stereotypes and restrictions to become valuable and respected fighting
participants.4
Women were major contributors in the Mau Mau freedom fight.5 The
involvement of women in oath ceremonies was a major transformation of the
oath. The oath took on a different form with the presence of women, who stood -
sometimes naked in the circle - to pledge their allegiance and to seal a “deadly
bond of unity.”6 The inclusion of women in these ceremonies radicalized the oath
and represented a transition of women to the center of the liberation struggle.
The movement of women from the periphery to the center has played out in
different forms, in different times, by different people, and in different places; it
was and still is a worldwide phenomenon.7
In order to understand the gender dynamics associated with the Mau Mau
oath, important questions must be considered. What were the circumstances and
forces that led women to take the Mau Mau oath? What were their oathing
ideologies, motives, and dreams? How did female participation in traditional male
only spaces alter gender roles and relationships in Kenya? How was the oath
transformed through the inclusion of women? This chapter aims to explore these
questions by essentially examining the new relationship created between women
and the Mau Mau oath.
4 Macdonald, et al., Images of Women, Chapter “Kikuyu women and the politics of protest: Mau Mau” by
Tabitha Kanogo 78.
5 Macdonald, et al., Images of Women, Chapter “Kikuyu women and the politics of protest: Mau Mau” by
Tabitha Kanogo 95.
6 D.J. Penwill, “Notes on Kamba Customary Law in Machakos District." August, 1950. KNA Syracuse
Collection, Film 2804 Roll 9, section on Kithitu.
7 The liberation and rights of women has been a world wide movement. For example, women have fought
for the right to vote, to earn equal pay, to receive education, and to fight injustice.
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