Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #MauMau
Most recents (14)
#HistoryKeThread: Waruhiu’s Last Bow
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From September 1952, colonial chief of the Agikuyu in Kiambu, Waruhiu Kung’u - seen here addressing his last public rally at Kirigiti on 25th August of the same year, began transferring property to his wife and children.
📷:NMG
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From September 1952, colonial chief of the Agikuyu in Kiambu, Waruhiu Kung’u - seen here addressing his last public rally at Kirigiti on 25th August of the same year, began transferring property to his wife and children.
📷:NMG
The Kirigiti rally had been organized by local (Kiambu) and Kenya Africa Union (KAU) leaders led by Waruhiu and Jomo Kenyatta respectively, to denounce Mau Mau.
In the run up to the address, there had been an increasing spate of violence meted out on collaborators, notably crown witnesses or police informers, church leaders, headmen and chiefs.
#HistoryKeThread Trophies Of War
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When the colonial government in Kenya in response to the Mau Mau insurgency declared a state of Emergency, Mervyn Cowie (pictured) was Kenya’s Director of National Parks.
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When the colonial government in Kenya in response to the Mau Mau insurgency declared a state of Emergency, Mervyn Cowie (pictured) was Kenya’s Director of National Parks.
Cowie offered the military from his team a significant number of rangers and professional trackers, arguing that they could far better than ordinary security forces track fighters hiding in the Aberdares and Mt. Kenya forests. The government took up the offer.
In the early stages of the Emergency, British Royal Air Force (RAF) jets bombed the forests. The authorities hoped the bombing would lead to mass surrenders or deaths of Mau Mau fighters.
#HistoryKeThread: Sharpened Senses Of The Mau Mau
Here is a photo of Gen. Kariba and an unknown female freedom fighter after he was captured together in Mount Kenya forest in 1954.
Here is a photo of Gen. Kariba and an unknown female freedom fighter after he was captured together in Mount Kenya forest in 1954.
Kariba was convicted and hanged by colonial authorities in 1955.
This next pic is of an oathing ceremony at an unknown location at the height of the emergency.
I cannot tell you how important it is for Britain to properly reckon with its history of #Colonialism.
It needs to be done.
And yes, if we do it properly, it will hurt.
But without acknowledging the suffering of others, the racism will only fester (as with David Starkey).
/1
It needs to be done.
And yes, if we do it properly, it will hurt.
But without acknowledging the suffering of others, the racism will only fester (as with David Starkey).
/1
As a scholar of African politics and civil wars, I’ve always found it surprising that Britain doesn’t teach its own history in a way that acknowledges the suffering it imposed on others. That has got to change.
The truth is: No one should have been surprised by #MauMau.
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The truth is: No one should have been surprised by #MauMau.
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As violent and chaotic as America is right now, it is also trying to have a frank and painful conversation about race. That is GOOD. Many people had to die to get here.
Britain isn’t America. But that doesn’t mean that there isn’t a problem. #BLMUK
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Britain isn’t America. But that doesn’t mean that there isn’t a problem. #BLMUK
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Thread: On history not taught in British schools about colonial rule, specifically the Kenyan Emergency in the 1950’s which involved rape and torture by British colonial guards in detention camps - acts which saw the British Government apologise in 2013 #MauMau 1/16
The ‘Kenyan emergency’ lasted from 1952 to 1960. The group resisting British colonial rule were known as the Mau Mau. The Governor of Kenya, Sir Evelyn Baring obtained authorisation from London to detain suspected Mau Mau members without trial #MauMau 2/16
#HistoryKeThread: At the height of the Emergency in colonial Kenya, those who refused to partake in the #MauMau muma (oath) often met gruesome death in the hands of Mau Mau fighters.
In his book, Histories Of The Hanged: Britain’s Dirty War In Kenya, author David Anderson describes various incidences in which police informers, African Christian converts and collaborators of the colonial government met their deaths.
One such Mau Mau victim was Joseph Kibunja.
#HistoryKeThread: Kenya’s history is replete with irony.
