77-668: The Ekumeku Movement consisted of a series of uprisings against the rising power of the Royal Niger Company of the British Empire by Anioma people in present-day Delta State . The British penetration of Nigeria met with various forms of resistance throughout the country. In the south, the British had to fight many wars, in particular the wars against the Aro of Eastern Igboland in 1901–1902, and from 1883 to 1914,
154-534: A civil war rather than a rebellion. One reason that the revolt was largely limited to the Kikuyu people was, in part, that they had suffered the most as a result of the negative aspects of British colonialism. Wunyabari O. Maloba regards the rise of the Mau Mau movement as "without doubt, one of the most important events in recent African history". David Anderson, however, considers Maloba's and similar work to be
231-409: A butchery. If the H. of C. gets hold of it, all our plans in E.A.P. will be under a cloud. Surely it cannot be necessary to go on killing these defenceless people on such an enormous scale." You may travel through the length and breadth of Kitui Reserve and you will fail to find in it any enterprise, building, or structure of any sort which Government has provided at the cost of more than
308-516: A countrywide political party began on 1 October 1944. This fledgling organisation was called the Kenya African Study Union. Harry Thuku was the first chairman, but he soon resigned. There is dispute over Thuku's reason for leaving KASU: Bethwell Ogot says Thuku "found the responsibility too heavy"; David Anderson states that "he walked out in disgust" as the militant section of KASU took the initiative. KASU changed its name to
385-449: A few sovereigns for the direct benefit of the natives. The place was little better than a wilderness when I first knew it 25 years ago, and it remains a wilderness to-day as far as our efforts are concerned. If we left that district to-morrow the only permanent evidence of our occupation would be the buildings we have erected for the use of our tax-collecting staff. —Chief Native Commissioner of Kenya, 1925 Settler societies during
462-439: A herd. In addition to physical warfare, the Mau Mau rebellion also generated a propaganda war, where both the British and Mau Mau fighters battled for the hearts and minds of Kenya's population. Mau Mau propaganda represented the apex of an 'information war' that had been fought since 1945, between colonial information staff and African intellectuals and newspaper editors. The Mau Mau had learned much from - and built upon -
539-463: A legal challenge against the expropriation of their land, but a Kenya High Court decision of 1921 reaffirmed its legality. In terms of lost acreage, the Masai and Nandi people were the biggest losers of land. The colonial government and white farmers also wanted cheap labour which, for a period, the government acquired from native Kenyans through force. Confiscating the land itself helped to create
616-672: A peaceful resolution to native Kenyan land-hunger was ended. Through a series of expropriations , the government seized about 7,000,000 acres (28,000 km ; 11,000 sq mi) of land, most of it in the fertile hilly regions of Central and Rift Valley Provinces , later known as the White Highlands due to the exclusively European-owned farmland there. In Nyanza the Commission restricted 1,029,422 native Kenyans to 7,114 square miles (18,430 km ), while granting 16,700 square miles (43,000 km ) to 17,000 Europeans. By
693-558: A pool of wage labourers, but the colony introduced measures that forced more native Kenyans to submit to wage labour: the introduction of the Hut and Poll Taxes (1901 and 1910 respectively); the establishment of reserves for each ethnic group, which isolated ethnic groups and often exacerbated overcrowding; the discouragement of native Kenyans' growing cash crops ; the Masters and Servants Ordinance (1906) and an identification pass known as
770-434: A prejudiced legal-system. The vast majority of Kenyan employees' violations of labour legislation were settled with "rough justice" meted out by their employers. Most colonial magistrates appear to have been unconcerned by the illegal practice of settler-administered flogging; indeed, during the 1920s, flogging was the magisterial punishment-of-choice for native Kenyan convicts. The principle of punitive sanctions against workers
847-515: A proclamation on 1 July 1895, in which Kenya was claimed as a British protectorate . Even before 1895, however, Britain's presence in Kenya was marked by dispossession and violence . In 1894, British MP Sir Charles Dilke had observed in the House of Commons , "The only person who has up to the present time benefited from our enterprise in the heart of Africa has been Mr. Hiram Maxim " (inventor of
