African traits were replaced or modified by European traits. Almost all African traits have been influenced by European culture, especially in the cities.
The people in the cities have been most affected by modernization in Kenya.
In 1886, Kenya came under the control of the British. Kenya was ruled by the British for almost 80 years. British laws became the law of Kenya. English became the official language. The schools that were start were taught in English.
Contact with the British brought many changes to African culture. This contact with the British is an example of innovations coming from outside the culture. This kind of innovation is called acculturation, because Africans and British came into direct contact. Acculturation is the change that takes place in a culture over a period of time as a result of contact between different cultures.
In Kenya, there were European settlers and British officials. Kenyans came into contact with Europeans in government work in factories, and on the farms. Many new traits came to Kenya through acculturation.
Why have Africans wanted to change? If you can drive a car to work, would you want to walk? If you can have a refrigerator, would you want to cool your meat in spring? If you can have a pair of shoes, would you want to always go barefooted? People everywhere want to live better.
The problem, sometimes, is that people from other cultures use to impose its political power to subdue acculturated people to avoid they express their ideas openly and freely. Living better must be related to making and more things. People all over the world want to have enough food to eat, enough clothes to wear, comfortable houses to live, and be treated as human beings. Africans are no different from other people. They want many of the same things other people want.
The direction of acculturation was largely one way: European traits replaced or changed African traits, but African traits had little impact on European. The new traits have helped in the modernization of Kenya. Modernization in Kenya has resulted in the replacement of African traits by European traits.
Acculturation has been stronger in the urban areas. Here the three major forces, nationalism, urbanization, and industrialization, have affected more people for the longest length of time.
(Written by Elmer Clauson and Marion Rice in Discourse Analysis: Strategies for evaluating the written text by Marbella Delgado,2003)
