Overview

This text is based on the oral evidence of the Kikuyu villagers with whom the author lived as an aid worker during the Mau Mau emergency in the 1950s. The data suggests that there was never a single Mau Mau movement, and that none of its members ever saw it as such, not because they did not have a political aim, but because that agenda was contested within different political circles over which they had no control and of which they may scarcely have had any knowledge. The importance of this is that almost all the enemies of the Mau Mau did see it as a whole movement, in order to try and comprehend it and defeat it. North America: Ohio U Press; Kenya: EAEP

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... a unique account of Britain's most bloody war of decolonization... .More than any other writer on Mau Mau, Kershaw has captured and distilled its internecine complexity, in the process identifying why the wounds have taken so very long to heal... - David Anderson in THE TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT ... This is a wonderful source book on Kikuyu political mythology and culture... - Frank Furedi in AFRICAN AFFAIRS ... Hers was unique, very difficult, even somewhat dangerous fieldwork and we are fortunate that her findings are at last available. As the distinguished historian of East Africa, John Lonsdale, argues in his excellent foreword, this is an invaluable document that no one interested in the history of East Africa can neglect. Here is an example of anthropological fieldwork that due to its late appearance is now itself a form of history. The copious detail of its material, the complex sagas related by the people in the two Kikuyu communities Kershaw studied, and, above all, the direct voices of these Kikuyus' testimonies and interviews make the harsh and tragic conditions of Kenya life in the colonial era intensely, richly vivid. ... (the) value of her work remains ions of Kenya life in the colonial era intensely, richly vivid. ... (the) value of her work remains immense, especially since no comparable data o

'... a unique account of Britain's most bloody war of decolonization ... More than any other writer on Mau Mau, Kershaw has captured and distilled its internecine complexity, in the process identifying why the wounds have taken so very long to heal...' - David Anderson in The Times Literary Supplement '... This is a wonderful source book on Kikuyu political mythology and culture...' - Frank Furedi in African Affairs '... Hers was unique, very difficult, even somewhat dangerous fieldwork and we are fortunate that her findings are at last available. As the distinguished historian of East Africa, John Lonsdale, argues in his excellent foreword, this is an invaluable document that no one interested in the history of East Africa can neglect. Here is an example of anthropological fieldwork that due to its late appearance is now itself a form of history. The copious detail of its material, the complex sagas related by the people in the two Kikuyu communities Kershaw studied, and, above all, the direct voices of these Kikuyus' testimonies and interviews make the harsh and tragic conditions of Kenya life in the colonial era intensely, richly vivid. ... value of her work remains immense, especially since no comparable data of such richness can now ever be retrieved from anywhere else. ... ' - T.O. Beidelman in Anthropos

... a unique account of Britain's most bloody war of decolonization... .More than any other writer on Mau Mau, Kershaw has captured and distilled its internecine complexity, in the process identifying why the wounds have taken so very long to heal... - David Anderson in THE TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT ... This is a wonderful source book on Kikuyu political mythology and culture... - Frank Furedi in AFRICAN AFFAIRS ... Hers was unique, very difficult, even somewhat dangerous fieldwork and we are fortunate that her findings are at last available. As the distinguished historian of East Africa, John Lonsdale, argues in his excellent foreword, this is an invaluable document that no one interested in the history of East Africa can neglect. Here is an example of anthropological fieldwork that due to its late appearance is now itself a form of history. The copious detail of its material, the complex sagas related by the people in the two Kikuyu communities Kershaw studied, and, above all, the direct voices of these Kikuyus' testimonies and interviews make the harsh and tragic conditions of Kenya life in the colonial era intensely, richly vivid. ... (the) value of her work remains immense, especially since no comparable data of such richness can now ever be retrieved from anywhere else. ... - T.O. Beidelman in ANTHROPOS

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