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#1732773387470924-557: A respected and well-read Christian teacher in his local Kikuyu community. He was known to meticulously record his attacks in a series of five notebooks, which when executed were often swift and strategic, targeting loyalist community leaders he had previously known as a teacher. The Mau Mau military strategy was mainly guerrilla attacks launched under the cover of darkness. They used improvised and stolen weapons such as guns, as well as weapons such as machetes and bows and arrows in their attacks. They maimed cattle and, in one case, poisoned
1001-505: A wedge between Mau Mau and the Kikuyu generally, these propaganda efforts essentially played no role, though they could apparently claim an important contribution to the isolation of Mau Mau from the non-Kikuyu sections of the population. By the mid-1960s, the view of Mau Mau as simply irrational activists was being challenged by memoirs of former members and leaders that portrayed Mau Mau as an essential, if radical, component of African nationalism in Kenya and by academic studies that analysed
1078-618: Is one of the most vigorous campaign of opposition to the British empire and inspired later rebellions such as the Mau Mau of Kenya . Royal Niger Company The Royal Niger Company was a mercantile company chartered by the British government in the nineteenth century. It was formed in 1879 as the United African Company and renamed to National African Company in 1881 and to Royal Niger Company in 1886. In 1929,
1155-695: The Giriama Uprising led by Mekatilili wa Menza of 1913–1914; the women's revolt against forced labour in Murang'a in 1947; and the Kolloa Affray of 1950. None of the armed uprisings during the beginning of British colonialism in Kenya were successful. The nature of fighting in Kenya led Winston Churchill to express concern about the scale of the fighting: "No doubt the clans should have been punished. 160 have now been killed outright without any further casualties on our side .… It looks like
1232-692: The Giriama tribe [from the coastal regions] was very bad. This tribe was moved backwards and forwards so as to secure for the Crown areas which could be granted to Europeans." The Kikuyu, who lived in the Kiambu , Nyeri and Murang'a areas of what became Central Province, were one of the ethnic groups most affected by the colonial government's land expropriation and European settlement; by 1933, they had had over 109.5 square miles (284 km ) of their potentially highly valuable land alienated. The Kikuyu mounted
1309-741: The Kenya African Union (KAU) in 1946. Author Wangari Maathai writes that many of the organizers were ex-soldiers who fought for the British in Ceylon, Somalia, and Burma during the Second World War. When they returned to Kenya, they were never paid and did not receive recognition for their service, whereas their British counterparts were awarded medals and received land, sometimes from the Kenyan veterans. The failure of KAU to attain any significant reforms or redress of grievances from
1386-681: The Kenya Land and Freedom Army (KLFA), also known as the Mau Mau, and the British authorities. Dominated by Kikuyu , Meru and Embu fighters, the KLFA also comprised units of Kamba and Maasai who fought against the European colonists in Kenya - the British Army , and the local Kenya Regiment (British colonists, local auxiliary militia, and pro-British Kikuyu). The capture of Field Marshal Dedan Kimathi on 21 October 1956 signalled
1463-556: The Maxim gun , the first automatic machine gun). During the period in which Kenya's interior was being forcibly opened up for British settlement, there was a great deal of conflict and British troops carried out atrocities against the native population. Opposition to British imperialism had existed from the start of British occupation. The most notable include the Nandi Resistance led by Koitalel Arap Samoei of 1895–1905;
1540-675: The Senegal Company —and another English one—the Liverpool and Manchester Trading Company —begin establishing posts on the river as well. A native attack on the UAC's outpost at Onitsha in 1879 was repulsed with help from HMS Pioneer , but the Gladstone administration subsequently denied Goldie's attempt to procure a government charter in 1881, on the grounds that the international rivalry might occasion unnecessary conflict and that
1617-630: The Sepoy Rebellion . By 1879, he had helped combine James Crowther's WAC, David Macintosh's Central African Company , and the Williams Brothers' and James Pinnock's firms into a single United African Company ; he then acted as the combined firm's agent in the territory. Almost immediately, the firm saw renewed competition as two French firms—the French Equatorial African Association and
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#17327733874701694-424: The kipande (1918) to control the movement of labour and to curb desertion; and the exemption of wage labourers from forced labour and other detested obligations such as conscription. Native Kenyan labourers were of three categories: squatter , contract , or casual . By the end of World War I, squatters had become well established on European farms and plantations in Kenya, with Kikuyu squatters constituting
