanzibar." In the 17th century, the Swahili coast was conquered and came under

2002-470: The 1963 independence constitution with a new one. As a result, the elections of 2007 took place following the procedure set by the old constitution. Kibaki was reelected in highly contested elections marred by political and ethnic violence . The main opposition leader, Raila Odinga, claimed the election was rigged and that he was the rightfully elected president. In the ensuing violence, 1,500 people were killed and another 600,000 internally displaced, making it

2079-415: The 2002 elections. Moi's plan to be replaced by Uhuru Kenyatta failed, and Mwai Kibaki , running for the opposition coalition "National Rainbow Coalition" ( NARC ), was elected president. David Anderson (2003) reports the elections were judged free and fair by local and international observers, and seemed to mark a turning point in Kenya's democratic evolution. In 2005, Kenyans rejected a plan to replace

2156-739: The Air Force. It was quickly suppressed by forces commanded by Chief of General Staff Mahamoud Mohamed , a veteran Somali military official. They included the General Service Unit (GSU)—a paramilitary wing of the police—and later the regular police. On the heels of the Garissa Massacre of 1980, Kenyan troops committed the Wagalla massacre in 1984 against thousands of civilians in Wajir County . An official probe into

2233-522: The Asian EFL Journal states that there are six general principles that relate to the definition of "native speaker". The principles, according to the study, are typically accepted by language experts across the scientific field. A native speaker is defined according to the following guidelines: Kenya Kenya , officially the Republic of Kenya ( Swahili : Jamhuri ya Kenya ), is

2310-513: The Embu call it "Kirinyaa". All three names have the same meaning. Ludwig Krapf recorded the name as both Kenia and Kegnia . Some have said that this was a precise notation of the African pronunciation / ˈ k ɛ n j ə / . An 1882 map drawn by Joseph Thompsons, a Scottish geologist and naturalist, indicated Mt. Kenya as Mt. Kenia. The mountain's name was accepted, pars pro toto , as

2387-522: The Masai themselves. After the death of the Masai Mbatian , the chief laibon (medicine man), the Masai split into warring factions. The Masai caused much strife in the areas they conquered; however, cooperation between such groups as the Luo people , Luhya people , and Gusii people is evidenced by shared vocabulary for modern implements and similar economic regimes. Although Arab traders remained in

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2464-825: The Protectorate of Kenya so that all of Kenya would become one sovereign state. In this way, Kenya became an independent country under the Kenya Independence Act 1963 of the United Kingdom. On 12 December 1964, Kenya became a republic under the name "Republic of Kenya". Concurrently, the Kenyan army fought the Shifta War against ethnic Somali rebels inhabiting the Northern Frontier District who wanted to join their kin in

2541-561: The UK and the colony led to the Mau Mau revolution , which began in 1952, and the declaration of independence in 1963. After independence, Kenya remained a member of the Commonwealth of Nations . The current constitution was adopted in 2010 and replaced the 1963 independence constitution . Kenya is a presidential representative democratic republic, in which elected officials represent

2618-473: The United Kingdom. Kenya itself was the site of fighting between Allied forces and Italian troops in 1940–41, when Italian forces invaded. Wajir and Malindi were bombed as well. From October 1952 to December 1959, Kenya was in a state of emergency arising from the Mau Mau rebellion against British rule. The Mau Mau, also known as the Kenya Land and Freedom Army, were primarily Kikuyu people. During

2695-466: The area, trade routes were disrupted by the hostile Masai, though there was trade in ivory between these factions. The first foreigners to successfully get past the Masai were Johann Ludwig Krapf and Johannes Rebmann , two German missionaries who established a mission in Rabai , not too far from Mombasa . The pair were the first Europeans to sight Mount Kenya . The colonial history of Kenya dates from

