The Mau Escarpment is a
fault scarp
A fault scarp is a small step-like offset of the ground surface in which one side of a fault has shifted vertically in relation to the other. The topographic expression of fault scarps results from the differential erosion of rocks of contrastin ...
running along the western edge of the
Great Rift Valley
The Great Rift Valley () is a series of contiguous geographic depressions, approximately 6,000 or in total length, the definition varying between sources, that runs from the southern Turkish Hatay Province in Asia, through the Red Sea, to Moz ...
in
Kenya
Kenya, officially the Republic of Kenya, is a country located in East Africa. With an estimated population of more than 52.4 million as of mid-2024, Kenya is the 27th-most-populous country in the world and the 7th most populous in Africa. ...
. The top of the escarpment reaches approximately 3,000 m (10,000 ft) above sea level, and is over 1,000 m higher than the floor of the Rift Valley.
British Uganda Scheme
The
Uganda Scheme was a plan to give a portion of the East Africa Protectorate to the Jewish people as a homeland. The offer was first made by British Colonial Secretary
Joseph Chamberlain
Joseph Chamberlain (8 July 1836 – 2 July 1914) was a British statesman who was first a radical Liberal Party (UK), Liberal, then a Liberal Unionist after opposing home rule for Ireland, and eventually was a leading New Imperialism, imperial ...
first offered 13,000 km
2 of the Mau Escarpment to
Theodore Herzl's Zionist group in 1903. The offer was a response to
pogroms in the Russian Empire
Pogroms in the Russian Empire () were large-scale, targeted, and repeated Antisemitism, anti-Jewish riots that began in the 19th century. Pogroms began to occur after Russian Empire, Imperial Russia, which previously had very few Jews, acquired te ...
, and it was hoped the area could be a refuge from persecution for the Jewish people.
The idea was brought to the
World Zionist Organization's Sixth Zionist Congress in 1903 in
Basel
Basel ( ; ), also known as Basle ( ), ; ; ; . is a city in northwestern Switzerland on the river Rhine (at the transition from the High Rhine, High to the Upper Rhine). Basel is Switzerland's List of cities in Switzerland, third-most-populo ...
. There, a fierce debate ensued. The African land was described as an "ante-chamber to the Holy Land", but other groups felt that accepting the offer would make it more difficult to establish a Jewish state in Palestine in Ottoman Syria, particularly the Mutasarrifate of Jerusalem. Before the vote on the matter, the Russian delegation stormed out in opposition. In the end, the motion to consider the plan passed by 295 to 177 votes.
The next year, a three-man delegation was sent to inspect the plateau. Its high elevation gave it a temperate climate, making it suitable for European settlement. However, observers found a dangerous land filled with lions and other creatures. Moreover, it was populated by a large number of
Maasai people, who did not seem at all amenable to an influx of people coming from Europe.
After receiving this report, Congress decided in 1905 to politely decline the British offer. Some Jews, who viewed this as a mistake, formed the Jewish Territorial Organization with the aim of establishing a Jewish state anywhere.
See also
*
Enkapune Ya Muto
References
External links
* Article published in The East African on the Mau Escarpment and its political and environmental implications: https://web.archive.org/web/20110726142449/http://www.marsgroupkenya.org/multimedia/?StoryID=261885
Escarpments of Kenya
Great Rift Valley
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