1771-439: The 1930s, and for the Kikuyu in particular, land had become the number one grievance concerning colonial rule, the situation so acute by 1948 that 1,250,000 Kikuyu had ownership of 2,000 square miles (5,200 km ), while 30,000 British settlers owned 12,000 square miles (31,000 km ), albeit most of it not on traditional Kikuyu land. "In particular", the British government's 1925 East Africa Commission noted, "the treatment of
1848-562: The Anioma Civilization of an attempt to unite previously disunited states to resist the colonial army. You have seen that one crucial reason for Anioma's defeat was the great discrepancy of scale between the average Anioma community and the colonial army. The British decided on a preemptive strike, and in December 1902 sent a powerful expedition that systematically destroyed a number of towns and imprisoned their leaders. This, it
1925-534: The Anioma in Western Igboland . The opposition was strong in Anioma land where a series of wars were waged against the British. The Ekumeku, who were well organized and whose leaders were joined in secrecy oaths, effectively utilized guerrilla tactics to attack the British. Their forces, which were drawn from thousands of Anioma youth from all parts of Anioma land, created many problems for the British, but
2002-682: The British presence in Kenya. His assassination gave Evelyn Baring the final impetus to request permission from the Colonial Office to declare a State of Emergency. The Mau Mau attacks were mostly well organised and planned. ...the insurgents' lack of heavy weaponry and the heavily entrenched police and Home Guard positions meant that Mau Mau attacks were restricted to nighttime and where loyalist positions were weak. When attacks did commence they were fast and brutal, as insurgents were easily able to identify loyalists because they were often local to those communities themselves. The Lari massacre
2079-420: The British used forceful tactics and heavy armaments (destroying homes, farms, and roads) to prevail. The Ekumeku, however, became a great source of Anioma nationalism. The Ekumeku Movement is unique in Anioma history and Igbo history in general for two reasons. First, the length of time the movement endured, comprising Military campaigns over a period of thirty-one years. Secondly, it is an outstanding example in
2156-459: The NAC's operations within a British sphere of interest. Pledges from him and the British diplomats that free trade (or, in any case, non-discriminatory tariff rates) would be respected in their territory were dead letters: the NAC's over 400 treaties with local leaders obliged the natives to trade solely with or through the company's agents. Large tariffs and license fees eliminated competing firms from
2233-661: The Royal Niger Company), with Lord Aberdare as governor and Goldie as vice-governor. It was, however, evidently impossible for a chartered company to hold its own against the state-supported protectorates of France and Germany , and in consequence its charter was revoked in 1899 and, on 1 January 1900, the Royal Niger Company transferred its territories to the British Government for the sum of £ 865,000. The ceded territory together with
2310-480: The area. The terms of these private contracts were made into general treaties by the British consuls, whose own treaties expressly incorporated them. Similarly, when King Jaja of Opobo organized his own trading network and even began running his own shipments of palm oil to Britain, he was lured onto a British warship and shipped into exile on Saint Vincent on charges of "treaty breaking" and "obstructing commerce". Despite treaties extending British control over
2387-473: The battle at Nkwo market. With the invasion of Ndoni in 1870 and bombardment of Onicha-Ado (Onitsha) on 2 November 1897, the stage was set for the Ekumeku war that engulfed the whole of Anioma. The Royal Niger Company (RNC) commanded by Major Festing engaged Ibusa in 1898, and in 1904 it was the people of Owa/Ukwunzu against the British in a war that W. E. B. Crawford Coupland requested for more arms to crush
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2464-404: The claimants, Nzekwe , the son of the last Obi, feared that the British would deprive him of his throne, and decided to fight for his inheritance. On 2 November 1909, the British sent an expedition to Ogwashi-Uku but they failed in the expedition. The British perceived, in the whole Asaba hinterland, sympathy with the Ekumeku, and a disposition to throw off government authority. In 1911, there
2541-593: The colonial authorities shifted the political initiative to younger and more militant figures within the native Kenyan trade union movement, among the squatters on the settler estates in the Rift Valley and in KAU branches in Nairobi and the Kikuyu districts of central province. Around 1943, residents of Olenguruone Settlement radicalised the traditional practice of oathing , and extended oathing to women and children. By
2618-551: The colonial period could own a disproportionate share of land. The first settlers arrived in 1902 as part of Governor Charles Eliot 's plan to have a settler economy pay for the Uganda Railway . The success of this settler economy would depend heavily on the availability of land, labour and capital, and so, over the next three decades, the colonial government and settlers consolidated their control over Kenyan land, and forced native Kenyans to become wage labourers . Until
2695-473: The colony's mineral resources. It seems to us that our major objective must clearly be the preservation and the wise use of this most important asset. —Deputy Governor to Secretary of State for the Colonies, 19 March 1945 The armed rebellion of the Mau Mau was the culminating response to colonial rule. Although there had been previous instances of violent resistance to colonialism, the Mau Mau revolt
2772-548: The company became part of the United Africa Company , which came under the control of Unilever during the 1930s and continued to exist as a subsidiary of Unilever until 1987, when it was absorbed into the parent company. The company existed for a comparatively short time (1879–1900) but was instrumental in the formation of Colonial Nigeria , as it enabled the British Empire to establish control over
2849-626: The defeat of the Mau Mau, and essentially ended the British military campaign. However, the rebellion survived until after Kenya's independence from Britain, driven mainly by the Meru units led by Field Marshal Musa Mwariama . General Baimungi, one of the last Mau Mau leaders, was killed shortly after Kenya attained self-rule. The KLFA failed to capture wide public support. Frank Füredi , in The Mau Mau War in Perspective , suggests this
2926-404: The doubling of Nairobi 's population between 1938 and 1952. At the same time, there was a small, but growing, class of Kikuyu landowners who consolidated Kikuyu landholdings and forged ties with the colonial administration, leading to an economic rift within the Kikuyu. Mau Mau were the militant wing of a growing clamour for political representation and freedom in Kenya. The first attempt to form
3003-569: The establishment of the West African Company was soon followed by several other firms. The competition reduced prices to the point that profits were minimal. Arriving in the region in 1877, George Goldie argued for the amalgamation of the surviving British firms into a single monopolistic chartered company , a method contemporaries supposed had been buried with the ultimate failure of the East India Company following
3080-478: The experience and advice of newspaper editors since 1945. In some cases, the editors of various publications in the colony were directly involved in producing Mau Mau propaganda. British Officials struggled to compete with the 'hybrid, porous, and responsive character' during the rebellion, and faced the same challenges in responding to Mau Mau propaganda, particularly in instances where the Mau Mau would use creative ways such as hymns to win and maintain followers. This
3157-505: The first two decades of European settlement was noted by the East Africa Commission. The resentment of colonial rule would not have been decreased by the wanting provision of medical services for native Kenyans, nor by the fact that in 1923, for example, "the maximum amount that could be considered to have been spent on services provided exclusively for the benefit of the native population was slightly over one-quarter of
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3234-613: The insights of agrarian and agricultural experts, of economists and historians, or even of Europeans who had spent a long period living amongst the Kikuyu such as Louis Leakey . Not for the first time, the British instead relied on the purported insights of the ethnopsychiatrist; with Mau Mau, it fell to John Colin Carothers to perform the desired analysis. This ethnopsychiatric analysis guided British psychological warfare, which painted Mau Mau as "an irrational force of evil, dominated by bestial impulses and influenced by world communism", and
3311-466: The later official study of the uprising, the Corfield Report. The psychological war became of critical importance to military and civilian leaders who tried to "emphasise that there was in effect a civil war, and that the struggle was not black versus white", attempting to isolate Mau Mau from the Kikuyu, and the Kikuyu from the rest of the colony's population and the world outside. In driving
3388-680: The lower Niger against the German competition led by Bismarck during the 1890s. In 1900, the company-controlled territories became the Southern Nigeria Protectorate , which was in turn united with the Northern Nigeria Protectorate to form the Colony and Protectorate of Nigeria in 1914 (which eventually gained independence within the same borders as Nigeria in 1960). The Royal Niger Company
