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Pre-colonial Economic Activities: Crafts, Industry, and Trade

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Abstract

In pre-colonial Kenya, resource accumulation was dependent on whether a community group was agrarian or pastoral. The agriculturalists depended very much on tilling the land for crop production while the pastoralists believed that all livestock was given to them by God. However, there were many important economic activities among pre-colonial communities in Kenya, simply because of the adequate food production from the agricultural sector. These economic activities included handcrafts and manufacturing industries which produced goods that were important to the society, supplementing and complementing agricultural and pastoral activities. Craft is defined as the art of using one’s skills and hands to design and fashion things.

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Correspondence to Kennedy M. Moindi .

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Moindi, K.M. (2023). Pre-colonial Economic Activities: Crafts, Industry, and Trade. In: Nasong'o, W.S., Amutabi, M.N., Falola, T. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Kenyan History. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-09487-3_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-09487-3_8

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-031-09486-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-031-09487-3

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