colonial police through criminalization. Today, oathing is still a vibrant source of
power in Kenya with groups like the Mungiki turning once again to the power of
the oath to forge unity and secrecy against economic inequality; they refer to
themselves as the descendents of Mau Mau.2 The oath has consistently been a
source of power by many Kenyans, as displayed during the Mau Mau war and
also today.
The Mau Mau war is an example of a time in which the desire for freedom
required Africans to use their power, in the form of the oath, to create a new
reality. The British were using their power to suppress African freedom in Kenya;
old structures and systems were redirected to support colonial economic,
political, social, and religious interests that reorganized and suppressed Kenyan
traditions. But power must be fought with power, and the key is uprooting,
mobilizing, and manifesting it. The Mau Mau oath was a part of a very powerful
oathing system in Kenya that was reconstituted to fight an inevitable war.3 As
some Kenyans turned to the secrecy and unity of the oath, the British also turned
to their sources of power. These colonial sources were beyond military
weaponry and included shaping the discussions of Mau Mau as a violent, evil,
and barbaric revolt. As a result, Kenyan power was minimized in the texts as
tribal, savage, and irrational instead Oftreating it as a reaction to colonial injustice
and inequality.
However, this study discovered that contrary to the prevelant notions and
images, the Mau Mau oath was actually a sophisticated, elaborate, rational, and
2 See Harris, “Mau Mau returns to Kenya”. Mwai, “What Makes Mungiki Tick.”
3 Anderson, Histories of the Hanged, war referred to as Britain’s Dirty War.
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