The name is absent

Chapter 5 Colonial Justice: The Criminalization of the Mau Mau
Oath

“Law was central to colonialism in Africa as conceived and implemented by
Europeans and as understood, experienced, and used by Africans. Laws and
courts, police, and prisons formed essential elements in European efforts to
establish and maintain political domination. ”¹

Kristin Mann & Richard Roberts

Introduction

In Kenya today oathing is viewed as an act of criminality associated with
disorderly thugs, hoodlums, and outcasts.² Although this criminal perception has
been reinforced based on the contemporary oathing activities of the Mungiki
movement, it was a view, imbedded in the legal system that was invented and
shaped during the hysteria of the 1950s to suppress Mau Mau oathing.³ Oathing
prior to this period was an honorable system that worked in conjunction with the
African elders in order to promote truth. However, during the Mau Mau period,
the nature and perception of oathing spiraled downhill creating a criminalized
oath that is still prevalent.

The colonial administration held the power to invent and reinvent legalities
to satisfy colonial economic goals, interests, and African domination. The colonial
law practices were not created in a vacuum but were also used by Africans over
time to promote desires and to contest colonial maneuvers. Despite these

¹ Kristin Mann and Richard Roberts, ed., Law in Colonial Africa, (Portsmouth: Heinemann Educational
Books, Inc., 1991), 3.

² Interview, R. Simiyu. Associated with the viewing and discussion, The Emerald Initiative Kenyan
Association, January 2010 of Wendo Wa Kavete. Kibwezi District. “Purification Ritual Performance”.
December 2008. Video tape recording and notes.

³ Participants were often labeled as “thugs”, “gangsters”, and “terrorist”. See Clough, Mau Mau Memiors,
3. Also, this perception has also been shaped by the emergence of practices associated with Mungiki
movement using reconstituted Mau Mau oathing for unity and resistance against the Kenyan government.

108

<<   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   >>

More intriguing information