A Jewish Homeland in East Africa

I wanted to create a TL about the creation of a Jewish Homeland in East Africa that nearly came into fruition. The assassination of Czar Alexander II of Russia would unleash a series of anti-Semitic violence affecting the world's largest Jewish community. The result was a series of violent pogroms, continuing until the 1920s where Jews were stripped of civil rights, robbed of their belongings and in extreme cases killed. These actions would cause 2 million Jews to abandon the Russian Empire between 1881 and 1913, with nearly 75% going to the United States, and others settling in South America, Great Britain, Canada, South Africa, France and other countries.

However, the arrival of destitute and culturally foreign refugees from Russia led to increased anti-Semitism in the West. The Dreyfus Affair in France in 1894, and increasing hostility to Jewish immigrants in England, and other countries led many Jews to push for the establishment of a Jewish homeland, where Jews would be able to govern themselves and maintain their customs, religion and no longer fear persecution. This would result in the Zionist movement, with the goal of creating a Jewish homeland in Palestine.

As the Zionist movement spread amongst Jews in the West, the first Zionist Congress was held between 29 August and 31 August 1897 in Basel Switzerland with the ultimate goal of establishing a Jewish homeland in Ottoman-ruled Palestine. Though a small number of Eastern European Jews had been settling in Palestine since 1882, their numbers were insignificant and by 1900, Jews only constituted 6% of a population of 600,000. However, the Zionist Organization, led by Hungarian-born Theodor Herzl, would continue to meet annually to pursue its goal and was committed to the idea of a Jewish homeland in Israel. To that end, in May 1901, they approached the Ottoman Sultan for a Charter to settle Jews in Palestine, but were rebuffed. Attempts to secure support from Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany seemed promising at first, however his support for the idea was withdrawn once he began to seek an alliance with the Ottomans.

Meanwhile, anti-Semitic persecution increased in Russia, culminating in the Kisinev pogroms in Bessarabia in April 19-20 1903. The violence of these pogroms shocked the western powers, and the British Government was particularly incensed at the barbarity of the violence. The persecution affected what was still the world's largest Jewish community, and would lead many prominent Jews in the West to argue that a Jewish homeland anywhere was better than none. Lord Rothschild, a prominent British Jew wrote to Herzl in 1902 "I must not be a stickler for principles and reject any immediate help for the poorest of our poor, no matter what form it may take".

Arriving in London in October 1902, Herzl met with members of the British cabinet seeking their assistance in establishing a Jewish settlement under British protection. Leopold Greenberg, the head of the British Zionist Federation along with Herzl met with Colonial Secretary Joseph Chamberlain and Foreign Secretary Lord Landsdowne in April 1903. It would be in this meeting that Chamberlain proposed establishing a Jewish settlement in the British East Africa Protectorate. He mentioned that the land between Nairobi and the Mau Escarpment would be ideal, especially the Uasin Gishu Plateau.

The British government had several reasons for wanting to settle British East Africa, besides simply assisting refugees. Firstly, the government had spent over £5 million on the Uganda Railway, and though completed in 1901, little economic benefit had been derived from the railway as fewer than 500 Europeans resided in British East Africa. There was no commercial agriculture to speak of and it was hoped that settlement of the Jews in this sparsely populated territory would spur economic development. Finally, there was growing anti-immigrant hostility in Britain itself, with nearly 100,000 Russian-born Jews living in the country by 1901.

In 4 July 1903, Leopold Greenberg, head of Britain's Zionist Organization had Liberal MP and lawyer David Lloyd George draw up the Articles of Association for the Jewish homeland to be submitted to the British Cabinet for review. The articles called for a constitution to be approved by the British government in a protectorate that was to be "Jewish in character and with a Jewish Governor to be appointed by His Majesty in Council". The charter would grant the settlers complete domestic control of internal affairs over the colony including the power of taxation for administrative matters and all land matters. All settlers would automatically become British subjects, and the settlement was to be named "New Israel" and would be allowed to create its own flag.

On 23 July 1903, the British cabinet began reviewing the Articles submitted by Lloyd George, and agreed to them with some changes. On 6 August, 1903 the cabinet had altered the articles and were ready to submit the legislation to the House of Commons. Though they did agree to a Jewish Commissioner to be appointed by His Majesty the King, they rejected that inhabitants would automatically become British subjects. Settlers would have to reside in the territory for a minimum of two years before being able to become British subjects. In addition, they stipulated that the self-governing protectorate would have a free hand in regard to purely domestic matters and His Majesty's government would still retain control of external affairs.

