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Kenya Emergency (1952)
Date 1952 - 1960 Location Kenya Result Africans in Kenya attained Independence
Belligerents
Kenya Land and Freedom Army KLFA (a.k.a the "Mau Mau")	British Empire
Commanders and leaders
Field Marshal Dedan Kimathi * Field Marshal Musa Mwariama * General China (Waruhiu Itote) * Stanley Mathenge	Sir Evelyn Baring (Governor) * General Sir George Erskine * Sir Kenneth O'Connor (Chief Justice)
Strength
Unknown	10,000 regular troops (Africans and Europeans) 21,000 police, 25,000 home guard
Casualties and losses
10,527 killed in action; 2,633 captured in action; 26,625 arrested; 2,714 surrendered; 70,000 - 100,000 interned (according to colonial sources). 1M - 1.4M Interned (according to US academic sources)	Security forces killed: Africans 534, Asians 3, Europeans 63; Security forces wounded: Africans 465, Asians 12, Europeans 102; Civilians killed: Africans 1,826 recorded, best estimates suggest a total of 50,000; Asians 26; Europeans 32; Civilians wounded: Africans 918, Asians 36, Europeans 26.

The Kenya Emergency (1952) refers to a military conflict that took place in Kenya, from 1952 to 1959, between the Kenya Land and Freedom Army (KLFA) - also known as the "Mau Mau Movement", and the British Army. The KLFA succeeded in ending the colonial invasion of Kenya- thus achieving their strategic objective. However, KLFA sustained significantly higher casualties compared to the better equipped British soldiers. Atrocities were committed by both sides.

The conflict hastened Kenya's independence and motivated Africans in other countries to fight against the colonial invasion of Africa. It created a rift between the European colonial community in Kenya and the Home Office in London that set the stage for Kenyan independence in 1963.

Despite the impressions given by the media and colonial government publications that the Mau Mau were "savages" slaughtering European settlers (colonial farmers) in droves, only 32 settlers were killed throughout the entire seven years tenure of the emergency. In contrast, the estimate for Kenyan *civilians* killed by the British colonialists during the conflict ranges from between 50,000 - 300,000. At least 1.5 Million Kikuyus were detained in concentration camps that were very similar to Nazi Concentration camps, and subjected to forced labor, starvation, torture and brutal beatings. Several independent researchers (C. Elkins, D. Goldhaen and D. Anderson) have attributed over 100,000 civilian deaths to the colonial activities during the conflict though their claims have met spirited rebuttals from colonial demographer John Blacker,a mong others, who estimate 50,000-80,000 civilian casualties.

Professor Wunyabari O. Maloba, who earned his PHD doctorate degree in African history from Stanford University, is credited as the first historian to publish a significant work on the Kenya Emergency and the KLFA. His work is considered an authoritative source on the subject. According to Professor Maloba, rise of the KLFA (Mau Mau Movement) was, "without doubt, one of the most important events in recent African history."

Alternative names for the conflict

The conflict is also referred to as the "Mau Mau Uprising", "Mau Mau Revolt", or "Mau Mau Rebellion".

KLFA or the Mau Mau?

The origin of the word "Mau Mau" is not known and its meaning is much debated. Depending on a person's point of view, the Mau Mau are either seen as a disorganized bunch of violent, troublesome, tribal savages, who refused to give up their land and freedom in exchange for Britain's gift of civilisation, and who were crushed by the British Army (a colonial apologist viewpoint); or, a determined, well organized, but ill-equipped Army of valiant heroes, who successfully resisted an invading empire, under harsh survival conditions, and without any foreign support (a predominantly African viewpoint).

The KLFA soldiers never referred to themselves as the "Mau Mau" - preferring the Millitary title: "Kenya Land and Freedom Army" instead.

Some 1963 publications, such as Fred Majdalany's "State of Emergency: The Full Story of Mau Mau", claim that it was an anagram of "Uma Uma" (which means "get out get out") and was a military codeword based on a secret-language game the Kikuyu boys used to play at the time of their circumcision. Majdalany goes on to state that the British simply used the name as a Label for the Kikuyu ethic community without assigning any specific definition.

