Mau Mau from Below
Mau Mau from Below by Greet Kershaw, published by James Currey in 1997, presents a detailed exploration of the oral histories of Kikuyu villagers during the Mau Mau ‘Emergency’ in the 1950s. This edition spans 354 pages and is written in English. Kershaw, who lived among the Kikuyu as an aid worker, provides unique insights into the social tensions and historical narratives that shaped the community’s experiences during this tumultuous period.
Readers will find that the book uncovers the complexities of Kikuyu society, revealing the diverse motivations and perspectives within the Mau Mau movement. Through meticulous fieldwork and engagement with local memories, Kershaw highlights the fragmented nature of the movement and the varying political agendas that influenced its participants. The work contributes to the fields of history, anthropology, and indigenous studies, offering a nuanced understanding of the cultural and social dynamics at play during a critical moment in East African history.
Official synopsis Publisher
John Lonsdale says in his introduction:
“This is the oral evidence of the Kikuyu villagers with whom Greet Kershaw lived as an aid worker during the Mau Mau ‘Emergency’ in the 1950s, and which is now totally irrecoverable in any form save in her own field notes.
Professor Kershaw has uncovered long local histories of social tension which could have been revealed by no other means than patient enquiry, of both her neighbour’s memory and government archives…
Nobody, whether Kikuyu participant, Kenyan or European scholar, has provided such startlingly authoritative ethnographic insights into the values, fears and expectations of Kikuyu society and thus of the motivation of Kikuyu action…
Her data suggests, as other scholars have also accepted, that there never was a single such movement and that none of its members, even those who supposed themselves to be its leaders, ever saw it whole, not because they did not have a political aim, but because that agenda was contested within different political circles over which they had no control and of which they may scarcely have had any knowledge.
And why is this finding important? It is because others, including almost all the movement’s enemies, did see Mau Mau whole in order to try to comprehend it, a first step towards defeating it.”
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