The intellectual lives of Mau Mau detainees

Journal of African History

Volumn 49, Issue 1, 2008, Pages 73-91

  Peterson, Derek R ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

Family; Intellectual; Kenya; Prison

Indexed keywords

ACCOUNTABILITY; CULTURE; POLITICAL IDEOLOGY;

AFRICA; EAST AFRICA; KENYA; SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA;

EID: 42549096515     PISSN: 00218537     EISSN: 14695138     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0021853708003411     Document Type: Article

References (130)

1. KNA JZ 7/6: S. Fazan, 'Petition no. 632: J. J. Gakaara Wanjau', 12 July 1954.
2. GW correspondence, 1948-9 file: Gakaara to East Africa Command, n.d. [Jan. 1949].
3. GW correspondence, 1948-9 file: Enrolment form, British Institute of Practical Psychology, n.d. [1949].
4. GW detention file: No title, confession notes, 8 May 1956.
5. PCEA II/G/4: Mau Mau oath confession forms, 1955-6
6. see J. Lonsdale, 'The moral economy of Mau Mau', in Lonsdale and B. Berman, Unhappy Valley (London, 1992)
7. and D. Peterson, Creative writing (Portsmouth NH, 2004), ch. 6.
8. KNA JZ 7/6: Petition no. 632, Gakaara Wanjau, n.d.
9. Gakaara's biography is given in C. Pugliese's excellent Author, Publisher and Gikuyu Nationalist: The Life and Writings of Gakaara wa Wanjau (Bayreuth, 1995).
10. These two manuscripts have not survived. GW detention file: Gakaara wa Wanjau to G. Dennis, 18 Dec. 1953.
11. KNA AB 11/61: Gakaara to Community Development Office, 27 July 1957.
12. C. Elkins, 'Detention, rehabilitation, and the destruction of Kikuyu society', in J. Lonsdale and Atieno Odhiambo (eds.), Mau Mau and Nationhood (London, 2003), 191-226
13. and Elkins, Imperial Reckoning: The Untold Story of Britain's Gulag in Kenya (New York, 2005).
14. Elkins, Imperial Reckoning, 60.
15. Ibid. 156.
16. Ibid. 179, 186-7.
17. KNA AH 9/5: Assistant Director of Medical Services to Commandant, Manyani, May 1954.
18. KNA AH 9/5: Legislative Council minutes, 9 Dec. 1954; Elkins, Imperial Reckoning, 138-41.
19. KNA JZ 7/4: Mbugwa Boro and Kimani Njoroge to Governor, 11 Feb. 1957.
20. J. M. Kariuki, Mau Mau detainee (Nairobi, 1963), 139-40.
21. KNA AH 9/37: Gitui to Governor, 20 Feb. 1954.
22. See also M. Mathu, The Urban Guerilla (Richmond, 1974), 86.
23. Dr. Shannon, 'The changing face of Kenya', Kikuyu News, 210 (Oct. 1955).
24. GW detention file: Shifra to Gakaara, 4 July 1957.
25. KNA AB 18/2: Community Development Officer, Kerkerra Camp, to Probation Officer, Kiambu, 19 Dec. 1956.
26. GW detention file: Gakaara to Shifra, n.d. [mid-1957].
27. See KNA AB 18/10: Community Development Officer to District Commissioner (DC) Nakuru, 15 Dec. 1956.
28. For the Swynnerton Plan, see C. Leo, Land and Class in Kenya (Toronto, 1984)
29. and G. Kitching, Class and Economic Change in Kenya (New Haven, 1980).
30. KNA AB 11/61: Atîrîrî, 1 51, 21 Sept. 1957.
31. KNA AB 1/94: Anderson Mureithi at Hola Camp to Community Development Officer, Saiyusi, 29 May 1957.
32. GW detention file: Gakaara to Raheli Warigia, 8 July 1957.
33. Gakaara wa Wanjau, Mîhîrîga ya Agîkûyû (Karatina, 1960).
34. GW detention file: Gakaara to Shifra, 12 July 1958.
35. Cited in J. Lonsdale and C. Elkins, 'Memories of Mau Mau in Kenya' (unpublished paper for 'Memory and Violence' colloquium, Cortona, Italy, 2002).
36. W. S. Routledge and K. Routledge, With a Prehistoric People (London, 1968 [1910]), 20.