J.M. Kariuki, a Kenyan author who was detained during the conflict, postulates that the British preferred to use the term "Mau Mau" instead of KLFA, and that Britain went to great lengths to give it the derogatory connotations of a primitive tribal revolt against a benevolent civilizer, in an attempt to deny the KLFA, and thus the war for Kenya's Independence, "official" recognition and international legitimacy.

To counter the colonial propaganda, KLFA soldiers satirically defined the word "Mau Mau" as “Muthungu Athii Ulaya, Mugikuyu Ahoote Uthamaki!” Translated as "Let the European go back to Europe, Let the Kikuyu get Independence" As the movement became more nationalistic, a Swahili acronym was adopted: "Mzungu Aende Ulaya, Mwafrika Apate Uhuru" meaning "Let the European go back to Europe (Abroad), Let the African regain Independence". This latter meaning is the more commonly adopted etymology by historians in Africa.

Origins of the Mau Mau uprising

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Economic deprivation of the Kikuyu

For several decades prior to the eruption of conflict, the grabbing of land by European settlers was an increasingly bitter point of contention. Most of the land appropriated was in the central highlands of Kenya, which had a cool climate compared to the rest of the country and was inhabited primarily by the Kikuyu people. Repeated, peaceful attempts by local populations to address this land appropriation were ignored or ridiculed. Professor Michael S. Coray notes that

The administration's refusal to develop mechanisms whereby African grievances against non-Africans might be resolved on terms of equity, moreover, served to accelerate a growing disaffection with colonial rule. The investigations of the Kenya Land Commission of 1932-1934 are a case study in such lack of foresight, for the findings and recommendations of this commission, particularly those regarding the claims of the Kikuyu of Kiambu, would serve to exacerbate other grievances and nurture the seeds of a growing African nationalism in Kenya.

David Anderson concurs, writing that the Morris-Carter Land Commission report of 1934 was "the stone upon which moderate African politics was broken... Militant nationalism was conceived in Kikuyu reaction to the report of the Kenya Land Commission... Opposition to the Land Commission's findings fed militancy all the more over the next twenty years as the pressures upon land within the Kikuyu reserve became greater and the settler stranglehold on the political economy of the colony tightened."

By 1948, 1,250,000 Kikuyu were restricted to 2000 square miles (5,200 km²), while 30,000 British settlers occupied 12,000 square miles (31,000 km²). The most desirable agricultural land was almost entirely in the hands of European settlers.

During the course of the colonial period, European colonizers allowed about 120,000 Kikuyu to farm a patch of land on European farms in exchange for their labour. They were, in effect, tenant farmers who had no actual rights to the land they worked, but which they had previously called home. Between 1936 and 1946, settlers steadily demanded more days of labour, while further restricting Kikuyu access to the land. It has been estimated that the real income of Kikuyu squatters fell by 30% to 40% during this period and fell even more sharply during the late 1940s. This effort by settlers, which was essentially an attempt to turn the tenant farmers into agricultural labourers, exacerbated the Kikuyus' bitter hatred of the white settlers. The Kikuyu later formed the core of the highland uprising.

As a result of the poor situation in the highlands, thousands of Kikuyu migrated into cities in search of work, contributing to the doubling of Nairobi's population between 1938 and 1952. At the same time, there was a small, but growing, class of Kikuyu landowners who consolidated Kikuyu lands and forged strong ties with the colonial administration, leading to an economic rift within the Kikuyu. By 1953, almost half of all Kikuyus had no land claims at all. The results were worsening poverty, starvation, unemployment and overpopulation. The economic bifurcation of the Kikuyu set the stage for what was essentially a civil war within the Kikuyu during the Mau Mau Revolt.

East African Trades Union Congress and the "Forty Group"

On May 1, 1949, six trade unions formed the East African Trades Union Congress (EATUC). In early 1950, the EATUC ran a campaign to boycott the celebrations over the granting of a Royal Charter to Nairobi, because of the undemocratic white-controlled council that ran the city. The campaign proved a great embarrassment to the colonial government. It also led to violent clashes between African radicals and loyalists.

