Dedan Kimathi's former bodyguard, Mau Mau veteran Nderitu wa Mukundi, popularly known as Hang'arari (the one who hangs around), has a utilitarian view of the Mau Mau oath and how the aging veterans should treat it the oath they took. He says that although the oaths they took bound them to strict silence, time has come for the veterans to reveal the details of the oath so that future generations may know. He appreciates that if they don't, their children and their children may never know. So he says veterans should share what they know, even at the pain of death. As Kimathi's bodyguard, he witnessed many of Kimathi's meetings, and has a list of all the officers Kimathi promoted. At one time, he says he was shot. A thoroughly discombobulated Kimathi came and spat on his wound, which, against all odds, proceeded to heal. He says that the oathing started soon after Kenyatta returned from England in 1946. At that time, he (Nderitu) was working in the farm of a settler nicknamed "Githuria" because he farted carelessly and recklessly in front of Africans as a way of showing that he did not respect them. He used to mistreat his African workers and fed them low-grade skimmed milk. If you were caught using fresh, skimmed milk, you were jailed for six months. An African could not shop at the same shop as a white settler. No African could keep a cow. In Ol Kalou and Nyahururu towns, Europeans used to shop at shop owned by an Indian by the name of Yunia, and an African could be severely punished merely for looking inside the shop. He says that Mt. Kenya people suffered more than the Jews. He also sings very interesting songs, which he says were prophetic of not just independence but of a changed social order. He also recalls a meeting that was held at Ol Kalou by Kenyatta accompanied by Mbiu Koinange and Achieng Oneko in the run up to the declaration of a State of Emergency. On his way to Nakuru, Kenyatta had been blocked by wildlife and the ever suspicious and superstitious Kenyatta decided to change course and head to Ol Kalou where a large meeting had been organized, but which white people had decided to attend, perhaps to intimidate those in attendance. In that meeting, a fiery Achieng Oneko incited everyone, when he said, pointing at white settlers, that Kenya belonged to the Africans, not the pink faced gathered at the meeting. Kenyatta himself told the people that he had been offered independence for his Kikuyu people only but had firmly turned it down saying that all Kenya Africans deserved freedom. Mzee Nderitu obviously regards this statement as significant, and wonders where ethnic animosity comes from given the sacrifices everyone was making at that time. He also tells of how Gen Ole Kisio, a Maasai Mau Mau fighter, led a team of his fighters to visit Dedan Kimathi, the overall Mau Mau leader in Nyandarua forest. The interview ends with a series of questions that can be summarised as follows: Why is the role of Mau Mau in the independence of this country given short shrift? #maumau #kenya #africa #kenyatta #africanliberation #africanhistory
9 апр 2024
