How did the human fascination with flying influence the ways African states and nations imagined and constructed themselves after independence and how did mid-20th century Africans engage with modernity and the larger world?
These are some of the questions Baz Lecocq of the Institute for Asian and African Studies at Humboldt University of Berlin hopes to address in his STIAS project.
“I’m taking aviation as a new lens to look at post-colonial African history. Social-cultural aviation history is a new field, hardly anyone is doing it so there’s an opportunity to mould it to include Africa,” he said. “On the other side, overall, African history has so far not managed to make any impact on general history. This keeps history colonised as we need to understand African history if we want to understand the history of other parts of the planet of which Africa is an integral part.”
Lecocq hopes that by engaging these larger questions in the history of civil aviation in East Africa he can contribute to debates about post-colonial African history, as well as to debates in the historical field of aviation, transport, mobility and global connectivity from an East-African vantage point.
“By bringing these debates together I intend to mainstream both Africa as a field in aviation history and transport history more generally, and African history as a field in broader historical debates. This can be understood as a decolonisation of both fields, firstly by presenting an Africa-based case of a global industry that has been striving for international standardisation since 1944 — leaving no space for any deviation that could be seen as ‘exotic’ or ‘African’ — and secondly by presenting this history in line with aviation history as it played out in other parts of the world, taking it out of the ‘African box’ that keeps history colonised.”
And STIAS is the perfect setting in which to explore these ideas. “The daily contact with different disciplines and the open exchange is really enriching,” said Lecocq. “This is my opportunity to come back to research after a long period in academic bureaucracy. It’s also an opportunity to experiment with new approaches to doing my work. It’s been productive chaos.”
He intends to write three articles at STIAS and develop a funding proposal for a broader project involving East African colleagues for the European Research Council. “ERC proposals are read by non-subject experts, so the seminar is an excellent chance to test my proposal ideas,” he said.
His interest is a result of stumbling upon the aviation archives in Nairobi which contain a vast treasure-trove of materials. “Too much for one person so I want to bring in others.”
“Aviation is the ultimate modern dream. Humans have always had a fascination with flying and the power it gives. It’s about how we engage with and understand the larger world,” he continued. “It incorporates ideas of modernity, and connectivity and dysconnectivity.”
His seminar incorporated three parts – aviation and the colonisation of machine technology; aviation and the reconfiguration of modernity – looking at class, race and gender; and, African airlines as symbolic expressions of sovereign modernity.
Built for empire
He explained that technology played a significant role in imperial conquest and that coloniality was inbuilt in the development of aviation technology.
Aircrafts use materials that react to surroundings which are different in different climates and ecosystems. Aircrafts were initially used in service of empires and therefore had to use materials that could withstand high variability. In most African former colonies including Kenya the airports were hot and high (height above sea level). “So, they developed aircrafts capable of taking off and landing in hot and high airports like Nairobi. Some were specifically developed to fly only in Africa.”
And air routes were designed to complement existing routes by larger (Global North) airlines.
Lecocq also pointed to rapid technology advances post-World World II, during the Cold War and post-independence when new types of engines meant that aeroplanes grew in size, loading capacity and range. But larger planes also needed increased infrastructure at airports. This was often too little too late for African airports where technological developments outpaced construction work.
Turning to class, race and gender, Lecocq will ask how these are influenced by aviation and how technology shapes social configurations.
“Planes were the fastest way to connect people, places and ideas before the internet. They were seen as a cheap way of linking regional infrastructure,” he said. “But in terms of class only a small percentage of the local populations actually had the chance to fly so there was a limited contribution to connectivity in Africa and globally.”
He also pointed out that airports and aircrafts are places where class distinction is actively performed with different assigned status to passengers based on their tickets.
In terms of race, the more technically proficient jobs within flying were initially occupied by Europeans and Americans. The first Black African steward flew in 1956 but Africans only became the predominant flight crew well into the 1980s.
“There were racist assumptions about lack of intelligence of Africans to understand the technologies and their lack of mechanical skills was often actively promoted,” he said.
Women especially had to fight for their place in the air despite some prominent female aviators like Beryl Markham, a Kenyan settler, who was the first to fly ’the hard way’, from East to West across the Atlantic Ocean in 1936, and who died almost forgotten in Nairobi.
“Female flight attendants in particular have a very gendered history,” said Lecocq. There was a lack of recognition of their vital role as safety workers, they had to remain single and lost their jobs when deemed too old.”
“By 2024 globally females still only constitute 5.5% of pilots, 2.9 % of mechanics and 79% of flight attendants.”
Aeroplanes and modernity
Turning to African airlines as symbols of modern statecraft, Lecocq noted that “Colonisation restricted all freedoms and independence was supposed to restore these. Independent airlines symbolise freedom to move and changed the social relationship between national government, people and the world but it was often still decidedly colonial.”
He explained some of the history of national airlines in Kenya from the privately owned Wilson Airlines to the creation of the British Overseas Airways Company (BOAC) in 1940 and its three colonial corporations – East, West and Central African Airways.
East African Airways was founded in 1946 but, although mostly funded by the Kenyan government, its main task was to feed BOAC. It initially received older British-built planes but became an early adopter of new technology and even experienced a decade of profitability − a rare phenomenon in the world of airlines.
“The broader relevance of all this, is decolonisation. State and nation-building in late and post-colonial African history and the impact of technological, socio-economic and cultural developments.” When it comes to aviation, it is an open question just what colonialism and independence mean, said Lecocq.
“I’m exploring this open question via concrete questions about the cultural and political value of flag-carrying national airlines despite their economic costs; about the intersectionality, social status and materiality of flying; about changes in aviation technology and the way it shaped aeromobility and spatial connections and configurations; about desired and necessary destinations; and, about national and company politics towards the Air Freedoms and the negotiation of air-service agreements”.
“I’m hoping to contribute to the debates via an African-based case study,” he concluded.
Michelle Galloway: Part-time media officer at STIAS
Photograph: SCPS Photograph