Following a demand for Kenyan independence on May 1, 1950, the leadership of the EATUC was arrested. On May 16, the remaining EATUC officers called for a general strike that paralyzed Nairobi for nine days and was broken only after 300 workers had been arrested and the British authorities made a show of overwhelming military force. The strike spread to other cities and may have involved 100,000 workers; Mombasa was paralyzed for two days.

Closing of political options and the Central Committee

In May 1951, the British Colonial Secretary, James Griffiths, visited Kenya, where the Kenya African Union (KAU) presented him with a list of demands ranging from the removal of discriminatory legislation to the inclusion of 12 elected black representatives on the Legislative Council that governed the colony's affairs. It appears that the settlers were not willing to give in completely, but expected Westminster to force some concessions. Instead, Griffith ignored the KAU's demands and proposed a Legislative Council in which the 30,000 white settlers received 14 representatives, the 100,000 Asians (mostly from South Asia) got six, the 24,000 Arabs one, and the 5,000,000 Africans five representatives to be nominated by the government. This proposal removed the last African hopes that a fair and peaceful solution to their grievances was possible.

First reaction against the uprising

Collective fines and punishments were levied on particularly unstable areas, oath givers were arrested and loyalist Kikuyu were encouraged to denounce the resistance.

On August 17, 1952, the Colonial Office in London received its first indication of the seriousness of the rebellion in a report from Acting Governor Potter. On October 6, Sir Evelyn Baring arrived in Kenya to take over the post of Governor. The next day, police headquarters in Nairobi received news that Senior Chief Waruhiu had been shot at point blank range by bandits in Kiambu. This was the first time the Mau Mau Organization had "officially" attacked. Quickly realizing that he had a serious problem, on October 20, 1952, Governor Baring declared a State of Emergency.

State of Emergency

On the same day as the Emergency was declared, troops and police arrested nearly 100 African political leaders and newspaper editors, including Jomo Kenyatta, in an operation named Jock Scott. A few days later, Senior Chief Nderi's car tires were slashed in broad daylight, but when a military attachment arrived, there was no one to be found but a few old men and women. Up to 8,000 people were arrested during the first 25 days of the operation. It was thought that Operation Jock Scott would decapitate the rebel leadership and that the Emergency would be lifted in several weeks. The amount of violence increased, however; two weeks after the declaration of the Emergency the first European was killed.

While much of the senior political leadership of the Nairobi Central Committee was arrested, some of its military leaders took refuge in the wilderness.

British military presence

One battalion of the Lancashire Fusiliers was flown from the Middle East to Nairobi on the first day of Operation Jock Scott. The 2nd Battalion of the King's African Rifles, already in Kenya, was reinforced with one battalion from Uganda and two companies from the former-state of Tanganyika. The Royal Air Force sent pilots and Handley Page Hastings aircraft. The Royal Navy cruiser Kenya came to Mombasa harbour carrying Royal Marines. During the course of the conflict, other British units such as the Black Watch, The Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers and Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME) served for a short time. The British fielded 55,000 troops in total over the course of the conflict, although the total number did not exceed more than 10,000 at any one time.

Initially, British forces had little reliable intelligence on the strength or structure of the Mau Mau resistance. Senior British officers thought that the Mau Mau Uprising was a sideshow compared to the Malayan Emergency. Over the course of the conflict innocent many Kenyans were killed. Many soldiers were reported to have collected severed human hands for an official five-shilling bounty. Others kept a scoreboard of their killings.

Urban resistance spreads

In April 1953, a Kamba Central Committee was formed. The Kamba rebels were all railwaymen and effectively controlled the railway workforce, and the Kamba were also the core of African units in the Army and Police. Despite this, only three acts of sabotage were recorded against the railway lines during the emergency.

At the same time, rebel Maasai bands became active in Narok district before being crushed by soldiers and police who were given the task of preventing a further spread of the rebellion.

Despite a police roundup in April 1953, the Nairobi committees organized by the Council of Freedom continued to provide badly needed supplies and recruits to the Land and Freedom Armies operating in the central highlands.

