The events that took place during the colonization of Kenya by the British are disturbing and although the acts of violence committed by the Mau-Mau “freedom fighters” were atrocious, the retaliation by the British state was cowardly and massively over-scaled . A small subgroup of the massive movement that identified themselves as the Mau-Mau committed grotesque murders of white British settlers as an indicator of their determination to secure the independence of their lands back from the British. However unjustified the acts of the Mau-Mau radical group was, the immoral actions of unlawful imprisonment, torture, and murder of the Native Nairobi people was carried out vengefully by a government entity.
One could speculate that the Mau-Mau’s were not justified in using violence as a means to bringing change, but it is difficult to understand the context of the situation from our perspective. Kenya was colonized during a time when Britain was an absolute powerhouse, civil rights weren’t recognized, and Africa was being torn apart by a completely different culture with vastly different worldviews. In a time where freedom of speech and democracy weren’t acceptable in many societies, it is easy to understand why the Mau-Mau’s took such radical measures. They were trying to ensure their success before there was an opportunity for defeat.
Britain knew that the actions taken to retaliate against the Mau-Mau movement were wrong, which is why they tried to destroy all evidence of inhumane treatment. The remaining Mau-Mau’s probably would have never received recognition for their past injustices if it weren’t for a curious historian, and the guilty conscience of a few British who ensured documentation of the accounts didn’t make it to the burn pit. In hindsight, there is always a more peaceful way that a conflict could have been resolved, but I don’t think the Natives of Nairobi were in a position to negotiate just as the Native Americans weren’t when they were forced to vacate their lands.
Works Cited
RadioLab. Mau Mau. 3 July 2015. Matt Kielty. <http://www.radiolab.org/story/mau-mau/>.
