Politics of Decolonization: Kenya Europeans and the Land Issue 1960-1965; Politics and Class Formation in Uganda

Each of these studies makes use of intensive historical analysis to explain the continuing dependence of former colonies on the metropole. Wasserman's account of the "co-optation" of the Kenyan nationalist elite into the capitalist agricultural economy of the whites offers a solid basis for understanding the various reinforcing layers of European influence in Kenya today. Mamdani's work shows how the economic structure of Uganda was determined by the needs of the mother country; but his typologies about class obscure more than they illuminate what is happening in Uganda today.