2772-598: The article by stating the cost of the stability in terms of human rights abuses. The opposition party started by Oginga Odinga — Kenya People's Union (KPU)—was banned in 1969 after the Kisumu Massacre and KPU leaders were still in detention without trial in gross violation of the U.N. Declaration of Human Rights . The Kenya Students Union, Jehovah Witnesses and all opposition parties were outlawed. Kenyatta ruled until his death on 22 August 1978. After Kenyatta died, Daniel arap Moi became president. He retained

2849-453: The atrocities was later ordered in 2011. The election held in 1988 saw the advent of the mlolongo (queuing) system, where voters were supposed to line up behind their favoured candidates instead of casting a secret ballot. This was seen as the climax of a very undemocratic regime and led to widespread agitation for constitutional reform. Several contentious clauses, including the one that allowed for only one political party, were changed in

2926-475: The beginning of the end of Moi's leadership and the rule of KANU. Moi retained the presidency and George Saitoti became vice president. Although it held on to power, KANU won 100 seats and lost 88 seats to the six opposition parties. The 1992 elections marked the beginning of multiparty politics after more than 25 years of KANU rule. Following skirmishes in the aftermath of the elections, 5,000 people were killed and another 75,000 displaced from their homes. In

3003-573: The bulk of the skilled labour required for construction. They and most of their descendants later remained in Kenya and formed the core of several distinct Indian communities, such as the Ismaili Muslim and Sikh communities. While building the railway through Tsavo , a number of the Indian railway workers and local African labourers were attacked by two lions known as the Tsavo maneaters . At

3080-944: The capital of the British East Africa Protectorate , which included most of what is now Kenya and southwestern Somalia, from 1889 to 1907. Other important cities include Kisumu and Nakuru . Kenya is bordered by South Sudan to the northwest, Ethiopia to the north, Somalia to the east, Uganda to the west, Tanzania to the south, and the Indian Ocean to the southeast. Kenya's geography , climate and population vary widely, ranging from cold snow-capped mountaintops (Batian, Nelion and Point Lenana on Mount Kenya ) with vast surrounding forests, wildlife and fertile agricultural regions to temperate climates in western and rift valley counties and further on to dry less fertile arid and semi-arid areas and absolute deserts ( Chalbi Desert and Nyiri Desert ). Kenya's earliest inhabitants were hunter-gatherers , like

3157-546: The centuries, the Kenyan coast has played host to many merchants and explorers. Among the cities that line the Kenyan coast is Malindi. It has remained an important Swahili settlement since the 14th century and once rivalled Mombasa for dominance in the African Great Lakes region. Malindi has traditionally been a friendly port city for foreign powers. In 1414, the Chinese trader and explorer Zheng He , representing

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3234-522: The coast and the interior between 250 BC and 500 AD. European contact began in 1500 AD with the Portuguese Empire , and effective colonisation of Kenya began in the 19th century during the European exploration of Africa . Modern-day Kenya emerged from a protectorate established by the British Empire in 1895 and the subsequent Kenya Colony , which began in 1920. Numerous disputes between

3311-614: The coastal hotel business, with Kenyatta personally owning the Leonard Beach Hotel. Kenyatta's mixed legacy was highlighted at the 10-year anniversary of Kenya's independence. A December 1973 article in The New York Times praised Kenyatta's leadership and Kenya for emerging as a model of pragmatism and conservatism. Kenya's GDP had increased at an annual rate of 6.6%, higher than the population growth rate of more than 3%. But Amnesty International responded to

3388-606: The colonial administration's crackdown, over 11,000 freedom fighters had been killed, along with 100 British troops and 2,000 Kenyan loyalist soldiers. War crimes were committed on both sides of the conflict, including the publicised Lari massacre and the Hola massacre . The governor requested and obtained British and African troops, including the King's African Rifles . The British began counter-insurgency operations. In May 1953, General Sir George Erskine took charge as commander-in-chief of

3465-847: The colony's armed forces, with the personal backing of Winston Churchill . The capture of Waruhiu Itote (nom de guerre "General China" ) on 15 January 1954 and the subsequent interrogation led to a better understanding of the Mau Mau command structure for the British. Operation Anvil opened on 24 April 1954, after weeks of planning by the army with the approval of the War Council. The operation effectively placed Nairobi under military siege. Nairobi's occupants were screened and suspected Mau Mau supporters moved to detention camps. More than 80,000 Kikuyu were held in detention camps without trial, often subject to brutal treatment. The Home Guard formed