37. KNA DC/Nyeri/1/6/1: McClure, Jan. 1911; KNA PC/CP/6/4/3: DC Fort Hall, 19 May 1921.
38. S. K. Gathigira, Mîikarîre ya Agîkûyû (Nairobi, n.d. [1933]).
39. M. Kabetu, Kîrîra kia Ûgîkûyû (Nairobi, 1991 [1947]) elaborates slightly on Gathigira's account.
40. J. Kenyatta, Facing Mount Kenya (London, 1953 [1938]), 2.
41. GW detention file: Gakaara to Shifra, 4 Nov. 1957.
42. GW detention file: Gakaara to Shifra, 26 Jan. 1956.
43. GW detention file: Gakaara to Shifra, 2 July 1957.
44. GW detention file: Gakaara to Shifra, 28 July 1957.
45. GW detention file: Gakaara to Shifra, 18 June 1958.
46. GW detention file: Shifra to Gakaara, 13 Aug. 1958.
47. GW detention file: Gakaara to Shifra, 8 July 1957.
48. GW detention file: Gakaara to Shifra, 29 July 1957.
49. GW detention file: Gakaara to Shifra, 21 June 1958.
50. GW detention file: Gakaara to Shifra, 8 Aug. 1958.
51. GW detention file: Gakaara to Raheli Warigia, 8 July 1957.
52. KNA AB 11/60: Sta. Officer for Education, 'Distribution of periodicals in camps', 25 Oct. 1957.
53. Kariuki, Mau Mau Detainee, 177. Thanks to B. Shadle for this reference.
54. KNA AB 1/92: Rehabilitation Officer Kamiti to Commissioner for Community Development, 25 Mar. 1956.
55. CBMS A/T 2/6 Box 279, 'Miss Martin' file: Martin, circular letter, 1 Aug. 1955.
56. GW detention file: Unknown to Gakaara, 24 Feb. 1954.
57. GW detention file: Gakaara to Shifra, 9 Aug. 1958.
58. GW detention file: Gakaara to Shifra, n.d. [but Nov. 1957].
59. KNA AB 1/88: Community Development Officer to Secretary for Community Development, 8 July 1957.
60. Gakaara wa Wanjau, Mau Mau Author in Detention (Nairobi, 1988), 117.
61. GW Detention diary manuscript: May to June 1953.
62. GW Writing course correspondence: Gakaara to Regent Institute, 7 Feb. 1955.
63. Kariuki, Mau Mau Detainee, 87.
64. KNA AB 25/200: H. Church to Commissioner for Community Development, 13 Dec. 1954.
65. KNA AB 1/112: Kamiti Rehabilitation Officer to Commissioner for Community Development, 3 Feb. 1955.
66. KNA JZ 7/4: Embakasi convicts to Commissioner of Prisons, 6 Apr. 1957.
67. KNA JZ 7/4: 'Black Africans in Manyani detention camp' to Governor, 9 Mar. 1957.
68. KNA JZ 7/4: 'The black people of Kenya in Manyani detention camps', n.d. [Jan. 1957].
69. Kariuki, Mau Mau Detainee, 101-2.
70. KNA AB 11/59: J. Dames, 'Distribution of periodicals', 1 July to 30 Sept. 1957.
71. KNA JZ 7/4: Kamau Gachuke et al. to Thomas Dugdale, 18 Nov. 1956.
72. Bristol Breckenridge papers: J.M. Mungai, confession, 21-28 Sept. 1956.
73. KNA AH 9/37: Secretary for Defence to Commissioner of Prisons, 11 Dec. 1956.
74. Bristol Breckenridge papers: J.M. Mungai, confession, 21-28 Sept. 1956.
75. RH Mss. Afr. s. 2257: Howard Church, 'The Athi experiment', n.d.
76. For Lodwar, see Kariuki, Mau Mau Detainee, 116, and KNA JZ 7/4: R. Mwangi to Defence Secretary, 16 Apr. 1957; for South Yatta Works Camp, see KNA JZ 7/4: P. Bennett to Commissioner of Prisons, 14 Sept. 1954; for Kamiti, KNA AB 1/112: Warren-Gash, 31 Oct. 1957.
77. RH Mss. Afr. s. 2257: Church, 'The Athi experiment', n.d.
78. KNA JZ 7/4: Detainees at Sanjusi Island detention camp to Tom Mboya, 7 May 1957.
79. KNA JZ 7/4: John Gitiri to Secretary of State for the Colonies, 5 Sept. 1954.
80. KNA JZ 7/4: P. Bennett to Commissioner of Prisons, 14 Sept. 1954.
81. KNA JZ 7/4: 'The black people of Kenya in Manyani detention camps', n.d. [but Jan. 1957].
