Mau Mau and Nationhood: Arms, Authority, and Narration
by E.S. Atieno Odhiambo contributions by John Lonsdale edited by E. S. Atieno Odhiambo
Ohio University Press, 2003 Cloth: 978-0-8214-1483-5 | Paper: 978-0-8214-1484-2 Library of Congress Classification DT433.577.M36 2003 Dewey Decimal Classification 967.6203
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC
ABOUT THIS BOOK
Fifty years after the declaration of the state of emergency, Mau Mau still excites argument and controversy, not least in Kenya itself. Mau Mau and Nationhood is a collection of essays providing the most recent thinking on the uprising and its aftermath.
The work of well-established scholars as well as of young researchers with fresh perspectives, Mau Mau and Nationhood achieves a multilayered analysis of a subject of enduring interest. According to Terence Ranger, Emeritus Rhodes Professor, Oxford, “In some ways the historiography of Mau Mau is a supreme example not only of ambiguity and complexity, but also of redemption of a topic once thought incapable of rational analysis.”
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
E. S. Atieno Odhiambo was a professor of history at Rice University. He is the author of The Paradox of Collaboration and Other Essays, and Siaya: Politics and Nationalism in East Africa, 1905-1939. He is the editor of African Historians and African Voices and coeditor, with David William Cohen, of The Risks of Knowledge.
John Lonsdale is a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge.
REVIEWS
“A thousand words can never do justice to this tremendous collection, so I will state at the outset that it is a must read.”—Cynthia Brantley, American Historical Review
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Notes on Contributors
Terms & Abbreviations
Maps
Introduction
JOHN LONSDALE & E.S. ATIENO ODHIAMBO
1. Mau Mau & Nationhood
The untold story
BETHWELL A. OGOT
2. Matundaya Uhuru, Fruits of Independence
Seven theses on nationalism in Kenya
E.S. ATIENO ODHIAMBO
3. Authority, Gender & Violence
The war within Mau Mau's fight for land & freedom
JOHN LONSDALE
4. Writing in Revolution
Independent schooling & Mau Mau in Nyeri
DEREK PETERSON
5. Complementary or Contending Nationhoods?
Kikuyu pamphlets & songs, 1945-52
CRISTIANA PUGLIESE
6. Mau Mau & the Arming of the State
DAVID A. PERCOX
7. The Battle of Dandora Swamp
Reconstructing the Mau Mau Land Freedom Army
October 1954
DAVID M. ANDERSON
8. 'Impossible to Ignore their Greatness'
Survival craft in the Mau Mau forest movement
KENNELL JACKSON, JR
9. Detention, Rehabilitation &
the Destruction of Kzkuyu Society
CAROLINE ELKINS
10. 'Daddy Wouldn't Buy Me a Mau Mau'
The British popular press &
the demoralization of empire
JOANNA LEWIS
11. Mau Mau & the Contestfor Memory
MARSHALL S. CLOUGH
12. The Nation &Narration
'The truths of the nation' &
the changing image of Mau Mau in Kenyan literature
JAMES OGUDE
Select Bibliography
Index
Mau Mau and Nationhood: Arms, Authority, and Narration
by E.S. Atieno Odhiambo contributions by John Lonsdale edited by E. S. Atieno Odhiambo
Ohio University Press, 2003 Cloth: 978-0-8214-1483-5 Paper: 978-0-8214-1484-2
Fifty years after the declaration of the state of emergency, Mau Mau still excites argument and controversy, not least in Kenya itself. Mau Mau and Nationhood is a collection of essays providing the most recent thinking on the uprising and its aftermath.
The work of well-established scholars as well as of young researchers with fresh perspectives, Mau Mau and Nationhood achieves a multilayered analysis of a subject of enduring interest. According to Terence Ranger, Emeritus Rhodes Professor, Oxford, “In some ways the historiography of Mau Mau is a supreme example not only of ambiguity and complexity, but also of redemption of a topic once thought incapable of rational analysis.”
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
E. S. Atieno Odhiambo was a professor of history at Rice University. He is the author of The Paradox of Collaboration and Other Essays, and Siaya: Politics and Nationalism in East Africa, 1905-1939. He is the editor of African Historians and African Voices and coeditor, with David William Cohen, of The Risks of Knowledge.
John Lonsdale is a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge.
REVIEWS
“A thousand words can never do justice to this tremendous collection, so I will state at the outset that it is a must read.”—Cynthia Brantley, American Historical Review
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Notes on Contributors
Terms & Abbreviations
Maps
Introduction
JOHN LONSDALE & E.S. ATIENO ODHIAMBO
1. Mau Mau & Nationhood
The untold story
BETHWELL A. OGOT
2. Matundaya Uhuru, Fruits of Independence
Seven theses on nationalism in Kenya
E.S. ATIENO ODHIAMBO
3. Authority, Gender & Violence
The war within Mau Mau's fight for land & freedom
JOHN LONSDALE
4. Writing in Revolution
Independent schooling & Mau Mau in Nyeri
DEREK PETERSON
5. Complementary or Contending Nationhoods?
Kikuyu pamphlets & songs, 1945-52
CRISTIANA PUGLIESE
6. Mau Mau & the Arming of the State
DAVID A. PERCOX
7. The Battle of Dandora Swamp
Reconstructing the Mau Mau Land Freedom Army
October 1954
DAVID M. ANDERSON
8. 'Impossible to Ignore their Greatness'
Survival craft in the Mau Mau forest movement
KENNELL JACKSON, JR
9. Detention, Rehabilitation &
the Destruction of Kzkuyu Society
CAROLINE ELKINS
10. 'Daddy Wouldn't Buy Me a Mau Mau'
The British popular press &
the demoralization of empire
JOANNA LEWIS
11. Mau Mau & the Contestfor Memory
MARSHALL S. CLOUGH
12. The Nation &Narration
'The truths of the nation' &
the changing image of Mau Mau in Kenyan literature
JAMES OGUDE
Select Bibliography
Index
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC