Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: The Mau Mau War of 1952-1960 saw the Mau Mau, primarily made up of Kikuyu, fight against the decaying British Empire for Kenyan independence.Throughout the war, the Mau Mau used a complex system of oaths and oathing ceremonies, often drawing upon pre-established Kikuyu rituals, to foster unity between adherents and the movement.The British media, however, ignored the cultural significance of these practices and used their seemingly alien nature to Western audiences as a critical part of the Empire's broader propaganda strategy, which aimed to show the Mau Mau as a "primitive" terrorist uprising that ultimately justified violent colonial responses.Long before the Mau Mau war and the British colonization of Kenya at the turn of the twentieth century, oaths and oathing ceremonies were an integral part of Kikuyu lives and society.Regardless of an oath's specific purpose, the practice of oathing was always a serious undertaking.Those who broke from oaths faced punishment not only from their family and the wider community but also divine retribution from the Kikuyu god of creation, Ngai, who may inflict severe injury or death upon them. 1 Historically, the Kikuyu had four main types of 1 Caroline Elkins, Imperial Reckoning: The Untold Story of Britain's Gulag in Kenya (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2005), 27.
Author: Emma Waggett
Institution: University of Colorado Boulder
Language: English
Subfield: Anthropology
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W4409914116