82. KNA AH 9/37: Maina Macharia et al. to Secretary of State for the Colonies, 1 Nov. 1956.
83. J. Breckenridge, Forty Years in Kenya (Dorset, Great Britain, n.d.), 212.
84. KNA AH 9/37: Kamiti prisoners to Governor, 6 Nov. 1956.
85. KNA JZ 7/4: Knowlden to Commissioner of Prisons, 21 Aug. 1954.
86. KNA JZ 7/4: 'Black African detainees in Manyani camp' to Colonial Secretary, 11 Mar. 1957.
87. KNA JZ 7/4: Kamau Gachui et al. to Secretary of State for the Colonies, n.d. [but 1956].
88. KNA JZ 7/4: John Gitiri to Secretary of State for the Colonies, 5 Sept. 1954.
89. Breckenridge, Forty Years in Kenya, 235.
90. Churchill College Dingle Foot papers 5/7: 'List of Parliamentary questions', n.d. [late 1955].
91. Church Missionary Society, Kenya: Call for Action (London, n.d. [1955]).
92. Eileen Fletcher, Truth About Kenya (London, 1956).
93. CBMS A/T 2/5 Box 278 'Eileen Fletcher's accusations': Fletcher to L. Greaves, 28 June 1956.
94. CBMS A/T 2/6 Box 279 'CMS and Colonial Secretary' file: Max Warren, notes, 28 Mar. 1955.
95. See J. Lonsdale, 'Authority, gender and violence', in Lonsdale and Odhiambo (eds.), Mau Mau and Nationhood
96. D. Peterson, 'Wordy women', Journal of African History, 42 (2001), 469-89
97. and L. Thomas, The Politics of the Womb (Berkeley, 2003), ch. 3.
98. G. Barra, 1000 Kikuyu Proverbs (Nairobi, 1960), 4.
99. EUL Gen. 1786/6: Barlow, 'Kikuyu linguistics ', n.d. [1950s].
100. Barra, 1000 Kikuyu Proverbs, 6.
101. ACK Mau Mau file: Pittway, 23 Jan. 1954.
102. Interview: Peter Munene, Iruri, Nyeri district, 12 May and 9 Aug. 1998.
103. Elkins, Imperial Reckoning, 152-3.
104. Bristol 1996/86/B: W. Thompson, 'Only the foothills ', n.d.
105. Breckenridge, Forty Years in Kenya, 228.
106. RH Mss. Afr. s. 2257: Church, 'The Athi experiment', n.d.
107. Gakaara wa Wanjau, Mau Mau Author, 184-7.
108. Gakaara wa Wanjau, Mwandyîki wa Mau Mau Ithamyîrio-inî (Nairobi, 1983), 147.
109. KNA AH 9/37: Secretary for Legal Affairs to Secretary for Community Development, 30 Oct. 1956.
110. Kariuki, Mau Mau Detainee, 131-2.
111. GW detention diary manuscript, 20 and 22 Mar. 1954.
112. KNA JZ 7/4: Aguthi detainees to Commissioner of Prisons, Mar. 1957.
113. KNA JZ 7/4: Detainees at Athi River to Commissioner of Prisons, 10 Jan. 1957. Elkins (Imperial Reckoning, 207) reads this petition as a complaint against physical abuse, and ignores the writer's wider point.
114. Interview: Elijah Kiruthi, Mahiga location, Nyeri district, 15 June 1998.
115. KNA AB 1/108: Wild to Minister of Community Development, 9 May 1957.
116. Kariuki, Mau Mau Detainee, 67-8.
117. Gakaara wa Wanjau, Mau Mau Author, 26.
118. Ibid. 183.
119. Ngugi wa Kabiro, Man in the Middle (Richmond, British Columbia, 1973), 73-4.
120. GW detention file: Gakaara to wife and mother, 3 May 1956.
121. KNA AB 11/61: Editorial, in Atîrîrî, 2 (23 Nov. 1957).
122. As argued in Elkins, Imperial Reckoning, 203-4.
123. Bristol 2002/218/002-074: G. Mviti to John and Caroline Breckenridge, 11 Apr. 1957.
124. GW detention file: Gakaara to Shifra, 3 July 1956.
125. GW detention file: Shifra to Gakaara, 18 Oct. 1956.
126. GW plays file: Gakaara wa Wanjau, 'Let his wickedness judge him', 1956.
127. Breckenridge, Forty Years in Kenya, 226-7.
128. GW detention file: Gakaara to Shifra, 15 Nov. 1956.
129. KNA AB 1/85: Sta. Officer Education to Secretary of Community Development, 18 Sept. 1956.
130. Gakaara wa Wanjau, Mau Mau Author, 192.