focused journey to understand the twists, turns, legacy, and continuity of the
Powerofoathing in Kenya.
This dissertation argues that oathing experienced its greatest
transformation during the Mau Mau period. Therefore, this study analyzes
oathing from 1952 to 1960. This time period offers an opportunity to study
Kenyan Mau Mau history from a rare perspective, the oath, which shows
traditional versus modern entanglements and tensions and the forging of African
subaltern power. However, in order to understand the dynamics of the oath
during this period, it is important to first understand the complexity of defining
Mau Mau and its historiography.
The Definition of Mau Mau
“Mau Mau: war∕rebellion∕civil war∕revolution? Each choice of epithet both
absolves and accuses the users irrespective of whether they claim expertise
of professional or guild historians or partake in the popular debate of the
various interested parties. The point is that there are layers of spoken
knowledge, but also Ofcritical silences, that inform one’s choice of each word
both within the academy and in the larger society. This is because there are,
in fact, various Mau Mau pasts calling for their own historians.”10
Atieno Odhiambo
Mau Mau is complex, and does not fit into a neat category, label, or type.
As a result, it is difficult to define Mau Mau because there were numerous
interpretations; it meant different things to people depending on their involvement
or lack of involvement or historical perspective. Marshall Clough in his study,
Mau Mau Memoirs, states that “Mau Mau has been described as a nationalist
l0 Atieno Odhiambo, “The Production of History in Kenya: The Mau Mau Debate,” Canadian Journal of
African Studies 25.2 (1991): 300-307.