British efforts revitalized

In June 1953, General Sir George Erskine arrived and took up the post of Director of Operations, where he revitalized the British effort. His predecessor, Sir Alexander Cameron, became his Second in Command. A military draft brought in 20,000 troops who were used aggressively. The Kikuyu reserves were designated "Special Areas", where anyone failing to halt when challenged could be shot. This was often used as an excuse for the shooting of innocent Kenyans, so this provision was subsequently abandoned.

The Aberdares Range and Mount Kenya were declared "Prohibited Areas", within which no person could enter without government clearance. Those found within the Prohibited Area could be shot on sight.

In late 1953, security forces swept the Aberdare forest in the Operation Blitz and captured and killed 125 guerrillas. Despite such large-scale offensive operations, the British found themselves unable to stem the tide of insurgency.

While the sweep was inefficient, the sheer number was overwhelming. Kikuyus were swept away to detention camps and the most important source of supplies and recruits for the resistance evaporated.

Having cleared Nairobi, the authorities repeated the exercise in other areas so that by the end of 1954 there were 77,000 Kikuyu in concentration camps. About 100,000 Kikuyu squatters were deported back to the reserves. In June 1954, a policy of compulsory villagization was started in the reserves to allow more effective control and surveillance of civilians and to better protect pro-government collaborators. When the program reached completion in October 1955, 1,077,500 Kikuyu had been concentrated into 854 "villages".

Conditions in the British detention and labour camps were appalling, due in part to the sheer number of Kikuyu detainees. One British colonial officer described the labour camps thus: "Short rations, overwork, brutality, humiliating and disgusting treatment and flogging - all in violation of the United Nations Universal Declaration on Human Rights." Sanitation was non-existent, and epidemics of diseases like cholera swept through the camps. Official medical reports detailing the shortcomings of the camps and their recommendations were ignored, and the conditions being endured by Kikuyu detainees were lied about to the outside world.

Political and social concessions by the British

Kenyans were granted nearly all of the demands made by the KAU in 1951. In June 1956, a program of land reform increased the land holdings of the Kikuyu, thereby increasing the number of Kikuyu allied with the colonial government. This was coupled with a relaxation of the ban on Africans growing coffee, a primary cash crop.

In the cities the colonial authorities decided to dispel tensions by raising urban wages, thereby strengthening the hand of moderate union organizations like the KFRTU. By 1956, the British had granted direct election of African members of the Legislative Assembly, followed shortly thereafter by an increase in the number of African seats to fourteen. A Parliamentary conference in January 1960 indicated that the British would accept "one person — one vote" majority rule.

These political measures were taken to end the instability of the Uprising. The choice that the authorities in London faced was between an unstable colony, which was costing a fortune in military expenses, run by settlers who contributed little to the economic growth of the Empire, or a stable colony run by Africans that contributed to the coffers of the Empire. The latter option was the one, in effect, taken.

Casualties

The official number of European settlers killed was 32.

The official number of Kenyans killed was estimated at 11,503 by British sources, but David Anderson places the actual number at higher than 20,000. Professor Caroline Elkins of Harvard University, whose study of the event Imperial Reckoning: The Untold Story of Britain's Gulag in Kenya won the Pulitzer Prize in 2006, claims it is probably at least as high as 70,000 but more realistically it in the hundreds of thousands."

Britain's colonial demographer John Blacker, in an article in African Affairs (a British Magazine dating back to colonial times), has estimated the total number of African deaths at around 50,000; half were children under 10. Blacker's article (April 2007 Journal of African Affairs) deals directly with Elkins' claim that up to 300,000 Kikuyu were "unaccounted for" at the 1962 census, judged by comparative population growth rates for other ethnic groups since the previous 1958 census. However it is not an academic article.

Of particular note is the number of executions authorized by the courts. In the first eight months of the Emergency, only 35 rebels were hanged, but by November 1954, 756 had been hanged, 508 for offenses less than murder, such as illegal possession of firearms. By the end of 1954, over 900 rebels and rebel sympathizers had been hanged; by the end of the Emergency, the grand total was 1,090. This total figure is more than double the number executed by the French in Algeria.

