Who Deserves to Die? The Moral Logic of Mau Mau Killings in Colonial Kenya, 1952–56
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 8980236 |
|---|---|
| Authors | H Muoki Mbunga (0000-0002-1042-1613, Tufts University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 65 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 432-451 |
| Publication date | 2024-11-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Journal of African History (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0021-8537 • E-ISSN: 1469-5138 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s002185372400046x |
| OpenAlex | W4406328814 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 22 |
This article seeks to explain how Mau Mau combatants selected and killed their civilian targets. The central argument is that Mau Mau members shared a moral logic that informed whom they killed, how, and why they did it. This moral logic was partly based on traditional Kikuyu ethics of violence, which were widely held and traceable to the late nineteenth century. Yet it was also a logic born out of novel, albeit contested, ethical convictions that developed in the context of an asymmetrical anticolonial war in 1950s-Kenya. Using captured guerrilla documents and oral history interviews with Mau Mau veterans, the article analyzes the perceived offenses that civilians committed against Mau Mau, the motives of Mau Mau assailants, and the internal conflicts that arose regarding the killings of some civilians. Ultimately, this article demonstrates that the moral logic of Mau Mau killings was firmly rooted in a dialectical tension between longstanding Kikuyu ethics of violence and the harsh realities of waging an asymmetrical anticolonial war. It also shows that Mau Mau debates over who to kill formed part of a larger process of sacralization, whereby members of the movement reimagined what they deemed sacred, moral, and just measures for conducting the war
Argument (complex analysis · Colonialism · Context (archaeology · Criminology · Dialectic · Political science · Sociology · Theology · African history and culture studies · History · Law · Medicine · Military History and Strategy · Philosophy · World Wars: History, Literature, and Impact
Histories of the Hanged
Mau Mau Memoirs
Ethnic Patriotism and the East African Revival
Defeating Mau Mau, Creating Kenya
Squatters and the Roots of Mau Mau, 1905-63
The Moral Parameters of Violence
The Myth of ‘Mau Mau’
Revolt and Repression in Kenya
The Rooting Out of Mau Mau From the Minds of the Kikuyu Is a Formidable Task’
Mau Mau's Army of Clerks
Mau Mau in Nakuru
Mau Maus of the Mind
Gender and Trade Relations in Central Kenya in the Late Nineteenth Century
Revolutionary Decolonization and the Formation of the Sacred
Economic and Social Origins of Mau Mau 1945-1953
The Moral Economy of the English Crowd in the Eighteenth Century
Land and food, women and power, in nineteenth century Kikuyu
Njama's Supper
| Unique citing works | 2 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 2 |
| Citation span | 2025 - 2026 (2) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |