The name is absent

However, this report is not in isolation. Dr. J.C. Carothers created another
governmental account on the topic in The Psychology of Mau Mau in 1954.⁷ This
writing attempts to understand the Mau Mau oath as it relates to witchcraft,
suggesting that a key component of oathing was the embedded fear of the oath.⁸
Also, this work picks up on the local variations Ofoathing in stating, “Although the
general lines are similar, the revolting details vary greatly and are clearly the
inventions of each oath administrator.”⁹ Even though Carothers noticed this
important characteristic of oathing, he failed to provide a way to treat and analyze
these differences to better interpret Mau Mau. Perspectives like Corfield and
Carothers provided the initial Mau Mau oath language forever engraved into Mau
Mau recorded accounts.

Perspectives of Louis Leakey

Another key interpretation of the Mau Mau oath was from Louis Leakey.
Leakey was born in Kikuyuland in 1903. He grew up practicing limited Kikuyu
rituals and was a part of the Mukanda age set. Based on Leakey’s upbringing in
Kikuyuland and his knowledge of the Kikuyu language and culture, Leakey
positioned himself as an authority on the Kikuyu. The Mau Mau oath
interpretations by Leakey in his two works, Mau Mau and the Kikuyu written in
1952 and Defeating Mau Mau written in 1954, were held highly by the British and

⁷ J.C. Carothers, The Psychology of Маи Маи, (Nairobi: Government Printer, 1954), 4-20.

⁸ Carothers, The Psychology of Маи Маи, 14.

⁹ Carothers, The Psychology of Маи Маи, 16.

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