Atrocities

The number of Mau Mau fighters killed by the British and their military adjuncts was about 20,000.

It has been documented that at least 150,000 Kikuyu not directly involved in the rebellion were persecuted by the British.

A major source of atrocities was the 'screening' of Kikuyu and others suspected of Mau Mau sympathies. Elkins writes that,

lectric shock was widely used, as well as cigarettes and fire. Bottles (often broken), gun barrels, knives, snakes, vermin and hot eggs were thrust up men's rectums and women's vaginas. The screening teams whipped, shot, burned and mutilated Mau Mau suspects, ostensibly to gather intelligence for military operations and as court evidence.

A British officer, describing his exasperation about uncooperative Mau Mau suspects during an interrogation, explained that,

I stuck my revolver right in his grinning mouth and I said something, I don’t remember what, and I pulled the trigger. His brains went all over the side of the police station. The other two Mickeys were standing there looking blank. I said to them that if they didn’t tell me where to find the rest of the gang I’d kill them too. They didn’t say a word so I shot them both. One wasn’t dead so I shot him in the ear. When the sub-inspector drove up, I told him that the Mickeys tried to escape. He didn’t believe me but all he said was 'bury them and see the wall is cleared up.'

Many settlers took an active role in the torture of Mau Mau suspects, running their own screening teams and assisting British security forces during interrogation. One settler helping the Kenya Police Reserve's Special Branch described one interrogation which he assisted: "By the time I cut his balls off he had no ears, and his eyeball, the right one, I think, was hanging out of its socket. Too bad, he died before we got much out of him."

Immediately after the discovery of the first Lari massacre (between 10 pm and dawn that night), colonial security services engaged in a retaliatory mass murder of residents of Lari suspected of Mau Mau sympathies. These were indiscriminately shot, and later denied either treatment or burial. There is also good evidence that these indiscriminate reprisal shootings continued for several days after the first massacre. (See the reports of 21 and 27 men killed on 3rd and 4 April, respectively.) The official tally of the dead for the first Lari Massacre is 74; that for the second, 150.

Mau Mau militants were also guilty of human rights violations. At Lari, on the night of March 25–26, 1953, Mau Mau forces herded 120 Kikuyu into huts and set fire to them.

Remarkably few British civilians were killed by Mau Mau militants: just 32. The European panic, however, was extreme. Perhaps the most famous Mau Mau victim was Michael Ruck, aged six, who was killed along with his parents. "Newspapers in Kenya and abroad published graphic murder details and postmortem photos, including images of young Michael with bloodied teddy bears and trains strewn on his bedroom floor."

In 1952 the poisonous latex of the African milk bush was used to kill cattle in an incident of Biological warfare.

Official Status of the KLFA (Mau Mau)

The Kenya Land and Freedom Army (aka KLFA or The Mau Mau Movement) are officially recognized by the Kenya Government as "National Heroes" who "sacrificed their lives" for the country in order to free Africans from colonial injustices and oppression.

The Government of Kenya has proposed "Mashujaa day" (Heroes Day) to be marked annually on 20 October. According to Kenya Government, Mashujaa day is a day for Kenyans to remember and honor the Mau Mau (KLFA) and other Kenyans who participated in the clamor for freedom of Africans and Kenya's independence.

Legal case

Some of those tortured during the era have sued for compensation from the British government, and their lawyers have documented about 6,000 cases of human rights abuses including fatal whippings, rapes and blindings. The British government has stated that the issue was the responsibility of the Kenyan government, relying on the grounds of "state succession" for former colonies. Around 12,000 Kenyans had sought compensation.