3465-540: The majority of agricultural workers on settler plantations . An unintended consequence of colonial rule, the squatters were targeted from 1918 onwards by a series of Resident Native Labourers Ordinances—criticised by at least some MPs —which progressively curtailed squatter rights and subordinated native Kenyan farming to that of the settlers. The Ordinance of 1939 finally eliminated squatters' remaining tenancy rights, and permitted settlers to demand 270 days' labour from any squatters on their land. and, after World War II,
3542-492: The measures brought in as part of its land expropriation and labour 'encouragement' efforts to craft the third plank of its growth strategy for its settler economy: subordinating African farming to that of the Europeans. Nairobi also assisted the settlers with rail and road networks, subsidies on freight charges, agricultural and veterinary services, and credit and loan facilities. The near-total neglect of native farming during
3619-620: The mid-1930s, the two primary complaints were low native Kenyan wages and the requirement to carry an identity document, the kipande . From the early 1930s, however, two others began to come to prominence: effective and elected African-political-representation, and land. The British response to this clamour for agrarian reform came in the early 1930s when they set up the Carter Land Commission. The Commission reported in 1934, but its conclusions, recommendations and concessions to Kenyans were so conservative that any chance of
3696-452: The mid-1950s, 90% of Kikuyu, Embu and Meru were oathed. On 3 October 1952, Mau Mau claimed their first European victim when they stabbed a woman to death near her home in Thika. Six days later, on 9 October, Senior Chief Waruhiu was shot dead in broad daylight in his car, which was an important blow against the colonial government. Waruhiu had been one of the strongest supporters of
3773-422: The most interesting story of the origin of the name is the Kikuyu phrase for the beginning of a list. When beginning a list in Kikuyu, one says, " maũndũ ni mau " , "the main issues are...", and holds up three fingers to introduce them. Maathai says the three issues for the Mau Mau were land, freedom, and self-governance. The principal item in the natural resources of Kenya is the land, and in this term we include
3850-401: The movement as a modern and nationalist response to the unfairness and oppression of colonial domination. There continues to be vigorous debate within Kenyan society and among the academic community within and outside Kenya regarding the nature of Mau Mau and its aims, as well as the response to and effects of the uprising. Nevertheless, partly because as many Kikuyu fought against Mau Mau on
3927-426: The product of "swallowing too readily the propaganda of the Mau Mau war", noting the similarity between such analysis and the "simplistic" earlier studies of Mau Mau. This earlier work cast the Mau Mau war in strictly bipolar terms, "as conflicts between anti-colonial nationalists and colonial collaborators". Caroline Elkins ' 2005 study, Imperial Reckoning , awarded the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction ,
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#17327733874704004-428: The purpose of protection", Professor David Anderson (amongst others) regards the "compulsory resettlement" of "1,007,500 Kikuyu" inside what, for the "most" part, were "little more than concentration camps" as "punitive ... to punish Mau Mau sympathisers". It is often assumed that in a conflict there are two sides in opposition to one another, and that a person who is not actively committed to one side must be supporting
4081-507: The same year deprived the French companies of their support within the French government and the strong subsidies it had been providing them. Goldie's cash-flush NAC was then able to maintain 30 trading posts along the river, and ruin its competition in a two-year price war: by October 1884 all three had permitted him to buy out their interests in the region and the NAC's annual report for 1885
4158-428: The side of the colonial government as joined them in rebellion, the conflict is now often regarded in academic circles as an intra-Kikuyu civil war, a characterisation that remains extremely unpopular in Kenya. In August 1952, Kenyatta told a Kikuyu audience "Mau Mau has spoiled the country...Let Mau Mau perish forever. All people should search for Mau Mau and kill it". Kenyatta described the conflict in his memoirs as
4235-460: The situation for squatters deteriorated rapidly, a situation the squatters resisted fiercely. In the early 1920s, though, despite the presence of 100,000 squatters and tens of thousands more wage labourers, there was still not enough native Kenyan labour available to satisfy the settlers' needs. The colonial government duly tightened the measures to force more Kenyans to become low-paid wage-labourers on settler farms. The colonial government used