3542-430: The constitution to allow Moi to remain president for another term. Subsequently, Moi stood for reelection and won a 5th term in 1997. His win was strongly criticised by his major opponents, Kibaki and Odinga , as fraudulent. Following this win, Moi was constitutionally barred from another presidential term. Beginning in 1998, he attempted to influence the country's succession politics to have Uhuru Kenyatta elected in

3619-524: The core of the government's strategy as it was composed of loyalist Africans, not foreign forces such as the British Army and King's African Rifles. The capture of Dedan Kimathi on 21 October 1956 in Nyeri signified the ultimate defeat of the Mau Mau and essentially ended the military offensive. During this period, substantial governmental changes to land tenure occurred. The most important of these

3696-479: The country. The building of the railway was resisted by some ethnic groups—notably the Nandi , led by Orkoiyot Koitalel Arap Samoei from 1890 to 1900—but the British eventually built it. The Nandi were the first ethnic group to be put in a native reserve to stop them from disrupting the building of the railway. During the railway construction era, there was a significant influx of Indian workers, who provided

3773-588: The direct rule of the Omani Arabs , who expanded the slave trade to meet the demands of plantations in Oman and Zanzibar . Initially, these traders came mainly from Oman, but later many came from Zanzibar (such as Tippu Tip ). In addition, the Portuguese started buying slaves from the Omani and Zanzibari traders in response to the interruption of the transatlantic slave trade by British abolitionists. Throughout

3850-441: The early emergence of modern behaviours , including long-distance trade networks (involving goods such as obsidian), the use of pigments, and the possible making of projectile points. The authors of three 2018 studies on the site suggest that complex and modern behaviours had already begun in Africa around the time of the emergence of Homo sapiens . The first inhabitants of present-day Kenya were hunter-gatherer groups, akin to

3927-411: The economy with agriculture, fishing, metal production, and trade with foreign countries. These communities formed the earliest city-states in the region, which were collectively known as Azania . By the 1st century CE, many of the city-states such as Mombasa , Malindi , and Zanzibar began to establish trading relations with Arabs . This led to the increased economic growth of the Swahili states,

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4004-486: The emotional relation of the speaker towards the language, and even its dominance in relation to the environment. However, all three criteria lack precision. For many children whose home language differs from the language of the environment (the "official" language), it is debatable which language is their "native language". In some countries, such as Kenya , India , Belarus , Ukraine and various East Asian and Central Asian countries, "mother language" or "native language"

4081-710: The establishment of a German Empire protectorate over the Sultan of Zanzibar 's coastal possessions in 1885, followed by the arrival of the Imperial British East Africa Company in 1888. Imperial rivalry was prevented by the Heligoland–Zanzibar Treaty , Germany handed its East African coastal holdings to Britain in 1890. The transfer by Germany to Britain was followed by the building of the Uganda Railway passing through

4158-431: The following years. In 1991, Kenya transitioned to a multiparty political system after 26 years of single-party rule. On 28 October 1992, Moi dissolved parliament, five months before the end of his term. As a result, preparations began for all elective seats in parliament as well as the president. The election was scheduled to take place on 7 December 1992, but delays led to its postponement to 29 December. Apart from KANU,

4235-524: The following: Meridional French is also subject to a phonological law known as the Law of Position in which mid-vowels are subject to allophonic variation based on the shape of their syllables; they are realised as mid-open in closed syllables (those ending in a consonant) and as mid-close in open syllables (those ending in a vowel). The phenomenon has been shown to be somewhat more complex, however, by Durand (1995), Eychenne (2006), and Chabot (2008). The principle