In popular culture

Film

• Reke Tumanwo, directed by kibAara Kaugi, the first ever Kenya Feature Film was released on 31 May 2005 at Nu Metro Cinema Ngong Road. Based on a real life story of a former Mau Mau Freedom Fighter Wamuyu wa Gakuru. Celebrates role of women in Mau Mau War

• The 2005 short film The Oath, which used all Kenyan and Kenyan-based actors, some of whom are modern day descendants of the Mau Mau.
• Something of Value (1957) directed by Richard Brooks and starring Rock Hudson, Dana Wynter and Sidney Poitier.
• Mau Mau (1955 film) a shockumentary exploitation film directed by Elwood Price and narrated by Chet Huntley.
• Simba (film) a 1955 film about the Mau Mau uprising starring Dirk Bogarde and directed by Brian Desmond Hurst.
• The Mau Mau uprising is also highlighted in the movie "Safari (1956 film)" released in 1956 and starring Victor Mature and Janet Leigh. Mature is the great white hunter bent on revenge against the Mau Maus, and Leigh the love interest he takes on Safari. The movie was filmed in Kenya and directed by future-to-be James Bond film director Terence Young.
• Africa Addio is a well-capitalized 1966 Italian "shock"-umentary covering the political transition from colonial- to post-colonial Africa. It includes a brief recapitulation of the Mau-Mau Rebellion and authentic scenes of its aftermath, including damage to white Highland farms and livestock, actual participants' sentencing in local British court, and their re-appearance at the popular celebration of Jomo Kenyatta's pardon of all Mau-Mau participants.
• The uprising is at the core of the movie The Kitchen Toto, released in 1987 and starring Edwin Mahinda and Bob Peck.
• Mau Mau, a 52-minute documentary, is Part II of The Black Man's Land Trilogy, which was broadcast on PBS in 1978 and continues to be widely used in university-level African Studies courses. The film is described as "a political analysis of Africa's first modern guerrilla war, and the myths that still surround it."

Literature

• Elspeth Huxley's 1954 novel A Thing to Love is set in Kenya during the uprising and presents it from the European perspective.
• The novels Something of Value (1955) and Uhuru (1962) by Robert Ruark are written from the perspective of Dedan Kimathi and his friend Peter. Something of Value was made into a 1957 movie.
• Two novels by Ngugi wa Thiong'o (James Ngugi), Weep Not, Child (1964) and A Grain of Wheat (1967), deal with the uprising from the Kikuyu perspective.
• The Mau Mau Uprising, including a depiction of a character taking the oath, is referenced in the book The In-Between World of Vikram Lall by MG Vassanji (2003). The first part of the book is set during the time of the uprising, and the story interweaves the occurrences of the time into the lives of the characters.
• In Wangeri Maathai's Unbowed: A Memoir, she discusses how the Mau Mau Uprising affected her childhood and divided the Kikuyu Tribe between those who fought on the Mau Mau side and those who fought for the British.
• The Mike Resnick novel Paradise, a science fiction allegory for the history of Kenya, features the Kalakala Emergency, an uprising of the native alien population of the planet Peponi against the human colonists.

Music

• Hip-hop duo Dead Prez references the Mau Mau among many other black power movements in their song "I Have A Dream Too" from the album "Revolutionary But Gangsta'".
• The Allan Sherman song "Hungarian Goulash" makes reference to the "jolly Mau-Maus" and how they are "eating missionary pie."
• Blues showman Screamin' Jay Hawkins recorded a song titled "Feast of the Mau Mau" on his 1969 album "...What That Is!", and released a double album of the same name in 1988, a UK re-release of "...What That Is!" and "Is In Your Mind" (1970).
• The opening track of Paul Kantner's 1970 release Blows Against the Empire is called "Mau Mau (Amerikon)," which was written by Kantner, Grace Slick, and Joey Covington.

Use in popular culture

• "The Mau Maus" were a fictitious political hip-hop group named in the 2000 Spike Lee film Bamboozled.
• The Mau Mau Uprising is referenced by several flashbacks in the Magnum, P.I. episode "Black on White".
• The name taken by the graffiti artist "Mau Mau", known as the "Ethical Banksy".

