Mau Mau

Information from a variety of sources (primary, secondary, and personal interviews) is used to create a disturbing and compelling portrait of the 1950s Mau Mau rebellion in Kenya, which is also nominated as the first great African liberation movement. Edgerton, an anthropologist, has at least two purposes in creating this portrait of a rebellion: one is to preserve the memory of those desperate years, 1952-56, and the other is to remind us that the grim and often horrible events they contained were as much (or more) the work of Europeans as of Africans. The work is closely documented--some 800 citations in 8 chapters--and this alone makes the book a valuable addition to any academic library. The literature on Mau Mau is extensive. It ranges in quality from the junk fiction of Robert Ruark and the deliberate coverups of official documents to the thoughtful, closely documented accounts in the Kenya Historical Review (1973-78) and other journals and personal memoirs. It would have been helpful if Edgerton had directly discussed this literature, its range in quality, and its availability as an aid to its further use. As it is, his annotations and evaluations of the literature are scattered throughout the text and notes. At worst this is an inconvenience; at best the book is a splendid addition to African studies. -F. P. Conant, Hunter College, CUNY