4312-421: The small Niger Coast Protectorate , already under imperial control, was formed into the two protectorates of Northern Nigeria and Southern Nigeria . The company changed its name to The Niger Company Ltd and in 1929 became part of the United Africa Company . The United Africa Company came under the control of Unilever in the 1930s and continued to exist as a subsidiary of Unilever until 1987, when it
4389-568: The struggle tore through the African communities themselves, an internecine war waged between rebels and 'loyalists' – Africans who took the side of the government and opposed Mau Mau." Suppressing the Mau Mau Uprising in the Kenyan colony cost Britain £55 million and caused at least 11,000 deaths among the Mau Mau and other forces, with some estimates considerably higher. This included 1,090 executions by hanging. The origin of
4466-583: The survivors, Macgregor Laird , subsequently remained in Britain but directed and funded expeditions to the country until his death in 1861. He opposed the failed Niger expedition of 1841 but the success of the Pleiad' s first mission in 1854 led to annual trips under Baikie and the 1857 foundation of Lokoja at the Niger–Benue confluence. There were no voyages for the three years following Laird's death, but
4543-551: The taxes paid by them". The tax burden on Europeans in the early 1920s, meanwhile, was very light relative to their income. Interwar infrastructure-development was also largely paid for by the indigenous population. Kenyan employees were often poorly treated by their European employers, with some settlers arguing that native Kenyans "were as children and should be treated as such". Some settlers flogged their servants for petty offences. To make matters even worse, native Kenyan workers were poorly served by colonial labour-legislation and
4620-438: The term Mau Mau is uncertain. According to some members of Mau Mau, they never referred to themselves as such, instead preferring the military title Kenya Land and Freedom Army (KLFA). Some publications, such as Fred Majdalany's State of Emergency: The Full Story of Mau Mau , claim it was an anagram of Uma Uma (which means "Get out! Get out!") and was a military codeword based on a secret language game Kikuyu boys used to play at
4697-467: The time of their circumcision. Majdalany also says the British simply used the name as a label for the Kikuyu ethnic community without assigning any specific definition. However, there was a Maji Maji rebellion in German East Africa /Tanzania in 1905/6, ('Maji' meaning 'water' after a 'water-medicine') so this may be the origin of Mau Mau. As the movement progressed, a Swahili backronym
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#17327733874704774-598: The tribes of the Cameroons , however, Britain was willing to recognize the German colony that usurped the area in 1885 as a check on French activity in the upper Congo and Ubangi watersheds. The scruples of the British government being overcome, a charter was at length granted (July 1886), the National African Company becoming The Royal Niger Company Chartered and Limited (normally shortened to
4851-484: The united firm was undercapitalized for the expense of genuine colonial administration. Goldie first began addressing the administration's concerns by increasing the company's capitalization to £100 000. He then managed to corral £ 1 000 000 in investments in a new concern—the National African Company —which bought up the UAC and its interests in 1882. The death of Léon Gambetta
4928-412: The war, with the most high-ranking being Field Marshal Muthoni . The British and international view was that Mau Mau was a savage, violent, and depraved tribal cult, an expression of unrestrained emotion rather than reason. Mau Mau was "perverted tribalism" that sought to take the Kikuyu people back to "the bad old days" before British rule. The official British explanation of the revolt did not include
5005-758: The western Anioma communities. Owa would once again engage the British in 1906 in battle that S. O. Crewe lost his own life. On 2 November 1909, it was finally the turn of Ogwashi-Ukwu who matched the British. In this war the British sustained many casualties with the death of H. C. Chapman. Although the Ekumeku failed in 1914, but the western Anioma treasure their memory as imperishable legacy. Heroes included Ikwa Gwadia of onicha-olona, Dunkwu Isus of Onicha-Olona, Nwabuzo Iyogolo of Ogwashi-Ukwu, Awuno Ugbo, Obi of Akumazi , Agbambu Oshue of Igbuzo, Idabor of Issele-Azagba, Ochei Aghaeze of Onicha-Olona, Abuzu of Idumuje-Unor, Idegwu Otokpoike of Ubulu-Ukwu are still remembered in Anioma land and Igboland in general. The Ekumeku War
5082-408: Was a final round-up of Ekumeku leaders in various towns that were followed, once more, by imprisonments. The acting lieutenant-governor of the southern provinces sent an agitated telegram to Lagos: "The whole country is above area...is the state of rebellion." Reinforcements arrived from Lokoja, and the British proceeded to a confrontation at Akegbe. We quote both the contemporary British accounts of
