Isabel Mbugua was a school-going child at the height of the Mau Mau war. Born and brought up in Njoro in the Rift Valley, hers is a story of survival at a time of war, and in the early years of independence. Her parents had been forcibly relocated from Limuru and moved to the Rift Valley where they were working for white settlers and paid a pittance, usually a weekly ration of maize flour, known as posho. She describes life in concentration villages. Her perspective is interesting in the sense that it reveals the experiences of the Kikuyu in the Rift Valley during the Mau Mau struggle. She says that in order not to contaminate other communities with their oathing and violence, every community was segregated in its own detention village. There were villages for Kikuyus, Luo, Kamba, Kalenjins and Kisiis. People met in the white farms during the day and returned to their respective villages for the night. The settlers, including Lord Egerton, the person after whom Egerton University is named (Maurice Egerton, 4th Baron Egerton), were cruel sadists who beat up Africans for strange "crimes" such as looking into a shop patronised by whites. Africans had to address settlers in a special way, using special words that conveyed respect. Africans were barred from owning any property; her father was once punished and fined for possessing a goat! She describes the return, and re-integration, of former detainees, and the challenges of that period. She also tells of how her parents organized themselves into cooperatives and mobilised money that enabled them to buy land from the departing settlers. Unfortunately, people from other communities stayed away from buying land jointly with the Kikuyu as they believed colonial propaganda that the Kikuyu were violence-loving, good-for-nothing oath-takers. No one was given land by the independence government, a policy that disappointed many people, who expected free land after their near-death experiences during the war. Despite all, Mrs Matheri, who worked as a government office administrator or secretary for many years, says Kenya is on the right path and is making incremental progress. #maumau #kenya #Africa #africanhistory #africanliberation #kenyatta
14 окт 2024
