Essays on Mau Mau : contributions to Mau Mau historiography

Presuming reader familiarity with general works on Kenyan history and Kikuyu society, and more particularly with Mau Mau 'classics' such as Rosberg and Nottingham's 'The myth of Mau Mau' (New York, Praeger, 1966) and Barnett and Njama's 'Mau Mau from within' (New York, Monthly Review Press, 1966), the author here aims not so much to present a new, comprehensive study of Mau Mau, but rather to take stock of and to evaluate the progress made in Mau Mau studies during the last ten years. Focus is above all on points that have raised controversy or publications that carry new "discoveries" (facts as well as hypotheses). Successive chapters of the report, which in the words of the author "should be considered as a series of articles loosely held together rather than as a well-constructed book", deal with Mau Mau recruitment, Mau Mau organisation, the meaning of Mau Mau in terms of respectively cultural renewal, anti-colonialism, and civil war, and the Kiambu enigma. The final chapter indicates possible leads for comparison with the 1947-Madagascar war and the UPC insurrections in Cameroun