Herzl felt triumphant and had the backing of many members of Britain's influential Jewish community. In addition, Jews financiers from South Africa, agreed to provide funding for the acquisition of land from the South African-owned East African syndicate for the immediate settlement of Jewish refugees. Herzl would propose his sixth Zionist Congress in Basel on 23-28 August 1903. However, settlement in what was called Uganda would be controversial and Herzl would face bitter opposition by many Zionists who were committed to a Jewish homeland in Palestine.

A map of the British East Africa Protectorate in 1900

Zionism Divided

At the Sixth Zionist Congress in Basel, Theodor Herzl proposed the British sponsored "Uganda Programme" with the intent of sending an investigatory mission to British East Africa to examine the possibility of settling a large number of Jewish refugees in the territory.

Herzl was soon subjected to criticism and had to defend the settlement in East Africa, arguing that it not effect the ultimate aim of Zionism, which was to establish a Jewish homeland in Palestine. However, he argued that Jews in Russia were in danger and needed a temporary home immediately. This argument was backed by most of the Western delegates at the Congress, with a vote of 295 to 178 on 26 August 1903 in favour. However, the Uganda Scheme as it became called was vehemently opposed by the majority of the Russian delegates in Basel. Despite this, three days later, the British government declared the British East Africa Protectorate to be a "Jewish Territory" under British protection.

Though the British Government had agreed to the Zionist proposal, the debate surrounding Jewish settlement in East Africa deeply divided the Zionist movement. An exploratory commission in 1904 was financed by several prominent British Jews and came back with positive findings regarding the possibilities of settling large numbers of Jews in the highlands of British East Africa. Meanwhile in London, the first Alien Act was passed in 1904 in an attempt to limit Jewish refugees and other foreigners from settling in the United Kingdom. "Unsuitable" Jewish refugees were henceforth to be settled in East Africa. However, in 1905 the act was revised in an attempt to not seem as discriminatory.

In January 1905, the first eighty families arrived in Mombasa and from there would take the Uganda Railway to their future home on the Uasin Gishu Plateau. The settlers consisted largely of Jews from Moldavia, Wallachia and Bessarabia, many with little background in farming. In addition, a small number of English Jews began arriving as civil servants, skilled professionals in the territory. The new settlers had mixed success in agriculture, but many who already had experience as pedlars and traders in Europe were able to utilize their skills in Africa, trading with the indigenous African inhabitants, assuming the roles of middle-men, with many eventually becoming large commercial and industrial enterprises.

On 3 July 1904, Herzl died and by the Seventh Zionist Congress in August 1905, the movement had become sharply divided. The "territorialists" as they became known broke away from the world Zionist Organization and would form the Jewish Territorial Organization with its headquarters in London. With the backing of prominent British Jews, funds were collected for the settlement of Jewish refugees from Russia and Rumania in East Africa.

The first decade of Jewish settlement was by and large considered a failure by many Zionists, reinforcing their prejudices against East Africa. The territory attracted only a small number of the Jewish refugees from Europe, and by 1914, British East Africa had a population of 15,169 Jews out of a total of 2.1 million inhabitants. However, Palestine itself was only marginally successful, with 85,000 Jews living in the Ottoman Province by 1914, out of a population of 700,000. In contrast, the United States had attracted the bulk of Jews fleeing Russia with its Jewish population doubling between 1905 and 1914 to nearly 3 million.

Despite the small number of Jews attracted to British East Africa, by 1914 the territory was prospering and was producing significant quantities of tea, coffee and cotton in the highlands and sugarcane along the coast. In addition, Jewish merchants were expanding into neighbouring Uganda and even German East Africa. Finally, the British government had kept its promise to allow self-government with Jews forming municipal councils and representation in the Legislative Assembly. Most importantly, Jewish culture thrived with religious schools being formed and the Yiddish language becoming the primary language being preserved outside of Europe.


Below is an early picture of the Nairobi Hebrew Congregation, founded in 1904, and completed in 1912.

British Central Africa

Further south, another British settler colony was developing, Rhodesia. Under the auspices of the British South Africa Company, the territory had been under the rule of a Chartered Company since 1890. Previously, the Company had divided its holdings in Central Africa into three territories, Southern Rhodesia, North-East Rhodesia and North-West Rhodesia.

