Myths of Mau Mau

13/6
Historians Association Conference - Day 2

-Mid morning- The first batch of presentations winds down as we prepare to hear out a just-arrived cadre of Mau Mau veterans. Or so they claim. Dr. Lote Hughes, the fierily spectacular Brit who rented the weekend’s gari for her, Nick, and I, looks at me as they walk in. I read her amused expression, knowing that unless these unsmiling gentlemen fought their own personal Mau Mau campaign around 1972, they ain’t no Mau Mau. For all the myth and controversy surrounding Mau Mau, nobody disputes that such history went down in the 1950s. These wazee need to resoundingly convince us that, despite looking like Kenyatta babies, they are at least 85.
Of course, the validity of their status as Mau Mau veterans may matter considerably less than the agenda they shall present to the association, or other matters scarcely related to historical accuracy providing certain people in high places support such potential promoters of historical farce.. We shall see. We are told these folks want us to help write not only Mau Mau history, but to help us write the history of Kenya at large.

2:00pm – Still winding down the opening batch of presentations… Oh, the repetitions in speaking. I slip in to a hypnotic stupor when someone slowly says, “Let me be brief” (talk for at least half an hour to make an already-made point).

2:15 – The first Mauist speaks. He avoids saying he himself is a veteran but says a more elderly-looking man next to him “will tell you everything you want to know about detention.” He also admits MM veterans are between 80 and 90. I recall not digging detention in middle school.
The man stands to talk, something no one else has done. He says he has government support. Then he says “don’t allow the project to be taken by the government.” Appealing to the association to help the Mau Mau War Veterans Association to write the history of MM, he now reads his own history of Mau Mau.
A professor politely tries to stop him [“we don’t want to exhaust you, just make copies for us”]. Talks louder. Slower. Supreme dullness reigns. Exotic birds, a cool breeze sound outside. A full-length swimming pool lies still. Should I just leave the room right now? No one can do to me, can they?

2:30 – It’s worth staying to hear the historians snicker at the blustery depiction of Mr. Mau Mau’s nemesis, a professor who said Mau Mau “hid” in the forests and ate untraditionally roasted animals (dogs, mbwa choma) to survive.
The chairman of MMVA, who said he fought as a young thing and is 80 now, tells his war detention story. This proves, according to prof Macharia and others, he isn’t really Mau Mau. Rule number one of Mau Mau: don’t talk about Mau Mau. But talk he does. And in truth or fabrication, the stories thrill. The general sentiment seems to be to let the old man keep his true or fabricated dignity by talking but refrain from endorsing his association. As historians, we are inclined to include just as much testimony from folks like the Kikuyu Home Guards, who supported the colonial regime and brutally tortured rebellious Africans to maintain it.