The name is absent

established true motives, and dishonesty meant suffering from a curse as divine
punishment. To further support this point, Lindblom states, “The breach of this
oath was punished by instant death.”¹¹ Like the oath of truth, the Mau Mau Oath
was an oath of unity.¹² This is one of the key features of the Mau Mau oath
because it involved group harmony and togetherness. The oath process served
as a rite of passage that moved individuals from being separate beings to being
one in a unified effort. The overall structure and purpose of the Mau Mau oath
was to establish a unified body that was in alignment to remove Europeans from
Kenya. When questioned about the meaning of Mau Mau, unity was consistently
cited. For example, two respondents stated this was the underlying purpose of
the oath: “It meant unity in action”¹³ and “Mau Mau was a unity.”¹⁴

This cohesiveness and rebirth gave a special power to the Mau Mau oath
as a way to cross from one state into another one renewed with a sense of
collective purpose. The Mau Mau oath was a dynamic response to create a
sacred bond between men and women in the movement. It was a bond that had
multiple levels; it was a bond inside and outside of ethnic group categories.
Some scholars like Gerald Horne in Mau Mau in Harlem? questions the
relationship between black liberation efforts on the African continent and with
black civil rights struggles in the African Diaspora.¹⁵ Mau Mau was modern in
that it spurred the unification of many ethnicities to rally against the colonial

" Lindblom, The Akαmbα, 60.

¹² Bamett and Njama,Mau Mau From Within, 59.

¹³ Interview, S. Kakie. January 2009, Machakos District.

¹⁴ Interview, J. M. Mutituni, January 2009, Machakos District.

¹⁵ See Gerald Home, Mau Mau in Harlem?, (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009)

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