European settlers poured into Southern Rhodesia from the Union of South Africa, quickly usurping the best farmland in the territory, transforming that territory into a settler colony. Neighbouring North-East Rhodesia remained largely an unsettled territory where African rights were paramount. Whilst North-West Rhodesia consisted of two regions, namely the British protectorate of Barotseland, where the British South Africa Company enjoyed mining rights, but where Europeans were forbidden to settle without permission of the Litunga, or Paramount Chief of the Lozi People. The rest of North-East Rhodesia however was settled by European farmers from South Africa, especially Afrikaners. However, it would be the rush of miners obtaining mining concessions for £1, who would rush in before World War I in search of gold. Though no gold was found, copper and cobalt was found in significant quantities.

This settlement led the British South Africa Company to amalgamate North-West Rhodesia with Southern Rhodesia in 1911. North-East Rhodesia was joined to Nyasaland, the neighbouring British Protectorate where African rights were to be paramount that same year. However, Barotseland became a separate British Protectorate in 1922 at the request of Yeta III as he had anticipated Rhodesia would join the Union of South Africa.

Rhodesia's European population did increase dramatically, with an estimated 36,600 European settlers in the territory by 1914 vs 1,081,000 Africans. Around one-third of the Europeans were Afrikaners, leading the BSAC to recruit more settlers from Great Britain. To that end, discharged British soldiers were given land grants after World War I, bringing the European population to 61,660 in 1921 compared with 1,121,000 Africans.

The increasing white population, led to a desire for self-government amongst the settlers. Some wanted to join the larger Union of South Africa, and to create a large British Dominion that would rule over all of British Southern and Central Africa. Meanwhile others wanted a self-governing Rhodesia that would develop its own identity, with some calling for the annexation or purchase of neighbouring Central Mozambique from Portugal, so that Rhodesia would have access to the sea through Beira, the most important outlet for its goods. The fate Rhodesia hung in the balance when a referendum was called in 1922 where Rhodesian whites were offered a referendum on whether they were to join the Union of South Africa as many had wanted or to be given self-rule, as a prelude to becoming a full-fledged Dominion in the Empire. Though the vote was close, 55% voted in favour of the latter option. The following year, Rhodesia was granted its own constitution and parliament, and a unique status that was neither that of a crown-colony nor a dominion.

Below is a map of Central Southern Africa in the 1920s.

*cough*

maybe some light reading for you:

https://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=38786

black angel said:

*cough*

maybe some light reading for you:

https://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=38786

Click to expand...

I saw that, but some of the things in the TL were completely ASB, such as 500,000 Jewish immigrants arriving in a single year in the 1900s, even the US never attracted that many Jewish immigrants in a single year and had far more opportunities. I am trying to write a somewhat realistic TL. Also, the land being offered by the British government was in modern Kenya and not in modern Uganda.

Ive always thought this premise has a lot of promise. Go on.

One variant I've considered for a while is a split in the Zionist Congress (?).

Is this greater Rhodesia also a Jewish land or just regular white settlement land?

Opunium said:

Is this greater Rhodesia also a Jewish land or just regular white settlement land?

Click to expand...

No it's simply a British colony that happened to take in more South African settlers. Though the TL is about a Jewish British East Africa, I plan on involving the destiny of the neighbouring countries and the rest of Africa in general.

Reagent said:

Another Viriato Timeline? Subscribed.

Do you have any idea where the borders of the Jewish Homeland on the Uasin Gishu Plateau would be? I have never found a concrete map of the British offer, only that the territory would comprise 5,000 square miles or 13,000 square kilometers (which is larger than the Plateau by a fair amount).

My guess is that the territory would include modern Uasin Gishu County and then stretch Westward towards Lake Victoria and look something like the map below:

Click to expand...

I always figured more something running south along the Mau escarpment, though access to Lake Victoria is probably desirable. I also wonder if there would be a desire to stretch northeast to include Mt Elgon.

Honestly though, that entire region, between the lake and the escarpment, is quite suitable for mass European settlement, being relatively well-watered, relatively cool, and mostly devoid of malaria - though there are rather a lot of natives living there (unless that population came later?)

Before World War I, progress in attracting Jews to remote and undeveloped British East Africa had been slow. Jews emigrating from Russia, Austria and Rumania preferred the urban centres of America and Western Europe. The majority of the initial settlers to British East Africa were sponsored by various Jewish Aid societies in Great Britain, particularly the Jewish Colonisation Association or ICA, which helped resettle Jews from Eastern Europe in the Americas and Palestine was particularly helpful in assisting the first colonists.