4312-515: The government, civil service, and business community. Kenyatta and his family were tied up with this corruption as they enriched themselves through the mass purchase of property after 1963. Their acquisitions in the Central, Rift Valley, and Coast Provinces aroused great anger among landless Kenyans. His family used his presidential position to circumvent legal or administrative obstacles to acquiring property. The Kenyatta family also heavily invested in

4389-414: The individual's actual first language. Generally, to state a language as a mother tongue, one must have full native fluency in that language. The first language of a child is part of that child's personal, social and cultural identity. Another impact of the first language is that it brings about the reflection and learning of successful social patterns of acting and speaking. Research suggests that while

4466-518: The introduction of Islam , Arabic influences on the Swahili Bantu language , cultural diffusion , as well as the Swahili city-states becoming members of a larger trade network. Many historians had long believed that the city-states were established by Arab or Persian traders, but archaeological evidence has led scholars to recognise the city-states as an indigenous development which, though subjected to foreign influence due to trade, retained

4543-606: The land, capturing British supplies, and remaining undefeated. He eventually surrendered in Northern Rhodesia (today Zambia) 14 days after the Armistice was signed in 1918. To chase von Lettow, the British deployed the British Indian Army troops from India but needed large numbers of porters to overcome the formidable logistics of transporting supplies far into the interior on foot. The Carrier Corps

4620-485: The language during youth, in a family in which the adults shared a similar language experience to the child. Native speakers are considered to be an authority on their given language because of their natural acquisition process regarding the language, as opposed to having learned the language later in life. That is achieved by personal interaction with the language and speakers of the language. Native speakers will not necessarily be knowledgeable about every grammatical rule of

4697-421: The language, but they will have good "intuition" of the rules through their experience with the language. The designation "native language", in its general usage, is thought to be imprecise and subject to various interpretations that are biased linguistically, especially with respect to bilingual children from ethnic minority groups. Many scholars have given definitions of "native language" based on common usage,

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4774-637: The lexis used in the variety of French spoken in Toulouse, described by Séguy (1950) , differs substantially from the variety spoken in Bayonne, described by Lambert (1928) . Diastratic variation is also extant in Meridional French. The sociolects spoken by the Jews of Gascony , whose large set of special vocabulary used only within the group has been linguistically described by Nahon (2018) ,

4851-636: The modern Khoisan speakers. These people were later largely replaced by agropastoralist Cushitic (ancestral to Kenya's Cushitic speakers) from the Horn of Africa . During the early Holocene , the regional climate shifted from dry to wetter conditions, providing an opportunity for the development of cultural traditions such as agriculture and herding , in a more favourable environment. Around 500 BC, Nilotic -speaking pastoralists (ancestral to Kenya's Nilotic speakers) started migrating from present-day southern Sudan into Kenya. Nilotic groups in Kenya include

4928-571: The name of the country. It did not come into widespread official use during the early colonial period, when the country was referred to as the East African Protectorate . The official name was changed to the Colony of Kenya in 1920. Hominids such as Homo habilis (1.8 to 2.5 million years ago) and Homo erectus (1.9 million to 350,000 years ago) are possible direct ancestors of modern Homo sapiens , and lived in Kenya in

5005-415: The next five years, many political alliances were formed in preparation for the next elections. In 1994, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga died and several coalitions joined his FORD Kenya party to form a new party, United National Democratic Alliance. This party was plagued with disagreements. In 1995, Richard Leakey formed the Safina party, but it was denied registration until November 1997. In 1996, KANU revised

5082-502: The outbreak of World War I in August 1914, the governors of British East Africa (as the protectorate was generally known) and German East Africa initially agreed on a truce in an attempt to keep the young colonies out of direct hostilities. But Lieutenant Colonel Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck , the German military commander, determined to tie down as many British resources as possible. Completely cut off from Germany, Lettow-Vorbeck conducted an effective guerrilla warfare campaign , living off

5159-431: The people and the president is the head of state and government. Kenya is a member of the United Nations , the Commonwealth , World Bank , International Monetary Fund , World Trade Organization , COMESA , International Criminal Court , as well as other international organisations. It is also a major non-NATO ally of the United States . With a GNI of 1,840, Kenya is a lower-middle-income economy. Kenya's economy

