Shiraz Durrani

Very few countries hide or obscure the significance of their most important historical achievements. Kenya has managed to do so without any regrets or even a thought about the implication of such a major oversight in connection with Mau Mau Resistance. The reason for this underplay is not difficult to understand. The government that came to power at independence was not only not part of the Mau Mau movement which fought for land and freedom for working people, but actively opposed it. It sought - and was given by the departing colonial power - state power, land and freedom for its class, thereby sidelining the radical resistance movement and its activists. This elite then used its state power to ensure that the nation forgets its radical history which would have alerted future generations to the theft of their inheritance and country.This book provides essential facts about Mau Mau. It seeks to give voice to the Mau Mau resistance fighters. It is aimed at young people who were born after independence and who have been deprived of their historical heritage; it is also a tribute to those who played a part in the war of independence and in Mau Mau without whose contribution independence would have remained a dream. It seeks to restore Kenya's working class history of resistance to colonialism and imperialism.The Kenya Resists Series covers different aspects of resistance by people of Kenya to colonialism and imperialism. It reproduces material from books, unpublished reports, research and oral or visual testimonies. The three aspects chosen for the first three publications in the Series - Mau Mau, Trade Unions and People's Resistance - make up the three pillars of resistance of the people of Kenya.… (plus d'informations)

An outstanding, if terribly edited, Marxist analysis of Kenya’s little studied War of Independence, one of the first anti-colonial wars in Africa.

Although more commonly known in the West as the ‘Kenya Emergency’ or the ‘Kikuyu Affair’, this, as the author correctly argues, is nothing more than an attempt by imperialism to de-legitimize the Kenyan peoples just struggle against colonial exploitation as an uprising of ‘uncivilized savages’.

Far from being ‘uncivilized savages’, the Mau Mau were a multiethnic (Kikuyu, Somali, etc., even Indians whom the British imported as labourers supported the struggle, most notably the Marxist trade unionist Makhan Singh), class conscious, and organized resistance movement. Their slogan “Land and Freedom” echoed the peasants of tsarist Russia, and the author draws numerous parallels between Mau Mau’s socialist, anti-colonial, anti-imperialist ideology, organizational methods and tactics with those of the July 26th Movement in Cuba.

All aspects of Kenya’s War of Independence and the Mau Mau are examined in the book: the role of trade unions, women, ethnic minorities (especially Indians whom brought with them the experiences of India’s struggle against British colonialism); the development of Mau Mau ideology, organization, leadership, etc.; the brutality of Britain’s repression, including detaining entire ethnic groups in concentration camps, starvation, and torture; the transition from colonialism to neo-colonialism when the British were defeated; and more.

I’d recommend this book for those interesting in colonial and liberation struggles.… (plus d'informations)