The Mau Mau Rebellion

The informally-named "Mau Mau" were a guerilla force - more accurately, a collection of guerilla forces, hailing from the Kikuyu tribe of central Kenya. The Mau Mau Rebellion of 1951-1957 was an anti-colonial movement focused on expelling the British from Kenya. Though the revolt failed in its most obvious objective, it did much to foster a growing sense of aggressive patriotism in Kenya - which finally earned its independence on December 12th of 1963, with the Mau Mau leader Jomo Kenyatta as its first president.

No single leader ever controlled the movement, but Dedan Kimathi and Warihiu "General China" Itote were its best known leaders. General China fell into British hands in January of 1954, and subsequently washed his hands of the Mau Mau and called upon his former colleagues and followers to give themselves up. Kimathi was also captured, but he remained defiant and hostile towards the British to the last. In February of 1957, he was hanged, and the movement effectively dissapated in the following months.

The origin of the name "Mau Mau" is mysterious, and does not appear to have been used by the rebels themselves; they appear to have referred to themselves as Muingi, the Movement. Mau Mau may in fact be an acronym for the Swahili saying Mzungu aende ulaya Mwafrica apete uhuru - "let the White Man go home so that Africa can have its independence".

The rebellion was predominately organized and administrated in Nairobi, but most of its participants were peasants and servants who hid in the forests, living an essentially tribal lifestyle. Their weapons were diverse. A favorite was the panga, similar to the medieval falchion. This weapon seems to have been used specifically to split an enemy combatant's skull. Other weapons included slashing swords, bows, spears, antelope-hide shields, as well as firerms. Most guns used by the Mau Mau had been manufactured locally and were of unreliable quality, though European firearms were acquired through theft and bribery.

The Mau Mau earned a fearsome reputation for their brutality and their conniving raids. Their earlier raids in the late 1940s and early 50s took the form of arson and sabotage; as a primarily Christian movement, the Mau Mau apparently destroyed Muslim places of worship with special zeal. By 1952 however they were committing widespread murders, of both Europeans and African sympathisers. In March of 1953 a thousand Mau Mau under the leadership of Dedan Kimathi butchered several villages of pro-British Kikuyu, in one of the most controversial atrocities of the rebellion. British forces and their African auxiliaries behaved with cruelty and paranoia of their own; many captured Mau Mau were beaten to death or hung.

The Mau Mau were most notable for their initiation rituals, which were apparently embellished by some captives taken by the British. These rituals appear to have involved the sacrifice and dismemberment of a goat, followed by oaths to always serve the rebellion and never betray its members, sworn in the name of the Kikuyu god Ngai.

The Mau Mau War cost Britain 55,585,424 pounds, as well as several hundred lives. Among those killed were dozens of women and children, black and white, pro and anti-British. About 11,500 Mau Mau rebels were killed by British forces. Wounded Mau Mau were generally killed by their own comrades so that they would not betray the order under interrogation if captured.

The Rebellion largely fizzled out in 1957, but small pockets held out until 1963. Many of these emerged in that year to celebrate Kenya's first independence day, to the great delight of many of their countrymen in Nairobi.