The name is absent

between 1894 and 1919. After 1930, women began to organize collectively by
arranging strikes, demonstrations, and improving pay rates. They used traditional
meeting areas, such as the river during washing, the water well, and the market
to actively plan and strategize. Educational community programs were another
unencumbered space through which women could freely express themselves.
For example, the Women’s Home Craft Course was so popular that there were
often rival exchanges between participants wanting to attend in the 1950s.²⁴
Women used various spaces to form new alliances, thus slowly increasing the
number of secular female organizations. For example, by 1951, the Women’s
Club in Machakos was described as “continuing to flourish.”²⁵ Women were
engaged in political matters and used any and all spaces available to promote
their political ideologies. The collective political consciousness and awareness
are no different from the collective actions of other women worldwide who
eventually fought for suffrage and equal pay.

The Mau Mau Oath and Gender

The oath was the connection between women and Mau Mau. As
mentioned, the oath-to-women relationship was new and a construct of the
needs of the society during the Mau Mau period. During the Mau Mau period
women helped to redefine and reshape the oathing experience. This new
relationship forever altered the traditional oath known prior to the Mau Mau
movement. Interestingly, although the historiography is full of accounts of women

²⁴ Machakos 1951 Annual Report, KNA, Syracuse, Film 2801, roll 7. p. 6.

²⁵ Machakos 1951 Annual Report, KNA, Syracuse, Film 2801, roll 7. p. 1.

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