Large tracts of land in the highlands of East Africa were set aside for Jewish settlement, and when the first settlers arrived, alienated lands in British East Africa had not yet been mapped. The first immigrants were told to inspect and claim land suitable for farming and sketch its landmarks so as to register the claims with the land officer. Many grants were as large as 500 to 600 acres, however cooperative settlements often had tracts exceeding 1,000 acres. Sheep, cattle, pigs, goats, and chickens were imported and gifted to the settlers. Though life was initially difficult, with immigrants living in tents, and later grass huts and roundavels of mud, wattle and grass thatch.

Potatoes became the most important crop in the highlands, but as they were not valuable for export, a greater emphasis was placed on coffee. By 1909 ostriches were being farmed in large quantities for their feathers. However, once World War I set in, fashions changed and the ostrich feather trade lost its importance. In addition, American maize was introduced successfully as it was superior to the local variety. Though the first attempts to introduce wheat cultivation failed as they were plagued by Rust (fungus).

Though farming remained important, many of the settlers attracted to the territory became merchants, and craftsmen. The export of ivory tusks became an important source of income for early merchants. However, merchants and pedlars in the territory became more sophisticated, and by 1920, they had established first department stores in Nairobi and Mombasa. These two towns began to take on an air of modernity and attracted a majority of new settlers. At the onset of World War I, Nairobi possessed electric lighting, telephone lines, and was home to nearly 10,000 inhabitants, of whom over half were Jewish settlers. However,when compared to the Jewish settlements in American cities, Nairobi paled in significance.

Hampering settlement of the colony was the initial cost of settlement. However, this in part was helped by the funds granted by prominent Jewish philanthropists in Britain, such as Sydney Stern, 1st Baron Wandsworth who in 1912 bequeathed his estate of £1,555,984 to the Jewish Colonisation Association (ICA), to assist the settlement of Jews from Eastern Europe in British East Africa. However, the advent of war forestalled any attempt to bring in large numbers immigrants to the country, and Zionists in Europe largely considered British East Africa to have been a folly arguing that it could never be home to more than a tiny percentage of world Jewry.

Once Britain was at war with the Ottoman Empire, Zionist aspirations for a Jewish homeland in Palestine were revived. Backers of the Zionist movement, including members of the influential Rothschild Family pressed for the British government to declare Palestine as a homeland for the Jews. In 1917 it would do so, with the Balfour Declaration. It seemed that British East Africa would merely become a self-governing British Protectorate where the majority of the settler population were Jewish, and never a true homeland for Jews. The numbers certainly did not look promising with a Jewish population numbering a mere 19,468 in 1921, compared 84,000 living in Palestine, with 10,000 Jews immigrating to the latter territory between December 1920 and April 1921 alone.

A view of Nairobi Railway Station adorned with Union Jacks in 1919

Couple of thoughts about government. Practically speaking, East Africa and Rhodesia are quite similar
(self governing with British control of Foreign
affairs). This could be the model for an intermediate
step between direct rule and Dominion status and/or independence further down the line.

The fact that WWI itself is barely mentioned
suggests that it wasn't much different from OTL.
Hardly surprising when you consider the Jewish community in East Africa at the time would have been
hard pressed to raise so much as a a battalion.

So with the split between Territorialists and Zionists,
I'd imagine Jewish settlement in East Africa being
fairly slow until the 30s, where it would be seen as a useful way of preventing the growth of the Jewish population
in Palestine causing concern among the Arab community.

My first though was Madagascar.
Sorry.


Other than that, so far i am enjoying what you have written. It is a different TL thats for sure.

Ruled by King Julian?

It is true that British East Africa had little impact on World War I. However, below is a poster encouraging Jews to enlist, showing prominent British Jews. Among them is Edwin S. Montagu, who would serve as Commissioner of British East Africa between 1917 and 1919.

The Boom of the 1920s

With the end of the war in 1918, peace returned to British East Africa, which in 1920 was renamed Kenya, after Mount Kenya. The land under cultivation expanded and the export of coffee, tea, and sisal led to export-driven growth in the country. Accompanying this growth was a construction boom, with an increase in the number houses, hotels and shops in the largest towns, especially in Nairobi.

In Europe however, the war had led to the breakup of Empires leaving thousands of Jews displaced and many becoming stateless. The problem was particularly acute in Poland and Roumania, where many Jews as former Austrian and Russian subjects were living in regions outside of their birth and were not granted citizenship in the successor states.

