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Mau Mau Uprising: Caroline Elkins
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To return to the books at hand, Elkins's Imperial Reckoning differs from conventional accounts, which argue that British tactics were aimed against Mau Mau militants. She recognizes that the British interned practically the entire Kikuyu population. But how do you detain an entire people without having to fight them all? Using their time-honored divide-and-rule strategy, the British tried to force the insurgency inward, into a battle pitting Kikuyu militants against Kikuyu loyalists -- thereby turning the Mau Mau uprising into a civil war.
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Invariably, Mau Mau has either been distorted by British survivors or rendered incomprehensible by anthropologists. Elkins’ work directly combats this syndrome and serves as an accessible narrative of Mau Mau, from beginning to end; in pursuit of this goal, she has created one of those rare history books which is immensely readable, even to someone who knows little about British colonial history.
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Elkins situated both the violence of the Mau Mau uprising and the disproportionate response to it in the culture of violence and exploitation upon which colonialism was based. After briefly chronicling the horrors perpetrated on the Kikuyu - including whippings, castration, burnings and famine - she described the efforts of Kenyans to bring suit against the British both internationally and then within the U.K. While such attempts are unresolved, she noted that many Kenyans wish most fervently for recognition of their suffering and an apology by the British. Judicial proceedings make such an outcome unlikely.
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Elkins’ work on Kenya does history a great service by filling in the gap of knowledge about Mau Mau. It is something that, Elkins compellingly argues, should be discussed not only in the ranks of academia but ... in Kenya, where until recently, mentioning Mau Mau has been taboo, punishable by imprisonment without trial. Yet when it comes time for a discussion, the full breadth of conflict—Mau Mau’s savagery and likewise Britain’s settler-inspired savage response—should be on the table.
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Caroline Elkins