land and freedom army story retold

the legacy of the mau mau is mixed at best. while the term mau mau is proxy for rebellion in some circles, the dominant image of the freedom fighters is of bloodthirsty natives who, unable to cope with modernity, reverted to their primitive nature. this is mostly because the story was told through the racist prism of settler hysteria at the height of the emergency in the 1950’s.

two recently published books have started to right that wrong. Histories of the Hanged: The Dirty War in Kenya and the End of Empire by david anderson examines the record of those who were hanged by the colonial government to extract some facts about the time. carol elkin’s book Imperial Reckoning: The Untold Story of the End of Empire in Kenya compiles the story from a series of oral interviews from detainees and survivors.

summary of economist review of the two books:

By calling for reconciliation in the early years of his presidency, Kenyatta understandably sacrificed the past for the future. But today young Kenyans know next to nothing about the Mau Mau uprising and how it led to independence. For them, these books are an incomparable record of what happened in, and to, their country. For others, parallels with American foreign policy today are apparent enough. The lack of real accountability, the rough justice, ignoring international conventions, maltreating prisoners, detention without trial; in Kenya the British used them all.

see also:
enough is enough a film on the mau mau struggle set to premier on madaraka day.
hot sun films produces “the oath” on the mau mau using the jua kali approach to storytelling but not to the production values.