stated that, “I was given a sword, to rise up vertically and vow by it, that I will
heed to the Mau Mau laws.”54 These artifacts also symbolized the fighting and
violence that would be necessary in the Mau Mau struggle.
Number Symbolism
Numbers are very important in African ceremonial practices. In many Mau
Mau oathing ceremonies, the number seven was frequently used to perform
particular acts. The number seven was symbolic because it was believed to
invoke the act done; therefore seven represented power. For example, in a
recorded court testimony, one witness described the application of seven in her
statement about the forced oathing ceremony in saying, “We were obliged to go
through the arch seven times and to bite a substance of a nature I could not
recognize.”55 The use of this number was not coincidental but symbolic, and it
was dependent on the specific associated actions. Gerhard Lindblom
documented the magic tradition of carrying out actions a specific number of times
when performing acts.56 He stated, “The idea that the number seven has a
special importance is, of course, very widespread...it is the most prominent of all
the numbers.”57
In many of the oathing descriptions, specific acts were repeated seven
times. For example, accounts included descriptions of oathing participants: going
through the banana leaf arches seven times; waving swords seven times while
54 Interview, S. Kakie, January 2009, Machakos District.
55 Testimony of Kasina Nguku, Case file 127 notes, KNA MLA 1/1007-CC 127/1954. Rex vs. Harun
Waau Mutisya, Philip Nthekani Mwo, and Sounsza Kandu. P 5.
56 Lindblom, The Akamba, 306-310.
57 Lindblom, The Akamba, 307.
96
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