We previously had a national holiday known as Kenyatta Day. Through the new constitution, Kenyans decided “Mashujaa Day” was more appropriate a name to recognize all heroes collectively.
But the day is celebrated on 20th October because it was on that day in 1952 that nationalists led by Mzee Jomo Kenyatta were arrested for “managing Mau Mau”.
Fresh from his postgraduate studies in the United States, Dr. Gikonyo Kiano, then aged 31, demonstrates to some guests how a gîkûyû pestle and mortar was used.
This was at the home of Chief Njiiri Karanja in 1957 (cont’d)
This was at the home of Chief Njiiri Karanja in 1957 (cont’d)
Njiiri (pictured) was a paramount chief in then Fort Hall (Murang’a). He was appointed by the colonial regime.
If it wasn’t for his retirement in 1952, the year the emergency begun, he would almost certainly have been killed by #MauMau like his peers, Chiefs Warûhiû and Nderi.
If it wasn’t for his retirement in 1952, the year the emergency begun, he would almost certainly have been killed by #MauMau like his peers, Chiefs Warûhiû and Nderi.
After Mzee Kenyatta was released from detention, LegCo member Kariuki Njiiri, who was the son of Chief Njiiri, gave up his Fort Hall seat for Jomo.
FYI - Njiiri’s School was named after Chief Njiiri Karanja.
FYI - Njiiri’s School was named after Chief Njiiri Karanja.
#HistoryKeThread: The Mau Mau Mass Surrender That Never Was
Weeks after the declaration of emergency in October of 1952, the colonial government faced widespread condemnation from British settlers in Kenya.
The settlers railed at the government for what they termed its “weak” approach in tackling the Mau Mau menace.
Keen to appease the settler community, authorities in Nairobi reached out to London and asked for support from the Royal Air Force.
Keen to appease the settler community, authorities in Nairobi reached out to London and asked for support from the Royal Air Force.
#HistoryKeThread Events That Accelerated Kenya’s Independence
Towards the late 1950s, and in spite of scores of Mau Mau and a few of their prominent leaders being killed or captured, there were still pockets of armed resistance against colonial rule in Kenya.
In demands by both international civil rights groups and moderate politicians in the United Kingdom for independence to be granted immediately, the Mau Mau found inspiration.
#HistoryKeThread:
After Kinoo, westwards along the Nairobi-Nakuru highway is a place called Karûri. It was named after Agîkûyû chief Karûri wa Gakure, who actually hailed from Kangema in present-day Murang'a county.
After Kinoo, westwards along the Nairobi-Nakuru highway is a place called Karûri. It was named after Agîkûyû chief Karûri wa Gakure, who actually hailed from Kangema in present-day Murang'a county.
Chief Karûri made trading trips from his village, trudging with his caravan along the edge of the Aberdares towards Kikuyu mostly, and at times Kijabe and Naivasha.
Interestingly, Field Marshal Mbaria Kaniu followed the same route from Kangema to lead the #MauMau massacre at Lari.
1954: Clad in hospital fatigues, Warûhiû Itote, a.k.a. General China is frogmarched to court to begin trial for his involvement in #MauMau.
He had been given time to recuperate after being shot in the neck. In the next pic...
He had been given time to recuperate after being shot in the neck. In the next pic...
....is the courtroom scene. Gen. China is seated on the dock, second from left, sandwiched between two askaris.
Finally, these three elders were the assessors in Gen. China’s case. Their work was to serve as Jury.
2/48 1899: An early photo of Nairobi as a tent city.
3/48 1909: A market scene in the fast growing town.
1/ #HistoryKeThread: This is a photo of #MauMau Gen. China aka Warûhiû Itote (below) being escorted to court after his capture by colonialists. 
2/ Moments earlier, he had been receiving medical treatment. During the operation that led to his capture, Warûhiû was shot and suffered bullet wounds in the neck. 
3/ Born in 1921, Gen. China served in Burma during WWII and was retired as a corporal. When the emergency was declared in Kenya, Gen. China retreated to the forests of mount Kenya.
