The First African Press in East Africa: Protest and Nationalism in Uganda in the 1920 s

Abstract

The contribution o.f the independent African press toi the development of a social and political response to colo,nial rule in East Africa is now beginning to be recognized.1 Earlier students tended to emphasize the role of the press; in nationalist movements of West Africa, while the East African newspapers received only passing mention.2 The West African press had, of course, a much longer history and, perhaps most importantly, was largely an, English-language press.3 In East Africa the nationalist newspapers were almost all published in oine of the vernacular languages, usually Swahili, Kikuyu, or Luganda. Until recent years; many historians, political scientists, and other scholars lacked the necessary language skills to deal with this press, and the newspapers themselves rarely were collected by librarians or achivists. Thus standard works about East Africa made little or no use of these valuable sources.4