Mau Mau Memoirs: History, Memory, and Politics.

• Author: McClellan, Charles W.
• Position: Review

Marshall S. Clough, Mau Mau Memoirs: History, Memory, and Politics. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 1998. xii + 283. Maps, glossary, bibliography, index. No price given.

In the mid 1950s the British declared a "state of emergency" in their East African colony of Kenya in response to acts of violence by Africans from the Central Highlands (mostly Gikuyu) who were threatening white settlers and intimidating their Kenyan collaborators. This episode, known as the Mau Mau insurgency, was characterized by the British "primitive," "barbaric," "terrorist," and viewed as potentially nationalistic. As such, the British endeavored to crush it, rounding up suspected supporters and undertaking a military campaign to root out and eliminate the Mau Mau guerillas encamped in the highland forests. With great difficulty, Mau Mau was destroyed, many participants held in detention for years, and a number of its leaders executed.

Clough examines the discourse related to Mau Mau over thirty subsequent years to see what the event has come to mean in the minds of Kenyans and in the context of their evolving history. He is interested also in how the event has been reflected in modern Kenyan politics. To this end, he reassesses memoirs authored by individuals who were fully involved in Mau Mau or in some way associated with it. Their effort results in some interesting insights into the process of shaping "public memory" and in writing national history.

In the aftermath of the insurgency and the arrival of Kenya's 1963 independence, emphasis was placed on "correcting" perceptions of Mau Mau, defining an "African" perspective. The discourse assumed a decidedly nationalistic character. As portrayed, the rebellion represented a struggle to liberate "all" Kenyans; the participants (who it was argued were not solely Gikuyu) were patriots and freedom fighters, while the British and their African collaborators were branded as thugs, brutes, and traitors. This corrective, like the earlier British version, created a counter mythology, and certainly reflected its own political objectives. The purpose of the discourse was to encourage Kenyan nationalism and to justify compensation for Mau Man guerillas in the form of land, wealth, and power as proper rewards for their suffering and years of sacrifice.

But Kenya's post independence leader, Jomo Kenyatta, although a Gikuyu, never fully embraced Man Mau, although the British detained him for a time and did their utmost to associate...