The name is absent

modem Kenya. Thomas discusses how Meru women circumcised themselves
during Mau Mau in order to make sure they were legitimate women as defined by
their tradition.³¹ In this study, we see women who seized the moment to reclaim
their own bodies and customs as a part of their identity and embracing their own
future.

These are just a few examples of studies that show the complex issues of
female agency, physicality, movement, labor, and reproduction that often played
a role in the social, economic, cultural, and political controversies during
the1950’s. The studies also provide insight into the struggles and spaces that
women discovered during the Mau Mau period and what it meant to Kenyans.

The Mau Mau Story of S. Kakie

S. Kakie illustrates the legacy, memory, and importance of women
participating in Mau Mau. She was born in 1934 at Nduu in the district of
Machakos. Kakie was a forest camp supporter in the Mau Mau movement³² and
was fully aware of the consequences of not participating in Mau Mau.³³ Prior to
colonial rule, Kakie and her family enjoyed a comfortable lifestyle. However, a
series of colonial land appropriations, forced cattle de-stocking policies, and
compulsory agricultural priorities, systematically impoverished Kakie and her
family.³⁴ Her father had homes in Kyanzavi which were burned down by

³¹ Lynn Thomas, in Politics of the Womb, also shows the politics associated with the wombs and bodies of
women that were contested because of the powerful consequences of policies on the society. The work
shows the complexity of colonial politics, morality, and change lodged into the local history of the Mem
people while showing how the wombs of women became a contested space.

³² Interview, S. Kakie, January 2009, Machakos, Kenya.

³³ Interview, S. Kakie, January 2009, Machakos, Kenya.

³⁴ Interview, S. Kakie, January 2009, Machakos, Kenya.

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