Detainees 'Clobbered by Some Mzungu Officer': Historian on Mau Mau Uprising
Detainees 'Clobbered by Some Mzungu Officer': Historian on Mau Mau Uprising
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In light of King Charles' III visit to Kenya on October 31, 2023, AfroVerdict host sits down with a Kenyan historian to remember the Mau Mau uprising and the devastating consequences of Britain's colonial rule over the African region.
The Mau Mau Rebellion, which lasted from 1952 to 1960, was a bloody and protracted conflict between the British colonial authorities and the Mau Mau fighters. The uprising was eventually suppressed by the British, but it played a significant role in Kenya's struggle for independence and the end of British colonial rule.
"My father was a Mau Mau detainee. He lost his teeth because he was clobbered by some mzungu officer. The reason he was clobbered to lose his teeth was because he refused to say that Kenyatta was a bad man," Prof. Macharia Munene, Professor of History and International Relations, United States International University, Nairobi, reminisces.
The general populace of Kenya has "mixed" feelings over the visit of the UK's head of the royal family to the African country, according to Prof. Munene.
"There are no big emotional attachments. It is amusing, but since it is known that the royal family has a lot of interest in Kenya, personal interests, they own land, they have some other sorts of the engagements that are traced back to the colonial days when Kenya was created as a white man's country," Prof. Munene explains.
Episodes in Kenya's history, such as the Mau Mau Uprising, the Hola Massacre and the Kapenguria Trial are "still embedded in people's heads", however these memories are "gradually fading" as the older Kenyan population "disappear from the world".
"The whole [Mau Mau] episode is remembered as having fought independence in Kenya from the British. It is not that the British government wanted it. They were opposed to it and once they were forced, then they found a clever way of extricating from a very awkward situation," the professor says.
The British royal family owns "a lot of land in Kenya and other properties", thus the country "never intended to get rid of its colonial legacy". The historian believes that the British crown is coming to Kenya "for sentimental reasons", rather than to give an apology.
"He's not coming here to apologize. In the process of [...] acknowledging that some mistakes were made and crimes were committed without apologizing, just admitting that there was something like that, then there may be effort to see what it is that can be done symbolically so that people can see that something happened," Prof. Munene elaborates.
To hear what else the historian had to say, check out the entire episode of the AfroVerdict podcast, brought to you by Sputnik Africa.
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