Notes

Constructs such as ibid., loc. cit. and idem are discouraged by Misplaced Pages's style guide for footnotes, as they are easily broken. Please improve this article by replacing them with named references (quick guide), or an abbreviated title. (May 2010) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

1. ^ Kabogo, Tabitha. Dedan Kimathi: A Biography. (East African Educational Publishers, Nairobi: 1992) p.23-25.
2. ^ http://www.britains-smallwars.com/kenya/Units.html
3. ^ http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jan/25/kenya-colonial-torture-mau-mau
4. ^ Wunyabari O. Maloba, Mau Mau and Kenya, An Analysis of a Peasant Revolt (Indiana University Press),December 1993
5. ^ Malcom Page "KAR: a history of the King's African Rifles" (London: Leo Cooper, 1998) p. 206.
6. The Origins and Growth of Mau Mau (Nairobi: Government of Kenya, 1960) page 316 places the number of Mau Mau killed in action at 11,503.
7. Caroline Elkins, Britain's Gulag
8. John Blacker (2007), "The demography of Mau Mau: fertility and mortality in Kenya in the 1950s: a demographer's viewpoint", African Affairs 106(423):205-227.
9. http://www.africawithin.com/tour/kenya/mau_mau.htm
10. Encyclopedia of African history, Volume 1 By Kevin Shillington, p. 383 (available in Googlebooks)
11. http://www.historywiz.com/africa.htm
12. Hawke, Beverly G. ed. Africa’s Media Image. (Praeger Publishers, New York: 1992) p.58.
13. ^ http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3045300416.html
14. http://www.opendemocracy.net/david-elstein/daniel-goldhagen-and-kenya-recycling-fantasy
15. http://www.orionbooks.co.uk/HB-29651/histories-of-the-hanged.htm Caprured 21 May 2010
16. http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/36/095.html Captured on May 16, 2010
17. Kabogo, Tabitha. Dedan Kimathi: A Biography. (East African Educational Publishers, Nairobi: 1992) p.23-25.
18. ^ Kariuki, J.M. “Mau Mau” Detainee: The Account by a Kenya African of his Experiences in Detention Camps 1953-1960. (London, Oxford: 1963) p.24.
19. Majdalany, Fred. State of Emergency: The Full Story of Mau Mau. (Houghton Mifflin, Boston: 1963) p.75.
20. ibid, p.167. Mau Mau Translated into English “Let the Europeans go back to Europe, let the Kikuyu get independence (or the government)”
21. http://www.elateafrica.org/elate/history/maumau/maumauintro.html
22. The Kenya Land Commission and the Kikuyu of Kiambu, Michael S. Coray, Agricultural History, Vol. 52, No. 1 (Jan., 1978), pp. 179-193.
23. Anderson 2005: 22.
24. Mark Curtis, Web of Deceit (Vintage, 2003), p. 327.
25. Caroline Elkins, Britain's Gulag (Pimlico, 2005), Chapter 5.
26. Curtis, 2003 Chapter 15.
27. Anderson 2005, p.4
28. Elkins, 2005 pp xv-xvi.
29. John Blacker. 2007. "The demography of Mau Mau: fertility and mortality in Kenya in the 1950s: a demographer's viewpoint," African Affairs 106, Number 423: 205-227.
30. ^ Anderson 2005, 7
31. The horror: imperialism's African legacy.
32. Anderson, 2005 p. 4–5 Anderson here states that at least 150,000 Kikuyu "spent some time behind the wire of a British detention camp."
33. Elkins 2005, p.66
34. Anderson 2005, pp. 299–300
35. Elkins 2005, p.87
36. See Anderson 2005: 130.
37. See Anderson 2005: 133.
38. The figure was published in a report by the colonial newspaper East African Standard on 5 April 1953. (See Anderson 2005: 132).
39. LRB · letters page from Vol. 27 No. 11.
40. See also Death at Lari: The Story of an African Massacre, chapter 4 of Anderson 2005.
41. Elkins, 2005 p. 42.
42. Verdourt, Bernard (1969). Common poisonous plants of East Africa. London: Collins. p. 254. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
43. http://www.nationalheritage.go.ke/index.php?option=com_docman&task=doc_view&gid=19&tmpl=component&format=raw&Itemid=54
44. http://www.coekenya.go.ke/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=116&Itemid=111
45. http://www.nationalheritage.go.ke/index.php?option=com_docman&task=doc_download&gid=19&Itemid=54
46. Mau Mau veterans to sue over British 'atrocities' - Africa, World - Independent.co.uk.
47. BBC NEWS | Programmes | Correspondent | Kenya: White Terror.
48. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jan/25/kenya-colonial-torture-mau-mau
49. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4540134202583442015
50. http://deaddodo.org/ugugu/song_%22Feast_of_the_Mau_Mau%22_(Jalacy_J._Hawkins)
51. http://www.mau-mau.co.uk

