The name is absent

adds to the discussion by contributing more descriptive details about how the
oath was perceived from his unique perspective as an officer in the 1950s.

This chapter ends with the analysis of Daniel Branch’s Defeating Mau
Mau, Creating Kenya written in 2009. Branch’s book uniquely analyzes the war
from the perspective of the loyalists in efforts to treat a more nuanced
understanding of counterinsurgency warfare.⁶⁷ Branch offers a new way of
conceptualizing the Mau Mau through the lens of the loyalist, but his book goes
further by addressing the legacies of Mau Mau.

In terms of the Mau Mau oath, Branch devotes a chapter called, “Vomiting
the Oath.” This title raises the question of ‘were the words disgusting?’ The title is
engaging but not fully explained. In this chapter Branch criticizes scholars for
focusing on oath symbolism which he holds has distracted the discussion from
the true point of the use and custom of the oath.⁶⁸ He claims that the oath
“allowed Mau Mau to cultivate lines of intelligence and silence potential
opponents.”⁶⁹ But Branch attempts to address the challenges of oath unity with
the loyalist attacks on the practices of oathers, showing that unity was not
completely achieved within the ethnic group.

Another interesting aspect of Branch’s work is his application of the words
“greedy eating” to oathing through the association of the oathing practices of
eating meat during the ceremony.⁷⁰ Interestingly, in the field research for this
study the verb “eat” surfaced as well, but it was communicated from a much

⁶⁷ Daniel Branch, Defeating Маи Mau, Creating Kenya (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009),
opening book page.

⁶⁸ Branch, Defeating Mau Mau, Creating Kenya, 22.

⁶⁹ Branch, Defeating Mau Mau, Creating Kenya, 22.

⁷⁰ Branch, Defeating Mau Mau, Creating Kenya, 23.

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