A counter-insurgency tale
Kitson in Kenya
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2360022 |
|---|---|
| Authors | John Newsinger (Wreake Valley College, Leicestershire) |
| Year | 1990 |
| Volume | 31 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 61-72 |
| Publication date | 1990-04-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Race & Class (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0306-3968 • E-ISSN: 1741-3125 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1177/030639689003100404 |
| OpenAlex | W2073022542 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 1 |
Among the most important and revealing first-hand accounts of modern British counter-insurgency operations is Frank Kitson’s Gangs and Counter-Gangs, a memoir of his experiences during the Mau Mau rebellion in Kenya. According to one recent apologetic study of British colonial wars this century, Kitson’s book ’graphically etches the career of the lone officer in the exotic unknown ’ and ’ bears comparison with the works of T.E. Lawrence, not least for its skill in story-telling’. ’ Certainly, the book is of considerable interest. It is constructed as an adventure story but is also concerned to advocate a particular counter-insurgency technique: the use of counter- or pseudo-gangs. Kitson recounts his own personal battle with darkest Africa at the same time as providing an exposition of the intelligence-gathering and gang-busting methods that he developed there and which he has since continued to advocate, most notoriously in his Low Intensity Operations, an unsuccessful attempt to theorise a British
Insurgency · Political science · Politics · Anthropology: Ethics, History, Culture · Law · Military History and Strategy · Peacebuilding and International Security
| Unique citing works | 2 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0.13 |
| Citation span | 2011 - 2025 (15) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 2 |