The name is absent

motivations behind those that joined Mau Mau. The origins of Mau Mau oathing
is treated generally in her chapter, “Resistance of the Elders until the Beginning
of Mau Mau.”⁵⁰ However, it is Kershaw’s chapter on “Resistance of the Land
Poor and Landless” that offers the most in terms of Mau Mau oath analysis.⁵¹ In
this section, Kershaw provides much needed statistics on the development of
Mau Mau oaths during the peak movements of the Mau Mau war and on gender.
This quantitative analysis from field research reveals the percentage of women or
men oathing, the number of oaths taken, the percentage of the population given
the oath, and rural applications of oathing; all yield useful information to help
better interpret the nature, scope, and magnitude of Mau Mau oathing at different
times of the movement.⁵² One key piece of data that Kershaw shows based on
her research is that although scholars focus a great deal of attention and energy
on the second and additional oaths, only twenty men based on her study went
beyond the second oath. In other words, most of those that took the oath took
only the first oath.⁵³

Kershaw also offers an important analysis of the history of oathing in a
section entitled, “Late Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Oaths.”⁵⁴ Interestingly,
Kershaw addresses the cursing aspects of oaths and the structures formed by
oathing between members of the society. This study ends with Kershaw

⁵⁰ Greet Kershaw, Mau Mau from Below, (Ohio: Ohio University Press 1997), 183-201.

⁵¹ Kershaw, Mau Mau from Below, 228-229.

⁵² Kershaw, Mau Mau from Below, 228-229.

⁵³ Kershaw, Mau Mau from Below, 318-319.

⁵⁴ Kershaw, Mau Mau from Below, 312.

49

<<   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   >>

More intriguing information