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'Probably more people think they know more about the Mau Mau war in the British colony of Kenya than about any other event in African history. Daniel Branch shows how wrong we all were. Mau Mau was not a war of heroic simplicity between noble nationalists and cruel colonialists. It was more complicated than that. Rebels and loyalists shared the same values, knew each other intimately, and were indeed often the same people in different contexts. And the loyalists not only won the war but were the more effective nationalists. Mau Mau was controversial enough before Branch came along. It is even more so now. This book is essential reading for any serious student of modern African history.' John Lonsdale, Trinity College, University of Cambridge
'Defeating Mau Mau, Creating Kenya makes a radical departure from all previous accounts of the Mau Mau insurrection. It makes comprehensible the part played by the Loyalists, those of the Kikuyu who enlisted the British and took the initiative in defeating the Mau Mau insurgents in what gradually became a civil war. It is clearly written and powerfully argued. It is destined to become a classic.' Wm. Roger Louis, University of Texas at Austin
'Defeating Mau Mau, Creating Kenya makes a radical departure from all previous accounts of the Mau Mau insurrection. It makes comprehensible the part played by the Loyalists, those of the Kikuyu who enlisted the British and took the initiative in defeating the Mau Mau insurgents in what gradually became a civil war. It is clearly written and powerfully argued. It is destined to become a classic.' Wm. Roger Louis, University of Texas at Austin
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This book details the devastating Mau Mau civil war fought in Kenya during the 1950s and the legacies of that conflict for the post-colonial state. As many Kikuyu fought with the colonial government as loyalists joined the Mau Mau rebellion. Focusing on the role of those loyalists, the book examines the ways in which residents of the country's Central Highlands sought to navigate a path through the bloodshed and uncertainty of civil war. It explores the instrumental use of violence, changes to allegiances, and the ways in which cleavages created by the war informed local politics for decades after the conflict's conclusion. Moreover, the book moves toward a more nuanced understanding of the realities and effects of counterinsurgency warfare. Based on archival research in Kenya and the United Kingdom and insights from literature from across the social sciences, the book reconstructs the dilemmas facing members of society at war with itself and its colonial ruler.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This book is excellent in its own right in focussing on "loyalists", however loaded that term is, caught up in what Branch clearly identifies as a civil war, and also as a counterpoint to David Anderson's "History of the Hanged". Although Anderson's book is good on its own main theme, I think that it minimised two important aspects of the confict: the practice of oathing and the perceptions of the haves and have-nots on access to land. Branch's book supplies this very well.
Branch shows that loyalists have often been portrayed as a small group of backward-looking collaborators, but his more nuanced view is that they were as diverse a group as the insurgents and as authentic (and more effective) nationalists. His summary of the situation of ex-Mau Mau and loyalists before and after independence is important to an understanding of modern Kenya.
The book is generally well-written, free of excessive jargon and clearly well researched. It redresses the oversimplified polemics of Caroline Elkins amonst others and I would recommend it
Branch shows that loyalists have often been portrayed as a small group of backward-looking collaborators, but his more nuanced view is that they were as diverse a group as the insurgents and as authentic (and more effective) nationalists. His summary of the situation of ex-Mau Mau and loyalists before and after independence is important to an understanding of modern Kenya.
The book is generally well-written, free of excessive jargon and clearly well researched. It redresses the oversimplified polemics of Caroline Elkins amonst others and I would recommend it
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