Initially, the newly created British Mandate in Palestine offered hope to Jewish refugees. Zionist organisations began to sponsor the emigration of thousands of Jews, particularly from Poland to the new British Mandate. However, in 1920, anti-Zionist riots by the Arab population in Jerusalem led the British government to limit immigration in 1922 to Palestine according to the territory's "absorbative capacity". In addition, an economic downturn in Palestine culminated with more Jews emigrating from Palestine in 1926 than immigrating there. The British government began to prefer that Jewish refugees settle in Kenya rather than in Palestine.

In addition by 1924 the US government imposed immigration quotas, strictly limiting the number of immigrants to be admitted each year from various countries. This had a particularly negative impact on Eastern European Jews, as they were now effectively shut out from America. Canada too had placed strict limitations on immigration from outside of Northern and Western Europe. This left Argentina and Kenya as one of the only overseas destinations available to Jewish immigrants during the decade.

One advantage the Kenyan Government had in comparison to Jews in Palestine, was complete control over immigration. With the aid of the American-based Joint Distribution Committee, in 1922, 6,000 Jews left stateless in Poland were resettled in Kenya. Between 1923 and 1929 more 80,000 Jews settled in Kenya, with the majority coming from Poland, with smaller numbers from Roumania and the Soviet Union. 1927 was the peak year with 14,802 Jewish immigrants arriving in Kenya, with two-thirds being from Poland. Many of the new immigrants were middle-class Jews from urban areas, and settled in Nairobi, which had grown to a city of 74,000 by 1930, of whom 42,000 were Jewish.

As a result of the boom of the 1920s, Kenya was home to 110,000 Jews in 1929, out of a population of 3.1 million. The territory enjoyed complete autonomy in domestic affairs with its own parliament, and was no longer seen as a folly. As in Eastern Europe, municipalities were organised into Kehilla or councils. In contrast to the Zionist movement, Yiddish was the official language and Yiddish literature and theatre thrived in Kenya. In addition, the first radio broadcasts began with a radio station having been established in Nairobi in 1927.

Seems that the local population being displaced might be highly resentful.

Settlement in Africa in the 1920s

The example of mass settlement of poor Europeans in British East Africa had disproved the myth to colonial powers settlers for African colonies had to be carefully selected and had to have substantial capital. After World War I, various governments began to relax entrance requirements to their colonies. Though never matching the migratory stream to the Americas, in the 1920s Europeans began pouring into various African territories in large numbers, taking advantage of the boom in cash crops and minerals, that would fuel the growth of cities and towns on the continent.

Rhodesia became the primary settler territory outside of South Africa with its white population growth from 61,660 in 1921 to 150,803 just a decade later, out of a population of 1,661,499, making the Europeans 9% of the total. One particularly dynamic sector of the economy was tobacco. After World War I, British American Tobacco invested heavily in Rhodesia, transforming it into world's second largest tobacco exporter. Tobacco cultivation even spread north of the Zambezi River. In addition, mining of copper and cobalt fuelled the growth in the north of the country along the Copperbelt. In addition, gold, coal, chromium all added value to the economy.

The Portuguese government too sought to consolidate its hold over Angola and Mozambique by populating the territories with settlers. Though its claims to the two territories had been reaffirmed by the Treaty of Versailles, throughout the 1920s, claims of annexation of Angola and Mozambique led the Portuguese government to send thousands of Portuguese peasants in Africa. Though many were ill-prepared, and just as the Jewish settlers in Kenya, many Portuguese began to engage in trade as middlemen. However, there were thousands of Portuguese immigrants who abandoned Angola for the Belgian and French Congos, while from Mozambique, many Portuguese would migrate often illegally to Rhodesia and the Union of South Africa. Despite this, by 1930 the European population in Angola stood at 78,799, or 2.5% of the total, while in Mozambique it was now 48,830, or 1% of the total.

The Belgian government too lessened restrictions on settlement in the Congo, allowing the population in its largest colony reach 65,078 (44,089 Belgians) by 1930. The Belgians allowed agricultural settlement, particularly in Kivu Province, where some 2,000 Polish settlers had been recruited to settle around Costermansville (Bukavu). In the south, the growing copper industry attracted thousands of settlers to the Katanga province.

The Polana Hotel in Lourenço Marques in Mozambique, completed in 1926, it represented the economic boom of the decade.

Interesting to see the butterflies as things evolve.

Interesting. Subscribed

Am enjoying this one. Good work keeping immigration at a realistic level.