UpDate - Vol. 13, No. 13, Page 7
December 2, 1993
New release; Historian, Kenya native's book on Mau Mau revolt

     The first African voice to publish a significant work on Kenya and the
Mau Mau movement of the 1950s belongs to Wunyabari O. Maloba, associate
professor of history at the University and a native of Kenya where the
revolt took place.
     Mau Mau and Kenya, An Analysis of a Peasant Revolt, published by
Indiana University Press, is the first comprehensive look at the Mau Mau
movement that examines all its aspects from beginning to end. It is the
first analysis written by an historian and the first written by a Kenyan.
     Maloba examines the background of the movement, the frustrations of
African nationalism and the role of Jomo Kenyatta, once thought to be the
grand old man of Kenyan nationalism.
     In exploring the background of the movement, Maloba discusses economic
factors that lead to the movement and the frustrations of economic
desperation. He also looks at the frustrations of a people who were not
allowed to organize politically.
     Part of the book is devoted to British propaganda leveled against the
Mau Mau and the British portrayal of the revolt as a "barbaric, savage
revolt against benevolent whites."
     "The British refused to see any legitimate reasons for the uprising,"
he said in a recent interview. "They portrayed the Mau Mau as bloodthirsty
and the metaphors they used have stuck in Western views of any African
uprising. The result is that African uprisings are treated as special
rather than as political uprisings. Still today you will hear talk of
'black on black violence.' You never hear the problems in Northern Ireland
or any other country portrayed as 'white on white violence.'
     "The rebellion...was essentially an uprising of the peasants of
Kenya...against the colonial state, its policies and agents, in 1952. When
the revolt broke out, the colonial authorities refused to acknowledge that
there was any legitimate reason for such an uprising. The general opinion
of the colonial authorities continued to be that Africans were bound to
benefit from colonial rule.... So long as this line of argument was
maintained, it was impossible for the colonial state to see the genuine
legitimacy of African discontent of nationalistic stirrings...so long as
the colonial state and its agents continued to find an excuse for whatever
they did from their belief in the 'white man's burden' it was impossible
for them to recognize and respect the legitimacy of nationalism on the part
of Africans...," Maloba writes in the introduction.
     Another portion of the book analyzes the Mau Mau military and
political strategy and shows why the uprising was unique. Key factors,
Maloba says, are that it had no external support and was not Marxist-not
influenced by capitalism but brought about solely with the goal of getting
rid of colonization. It was a movement without an educated leadership in
which peasants took leadership roles, and it lasted for six years.
     Maloba also examines rehabilitation-a massive British program of
ideological conditioning that affected hundreds of thousands of Mau Mau
taken prisoner during and after the revolt. The program, he said, used
Christian ideology to replace radical nationalism and force the Mau Mau
into obedience to white rule.
     The book also discusses the controversial and complicated legacy of
the movement-concentrating on the fact that the people who went to fight
were not necessarily the people who inherited the state in 1963.
     "The people who inherited the state were Homeguards (Kenyans loyal to
the British) or the children of Homeguards," Maloba said.
     "Without a doubt the Mau Mau movement was one of the most important
events in recent African history," Maloba said. "It had consequences for
the entire continent."
     Maloba joined the University in 1988. He completed his undergraduate
work at the University of Nairobi and earned his doctorate in African
history from Stanford University.
                                                  -Beth Thomas