The name is absent

Mau files, especially since the colonial administration was known for their
detailed notes.

Due to the complexity of Mau Mau, it is important to use a variety of
sources and analyze old sources from different perspectives. The solution is
really an opportunity for the scholar to return to what is known and what is
unknown. This has been the approach taken here in first focusing on the rarely
studied Mau Mau oath and then using a combination of archived data and oral
accounts in order to understand its fragmented history. Another plus is that
because of the battles in print, we now know much more about how African and
Kenyan knowledge has been produced. These battles permit a new type of
history making that challenges the status quo to ask even more about the past.

Research Opportunities & Challenges

Although the surviving Mau Mau war veterans are elderly, the stories and
memories have been passed down and are lodged in the oral history of Kenya.
It is impossible for approximately 100,000 Africans to be killed and there not be a
lasting impact on all of those associated with the movement. From the very
beginning of the war in October 1952, the facts were suppressed and distorted.
From the war onset, fears and images of African savagery spread among British
populations in the colony and in Britain. The white paradise in Kenya was
shattered because Mau Mau oathers collectively resisted the British
establishment and occupation. They wanted their land and freedom restored. But
this perspective was not the mainstream image projected. Instead Mau Mau

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