Clough (history, U. of Northern Colorado) analyzes 13 personal accounts by Kenyans in order to make a case for not only their historical value, but their role in the struggle to define the importance of Mau Mau within Kenyan historiography and politics. He argues that the recollections of the authors, whose experiences ranged from organizing the secret movement, to supplying the guerillas, to active fighting, to resistance in the British detention camps, serve to refute both the British and Kenyan versions of the revolt. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
The revolt was regarded in its origins & development as wholly evil, yet Mau Mau insurgents became heroes & the day on which the state of emergency was declared is commemorated with pride. This text offers a balanced assessment of the implications.
The autobiography of a woman who was a Kenyan nationalist fighter for the Mau Maus and later politician in Nairobi. Descended from Maasai refugees, Kikuyu frontier settlers, and autochthonous Dorobo hunter-gatherers, she tells the story of her ancestors, her childhood, how she got involved in the Mau Mau rebellion of the 1950s, the later story of her involvement with the Kenya African National Union, her marriage to Nairobi lawyer Silvano Melea Otieno, and the controversy over his burial, which was the impetus for the writing of this book. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
Prior to and after Kenya's independence, this biography recounts a Kenyan police officer's daily experiences, including armed combat in the bush, the technical operations in Nairobi, and the battle of wits against the South African intelligence services in Lesotho and Botswana. Exploring the intrigue and brutality of the officer's position, the book provides insight into security force operations.
The coast of East Africa was considered a strategically invaluable region for the establishment of trading ports, both for Arab and Persian merchants, long prior to invasion and conquest by Europeans. In the initial stages of the scramble for Africa in the 18th century, control of the area was an aspiration for every colonial nation in Europe - but it was not until 1895 that it was finally dominated by a sole power and proclaimed The Protectorate of British East Africa. In the early 20th century, the coast was brimming with vitality as immigrants, colonisers and missionaries from Arabia, India and Europe poured in to take advantage of growing commercial opportunities - including the prospect of enslaving millions of native Africans. The development of Kenya is an exceptional tale within the history of British rule - in perhaps no other colony did nationalistic feeling evolve in conditions of such extensive social and political change. In 1911, S.H. Fazan sailed to what later became the Republic of Kenya to work for the colonial government. Immersing himself in knowledge of traditional language and law, he recorded the vast changes to local culture that he encountered after decades of working with both the British administration and the Kenyan people. This work charts the sweeping tide of social change that occurred through his career with the clarity and insight that comes with a total intimacy of a country. His memoirs examine the fascinating complexity of interaction between the colonial and native courts, commercial land reform and the revolutionised dynamic of labour relations. By further unearthing the political tensions that climaxed with the Mau Mau Revolt of 1952-1960, this invaluable work on the European colonial period paints a comprehensive and revealing firsthand account for anyone with an interest in British and African history. Fazan's story provides a quite unparalleled view of colonial Africa and the conduct of Empire across half a century.
The transcript from this historic trial, long thought destroyed or hidden, unearths a piece of the British colonial archive at a critical point in the Mau Mau Rebellion. Its discovery and landmark publication unsettles an already contentious Kenyan history and its reverberations in the postcolonial present. Perhaps no figure embodied the ambiguities, colonial fears, and collective imaginations of Kenya’s decolonization era more than Dedan Kimathi, the self-proclaimed field marshal of the rebel forces that took to the forests to fight colonial rule in the 1950s. Kimathi personified many of the contradictions that the Mau Mau Rebellion represented: rebel statesman, literate peasant, modern traditionalist. His capture and trial in 1956, and subsequent execution, for many marked the end of the rebellion and turned Kimathi into a patriotic martyr. Here, the entire trial transcript is available for the first time. This critical edition also includes provocative contributions from leading Mau Mau scholars reflecting on the meaning of the rich documents offered here and the figure of Kimathi in a much wider field of historical and contemporary concerns. These include the nature of colonial justice; the moral arguments over rebellion, nationalism, and the end of empire; and the complexities of memory and memorialization in contemporary Kenya. Contributors: David Anderson, Simon Gikandi, Nicholas Githuku, Lotte Hughes, and John Lonsdale. Introductory note by Willy Mutunga.
Mau Mau from Within is told by Karari Njama, a school teacher who was directly involved in the struggles for freedom from colonial rule, to anthropologist Donald L Barnett. As the late Basil Davidson put it: "Njama writes of the forest leaders' efforts to overcome dissension, to evolve effective tactics, to keep discipline (including sexual discipline) and mete out justice ... His narrative is crowded with excitement. Those who know much of Africa and those who know little will alike find it compulsive reading. Some 10,000 Africans died fighting in those years . Here, in the harsh detail of everyday experience, are the reasons why." Originally published as Mau Mau From Within: An analysis of Kenya's Peasant Revolt, it is a story of courage, passion, heroism, combined with recounting of colonial terror, brutality and betrayal. Far from being just an analysis of a peasant revolt, this is the inside story of the struggles of Kenya's Land and Freedom Army told from within by a person who worked closely with Dedan Kimathi. This new expanded edition includes new commentary by Karari Njama, and contributions from Ngugi wa Thiong'o, Micere Githae Mugo as well as a statement from Gitu Wa Kahengeri, Secretary General of the Mau Mau War Veterans Association.
