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The Dynamics of Gender in Kenya Prior to Mau Mau

Prior to colonialism, women held rigid roles in Kenya and were usually
controlled and dominated by men, typically the father or husband. As mentioned
above, women were restricted in their ability to engage in the political sphere.
They were instead relegated to the domestic arena. Kenyan pre-colonial society
was ordered around the reproduction, production, and stability women.
Controlling the body and labor of women prior to colonialism was a male
privilege.

However, during colonialism, the restructuring and reorganization of
Kenya required unleashing new freedoms for women. As a result, women were
the center of many debates, usually among African and European men, that
contested all aspects of womanhood like initiation, female circumcision,
marriage, child birth, divorce, and inheritance. Consequently, gender roles were
blurred and re-negotiated over many years.¹⁰ These debates were conducted
through Western education, hospitals, the Christian church, in social meetings,
colonial policies, laws, and in the courts. All members of the dynamic Kenyan
society argued for their own desires, imaginations, and values. African women in
particular discovered new degrees of freedom that created societal friction
because of the social, cultural, and economic breaks from the pre-colonial past.

In order to understand the gendered dynamics and the types of
conversations that took place between groups, it is helpful to consider specific
struggles under colonialism. Some men went through extreme measures during

¹⁰ Tabitha Kanogo, African Womanhood in Colonial Kenya, 1900-1950 (Athens: Ohio University Press,
2000), 245.

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