5159-571: Was able to crow that it "remained alone in undisputed commercial possession of the Niger–Binué region". This monopoly permitted Britain to resist French and German calls to internationalize trade on the Niger River during the negotiations at the 1884–1885 Berlin Conference on African colonization . Goldie himself attended the meetings and successfully argued for including the region of
5236-478: Was absorbed into the parent company. Mau Mau rebellion British victory [REDACTED] United Kingdom Mau Mau rebels 3,000 native Kenyan police and soldiers killed 1953 1954 1956 1959 The Mau Mau rebellion (1952–1960), also known as the Mau Mau uprising , Mau Mau revolt , or Kenya Emergency , was a war in the British Kenya Colony (1920–1963) between
5313-539: Was adopted: " Mzungu Aende Ulaya, Mwafrika Apate Uhuru", meaning "Let the foreigner go back abroad, let the African regain independence". J. M. Kariuki, a member of Mau Mau who was detained during the conflict, suggests the British preferred to use the term Mau Mau instead of KLFA to deny the Mau Mau rebellion international legitimacy. Kariuki also wrote that the term Mau Mau was adopted by the rebellion in order to counter what they regarded as colonial propaganda. Author and activist Wangari Maathai indicates that, to her,
5390-431: Was also controversial in that she was accused of presenting an equally binary portrayal of the conflict and of drawing questionable conclusions from limited census data, in particular her assertion that the victims of British punitive measures against the Kikuyu amounted to as many as 300,000 dead. While Elstein regards the "requirement" for the "great majority of Kikuyu" to live inside 800 "fortified villages" as "serv[ing]
5467-541: Was assumed, was the end of the Ekumeku.." the Ekumeku and other secret societies have been completely broken". In 1904, the Ekumeku rose again. This time they changed their tactics, mistakenly, it would seem in retrospect, abandoning the united guerilla warfare of 1898 for the individual defense of each town. The last act of the Eureka drama began in late 1909. The occasion was a succession dispute in Ogwashi-Uku . One of
5544-508: Was by comparison rather outstanding and in contrast to regular Mau Mau strikes which more often than not targeted only loyalists without such massive civilian casualties. "Even the attack upon Lari, in the view of the rebel commanders was strategic and specific." The Mau Mau command, contrary to the Home Guard who were stigmatised as "the running dogs of British Imperialism", were relatively well educated. General Gatunga had previously been
5621-525: Was due to a British divide and rule strategy, which they had developed in suppressing the Malayan Emergency (1948–60). The Mau Mau movement remained internally divided, despite attempts to unify the factions. On the colonial side, the uprising created a rift between the European colonial community in Kenya and the metropole , as well as violent divisions within the Kikuyu community: "Much of
5698-594: Was eventually integrated into Unilever . Richard Lander first explored the area of Nigeria as the servant of Hugh Clapperton . In 1830, he returned to the river with his brother John ; in 1832, he returned again (without his brother) to establish a trading post for the African Steamship Company " at the confluence of the Niger and Benue rivers. The expedition failed, with 40 of the 49 members dying of fever or wounds from native attacks. One of
5775-654: Was far more effective than government newspapers; however, once colonial officials brought the insurgency under control by late 1954, information officials gained an uncontested arena through which they won the propaganda war. Women formed a core part of the Mau Mau, especially in maintaining supply lines. Initially able to avoid the suspicion, they moved through colonial spaces and between Mau Mau hideouts and strongholds, to deliver vital supplies and services to guerrilla fighters including food, ammunition, medical care, and of course, information. Women such as Wamuyu Gakuru , exemplified this key role. An unknown number also fought in
5852-445: Was not removed from the Kenyan labour statutes until the 1950s. The greater part of the wealth of the country is at present in our hands. ... This land we have made is our land by right—by right of achievement. —Speech by Deputy Colonial Governor 30 November 1946 As a result of the situation in the highlands and growing job opportunities in the cities, thousands of Kikuyu migrated into cities in search of work, contributing to
5929-480: Was the most prolonged and violent anti-colonial warfare in the British Kenya colony. From the start, the land was the primary British interest in Kenya, which had "some of the richest agricultural soils in the world, mostly in districts where the elevation and climate make it possible for Europeans to reside permanently". Though declared a colony in 1920, the formal British colonial presence in Kenya began with
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