author
C. W. (Charles William) Hobley
1867–1947
Best known for writing about East Africa from the inside of the colonial administration, this British official and ethnographer left behind detailed, often vivid books on Kenyan history, customs, and belief.
1 Audiobook
About the author
Born in Warwickshire in 1867, he trained in engineering before going to East Africa in 1890 as a geologist with the Imperial British East Africa Company. He later served in the colonial administration in Kenya, remaining in the Colonial Service from 1894 until his retirement in 1921.
Alongside that official career, he published a number of books and monographs, including works on the history of British East Africa and on the customs and beliefs of communities in the region. His writing is still of interest today both as a record of colonial-era administration and as an early body of ethnographic observation, though readers may also approach it with awareness of the attitudes and limits of its time.
He died in Oxted, Surrey, on March 31, 1947. For listeners coming to his work now, he stands as a complex historical figure: a colonial administrator, surveyor, and prolific writer whose books preserve material that has remained part of the study of East African history and culture.