5236-430: The present-day Hadza people . According to archaeological dating of associated artifacts and skeletal material, Cushitic speakers first settled in Kenya's lowlands between 3,200 and 1,300 BC, a phase known as the Lowland Savanna Pastoral Neolithic . Nilotic -speaking pastoralists (ancestral to Kenya's Nilotic speakers) began migrating from present-day South Sudan into Kenya around 500 BC. Bantu people settled at

5313-416: The presidency, running unopposed in elections held in 1979, 1983 ( snap elections ), and 1988, all of which were held under the single-party constitution. The 1983 elections were held a year early, and were a direct result of a failed military coup on 2 August 1982. The 1982 coup was masterminded by a low-ranking Air Force serviceman, Senior Private Hezekiah Ochuka , and was staged mainly by enlisted men of

5390-404: The ruling party, other parties represented in the elections included FORD Kenya and FORD Asili. This election was marked by large-scale intimidation of opponents and harassment of election officials. It resulted in an economic crisis propagated by ethnic violence as the president was accused of rigging electoral results to retain power. This election was a turning point for Kenya as it signified

5467-403: The settlers banned the growing of coffee and introduced a hut tax, and the landless were granted less and less land in exchange for their labour. A massive exodus to the cities ensued as their ability to make a living from the land dwindled. By the 1950s, there were 80,000 white settlers living in Kenya. Throughout World War II , Kenya was an important source of manpower and agriculture for

5544-454: The term "mother tongue" was first used by Catholic monks to designate a particular language they used, instead of Latin , when they were "speaking from the pulpit". That is, the "holy mother the Church" introduced this term and colonies inherited it from Christianity as a part of colonialism. J. R. R. Tolkien , in his 1955 lecture " English and Welsh ", distinguishes the "native tongue" from

5621-594: The willingness of Somalis in Kenya to join Somalia . The result of the referendum showed that 86% of Somalis in Kenya wanted to join Somalia , yet the British colonial administration rejected the result and the Somalis remained in Kenya. The first direct elections for native Kenyans to the Legislative Council took place in 1957. Despite British hopes of handing power to "moderate" local rivals, it

5698-439: Was called. Kivoi told him " Kĩ-Nyaa " or " Kĩlĩma- Kĩinyaa ", probably because the pattern of black rock and white snow on its peaks reminded him of the feathers of the male ostrich. In archaic Kikuyu , the word 'nyaga' or more commonly 'manyaganyaga' is used to describe an extremely bright object. The Agikuyu, who inhabit the slopes of Mt. Kenya, call it Kĩrĩma Kĩrĩnyaga (literally 'the mountain with brightness') in Kikuyu , while

5775-512: Was formed and ultimately mobilised over 400,000 Africans, contributing to their long-term politicisation. In 1920, the East Africa Protectorate was turned into a colony and renamed Kenya after its highest mountain. During the early part of the 20th century, the interior central highlands were settled by British and other European farmers, who became wealthy farming coffee and tea. One depiction of this period of change from

5852-536: Was the Kenya African National Union (KANU) of Jomo Kenyatta that formed a government. The Colony of Kenya and the Protectorate of Kenya each came to an end on 12 December 1963, with independence conferred on all of Kenya. The U.K. ceded sovereignty over the Colony of Kenya. The Sultan of Zanzibar agreed that simultaneous with independence for the colony, he would cease to have sovereignty over

5929-549: Was the Swynnerton Plan , which was used to both reward loyalists and punish Mau Mau. This left roughly 1/3rd of Kikuyu bereft of any tenancy land arrangement and thus propertyless at the time of independence. Before Kenya got its independence, Somali ethnic people in present-day Kenya in the areas of Northern Frontier Districts petitioned Her Majesty's Government not to be included in Kenya. The colonial government decided to hold Kenya's first referendum in 1962 to check

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