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Orientation for
East Africa Program |  |
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Orientation for
East Africa Program | |
| A. African discontent over lack of influence on politics, and over loss of their land to the whites, eventually led to a guerrilla war. This was a nationalist guerrilla struggle and definitely not the return to savagery as the "thin verneer of civilization wore off the bloody savages" as the whites portrayed it. B. It was fought largely in Kikuyu areas because of mountain hiding places there (used to be Aberdare Mountains, now called Nyandarua Mountains). They had little connection with forces outside the country, so one would have predicted odds of success were low. C. They were opposed with much hysteria and brutality by British troops, flying planes and dropping bombs, using "protective villages" (a technique learned in Malaysia, and later used by US in Vietnam War) and putting Mau Mau believers through re-education (to return them to civilization). The “re-education” often involved torture of one kind or another, some of it so bad that it eventually caused a stink in the British Parliament. D. There was much violence of African against African, and the use of "homeguards" who collaborated with the British. Large numbers of Africans were killed, but only a small number of the colonists. E. Kenyatta and other presumed leaders became revered martyrs when they were sent to desert prison-camp. Were actually more moderate than the radical true leaders. F. Led toward independence by giving Britain a black eye in world public opinion and raising the cost of continuing colonial domination. |
Dedan Kimathi one of the leaders of the Land and Freedom Army soon after his capture by the British forces. |
Footnote on the deaths in Mau Mau:
The official records of casualties for the Emergency
period show: 11,503 Mau Mau fighters killed; 1,920 loyal Africans; 66
European
soldiers; 29 European civilians; and 29 Asian civilians. To quote Mazrui
and Tidy, "These figures exclude the
uncounted thousands of Kikuyu, including
many women and children, who died of starvation or disease in the overcrowded
and insanitary fortified villages."
In the words of Barbara Slaughter, reviewing a program about Mau Mau on Channel 4 television in the United Kingdom:
In 1960 the state
of emergency was lifted. The LFA death toll during the emergency was 11,500,
of whom around 1,000 were hanged. Eighty thousand Kikuyu were imprisoned in concentration
camps. One hundred
and fifty thousand Africans, mostly Kikuyu, lost their lives, with many dying
of disease and
starvation in the "protected villages". On the other side, the KFA killed around
2,000 people,
including 32 European civilians and 63 members of the security forces.
Reading suggestions:
Two recent and well-reviewed books on the brutality of the final days of the British empire in Kenya (for a review in the New York Times of January 30, 2005 click here):
Robert Ruark, Uhuru (an uncritical perpetuation of all of the myths of Mau Mau believed by the white settlers) For a brief biography of Ruark, click here.
Robert Ruark, Something of Value (another colonialist novel by the same author. A movie was made from this in 1957. Click to be taken to a listing for that movie.)
David Maughn-Brown, Land, Freedom and Fiction:History and Ideology in Kenya (fascinating analysis of the myths perpetrated by "colonialist" literature, such as that of Ruark)
Ngugi wa Thiong'o, A Grain of Wheat (an excellent depiction of the conflicting pressures on villlagers during this struggle). Link to a page giving some background on Ngugi: click. Rosberg and Nottingham, The Myth of Mau Mau: Nationalism in Kenya (demythologizing the settler's interpretation, giving history) An excellent documentary about Mau Mau and the emergency in Kenya is available: Mau mau [videorecording] / Anthony David Productions, Inc. ; a film by David Koff and Anthony Howarth. Van Nuys, CA : Distributed by Bellwether Group, c1979 “Kitchen Toto” -- feature film from Kenya (but with a white producer, as I recall), dramatizing the tension between pro-Mau Mau and more neutral (frightenened) Kikuyu – the Mau Mau come across as rather blood-thirsty and nasty types. Robert Edgerton, Mau Mau: An African Crucible, I. B. Taurus & Co, London, 1990 David Throup,
Economic and Social Origins of Mau Mau 1945-53, James Currey, London, 1987
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