Over the weekend birther/conspiracist/ lawyer/dentist/ real estate agent/ wingnut Orly Taitz rolled out a document that she claimed was a birth certificate showing Barack Obama was born in Mombassa, Kenya.
The document was on obvious forgery. Perhaps the best critique of the document was posted here on DailyKos in the excellent comment by CatM that was frontpaged by kos on Sunday as Debunking the unbearably stupid.
The 3rd point on the list is "Mombasa belonged to Zanzibar when Obama was born, not Kenya." This is, however, factually misleading. (As kos himself stated in his posting "some of these bullet points may turn out to be misfires.")
This was given more attention last night when both Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow specially cited the "Mombassa was part of Zanzibar" issue as a major part of their ridiculing of the forged document, treating it as fact. Before everyone latches onto this one factually incorrect argument as a central part of our critique of the forged document, I'd like offer a bit of historical review and perspective.
I'm not just nitpicking (nor trying to detract from CatM's excellent debunking), but rather to make sure that we have our history and facts right when we belittle this insanity. And, if nothing else, it offers us all a chance to gain a better understanding of East Africa history and the dynamics of colonialism/ imperialism in the 19th and 20th centuries.
(And it seems to be particularly appropriate to doing it on the actual birthday of the president, born 48 years ago in Honolulu, Hawaii, USA)
---
Mombassa was not actually part of Zanzibar in 1961 -- it was treated as an integral part of Kenya throughout British rule and once Kenya achieved independence.
The confusion may come from the complicated legal status the British and other colonial powers used in occupying East Africa. The coastal territory that includes Mombassa passed back and forth between various powers from the 1600s onward. At various time it was under Omani, Portuguese, German, and British control. Eventually the Omanis created a separate Sultanate of Zanzibar, and installed an Omani Sultan as ruler.
Arab historians referred to this coastal area as the "Zanj" - a narrow strip of coastal territory stretching as far north as Somalia through Kenya and into what is now Tanzania, an area where the vibrant, multi-cultural Swahili trading culture developed and grew from about the 7th century until our times.
In the late 1800s, the British established control over much of the area, with Zanzibar as a joint British/German "protectorate" (meaning that they left the Sultan as a figurehead, but the colonial powers controlled all real decisions). As part of the 1886 British/German border commission establishing colonial boundaries in East Africa, the Sultan of Zanzibar was given title to Zanzibar and Pemba, as well as 10 mile strip of the mainland coast (including Mombassa). In reality, the Sultan's mandate over the coast was commercial rather than territorial, controlling much of the trade in the area but not exercising any political authority in the territory.
In 1887 the British East Africa Company signed a 50 year lease with the Sultan of Zanzibar giving the Company control of the coastal lands. When the British East Africa Company faced huge financial problems, the British government stepped in and began formal colonial government. The coastal territory was technically "leased" by the British government from the Sultan of Zanzibar in 1895.
In 1920 the British - having taken control of Tanganyika from the Germans after WWI - formally divided up the British East Africa Protectorate, creating separate administrative units in Uganda, Tanganyika, and Zanzibar. The land that is now Kenya was divided into two distinct units. The "Kenya Colony" consisted of the interior and was governed by a Governor-General appointed by London who was advised by a "Legislative Council" elected by the white farmers and settlers. The "Protectorate of Kenya" comprised the land along the coast and, without the white farmer population found in the highlands of the interior, was governed directly by the British without any pretense of local involvement in decision-making. Despite these distinctions, the British Colonial Office treated the two as a single administrative unit, referring to the "Colony and Protectorate of Kenya."
From 1887 on, the British flag flew over Mombassa until Kenyan independence in 1963. In fact, Mombassa served as capital of the British East Africa Protectorate (until Nairobi was built up and made the capital in 1907) and later as capital of the coastal Protectorate of Kenya.
These and similar arrangements with the British and Germans in the late 1800s meant that the Sultan only controlled the islands, with the coastal territory only a theoretical part of his domain. In reality, Mombassa was governed as part of the British territory with no presence of Zanziberi governance (although many contacts with traders going back and forth, cultural and religious connections, etc).
While the legal myth of the coastal territory belonging to Zanzibar continued on paper until it was formally transferred to Kenya at independence 1963, this was nothing on the ground that reflected this -- the city was always controlled by the British and Kenyan government and understood/treated as part of Kenyan territory. There would have no question in 1961 -- any official documents issued in the city would have come from the mainland British/Kenyan authorities, not those from Zanzibar.
Obviously none of this is in any way central to the debunking of the birther craziness, but it never hurts for us to learn a bit more about the history of other parts of the world (especially if we find ourselves arguing over the details of that history with some wingnuts). I certainly don't want to see prominent voices on our side (including Olbermann, Maddow and kos) pressing an argument based on historical misunderstanding.
But perhaps mainly as someone who majored in African Studies in university, and who has spent a great deal of time in both Mombassa and Zanzibar, I love the opportunity to share that history of these fascinating places with as many people as possible.
For those who want to more about East African and Kenyan history, I'd recommend the following general interest books:
East Africa: An Introductory History by Robert M. Maxon
Kenya: From Colonization to Independence, 1888-1970 by R. Mugo Gatheru
A Modern History of Kenya, 1885-1980 by William R. Ochieng
Some more academic works that delve more in depth into some of the territorial issues concerning the Kenyan coast include the following. You might be able to find them if you have access to a university library
The administration of Kenya Colony and Protectorate: Its history and development by J. B Carson
From Slaves to Squatters: Plantation Labor & Agriculture in Zanzibar & Coastal Kenya, 1890-1925 by Frederick Cooper
The Politics of the Independence of Kenya by Keith Kyle
Control & Crisis In Colonial Kenya: The Dialectic Of Domination by Bruce J. Berman
The Giriama and Colonial Resistance in Kenya, 1800-1920 by Cynthia Brantley