Bibliography

• J. 'Bayo Adekson, "The Algerian and Mau Mau Revolts: a Comparative Study in Revolutionary Warfare," Comparative Strategy, vol 2 no 1 (1981): 69-92.
• Anderson, David (2005). Histories of the Hanged: The Dirty War in Kenya and the End of Empire. Weidenfeld and Nicolson. ISBN 0-393-05986-3.
• Corfield, Frank. 1960. The Origins and Growth of Mau Mau . Nairobi: Government of Kenya.
• Elkins, Caroline (2005). Imperial Reckoning: The Untold Story of Britain's Gulag in Kenya. ISBN 0-8050-8001-5.
• Henderson, Ian (1958). The Hunt for Kimathi. London: Hamish Hamilton. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
• Londsale, John. 1990. "Mau Maus of the Mind: Making Mau Mau and Remaking Kenya", The Journal of African History 31 (3): 393-421.
• Maloba, Wunyabari O. Mau-Mau and Kenya: An Analysis of a Peasant Revolt. ISBN 0-253-21166-2.
• Marsh, Zoe and G.W. Kingsnorth (1972). A History of East Africa. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-08348-6.
• Newsinger, John. 1981. "Revolt and Repression in Kenya: The 'Mau Mau' Rebellion, 1952-1960," Science and Society 45: 159–185.
• Ngugi wa Thiong'o (1967). A Grain of Wheat. ISBN 0-435-90987-8.

• Njagi, David (1991). The Last Mau Mau (Kenya's Freedom Heroes or Villains?): An Excerpt. Nairobi, Kenya, 52 pages.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location (link) CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) (Page images of whole book at link.)

See also

• History of Kenya
• British military history
• Frank Kitson, author of the book Gangs and Counter-gangs
• Ian Henderson (Britain)
• Hola massacre
• Weep Not, Child

External links

• Justice for Mau Mau would boost Kenyan transition to democracy
• "Africa Addio" Controversial 1966 Italian documentary includes restaged & authentic scenes of 'Mau-Mau' aftermath- including damage to white Highland farms, participants' sentencing in local British court, & celebration of Jomo Kenyatta's pardon of all Mau-Mau 'heroes'. Film was banned in Italy and England for its racist point of view.
• The Oath Mau Mau Film Trailer on You Tube
• The Early Days Of The Mau Mau Insurrection
• British brutality in Mau Mau conflict
• The Mau-Mau and the end of the Colony
• Churchill death threat revealed
• Economist review of the Elkins and Anderson books
• Royal Engineers Museum - Royal Engineers and the Mau Mau
• Sunday Times review of the Elkins and Anderson books
• Second Times review of the Elkins and Anderson books
• Daily Telegraph Review of Elkins and Anderson
• Guardian Review of Elkins and Anderson
• London Review of Books review of Elkins and Anderson
• Washington Post review of Elkins and Anderson
• The Nation review of Elkins and Anderson
• Hasting review of Elkins and Anderson in the Daily Telegraph
• Interview with Caroline Elkins about her book Imperial Reckoning
• Critique of Elkins
• Another Critique of Elkins
• BBC News: Mau Mau to sue British government
• Deflem, Mathieu. 1994.“Law Enforcement in British Colonial Africa: A Comparative Analysis of Imperial Policing in Nyasaland, the Gold Coast, and Kenya.” Police Studies 17(1):45-68
• Mau Mau documentary film

• Articles with unsourced statements from may 2009
• Articles with ibid from May 2010
• Mau Mau Uprising
• 20th-century conflicts
• British Empire
• Black liberation movements in the British Empire
• Wars involving Kenya
• Rebellions in Africa
• Wars of independence
• Guerrilla organizations
• 20th century in Kenya
• Insurgencies
• Protests