Defeating Mau Mau, Creating Kenya
Counterinsurgency, Civil War, and Decolonization

This book details the devastating Mau Mau civil war fought in Kenya during the 1950s and its legacies for the post-colonial state.

Daniel Branch (Author)

9780521130905, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 31 August 2009

278 pages, 10 b/w illus.
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.6 cm, 0.41 kg

'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

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.

Introduction: understanding loyalism in Kenya's civil war
1. Vomiting the oath: the origins of loyalism in the growth of Mau Mau
2. Terror and counter-terror: March 1953–April 1954
3. From Mau Mau to home guard: the defeat of the insurgency
4. Loyalism, land and labour: the path to self-mastery
5. Loyalism in the age of decolonisation
6. Eating the fruits of Uhuru: loyalists, Mau Mau and the post-colonial state
Conclusion: loyalism, decolonisation and civil war.

Subject Areas: 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000 [HBLW], African history [HBJH]