Dispatches from Kenya, Part 2: My Grandfather, The Legacy of the British Empire, & The Mau Mau
It is time to deal with the full reality of the legacy of the British Empire. During my time in Kenya I learnt about the Mau Mau Emergency and the resulting still little known injustices.
I’ve always been a firm believer in the old adage, as Churchill himself once put it, that “those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” I think this risk becomes even more present as older generations with direct memories of past conflicts, such as the Second World War, pass on. It is also relevant for remembering, and properly addressing historical wrongdoings so much of which - including the present day impact of climate change - is wrapped up in the history of colonialism. It is why for the last few years I’ve taken to researching and documenting my own family history.
So it was no surprise that while in Kenya I took it upon myself to try and learn more about my mum’s dad, Edward (Ted) William Grace; the only known member of my family to have ever lived in Kenya.
I never knew my maternal Grandfather, Ted. He died of a heart attack before I was born at a relatively young age. What I do know is that like many young men in immediate post-WWII Britain, he was conscripted to national service in the Army in the early 1950s (compulsory peacetime conscription didn’t end in the UK until 1960). Kenya, being at that stage a colony of the waning British Empire, was where Ted was sent to serve around 1952 for approximately 20 months.
The British in Kenya
As we discovered on our visit, the legacy of the British can be found in many parts of Kenya and is reflected in numerous buildings, culinary delights, and restaurants. Here are just a few examples.
1/ The Muthaiga Country Club. One of my colleagues’ auntie and her friend kindly treated us to lunch here. It is next to one of oldest and most prestigious golf clubs in all of Africa. The country club itself is very old going back to 1913 and has very British vibes complete with gin and tonics, afternoon tea, and even bangers and mash on the menu!
2/ Guinness. Yes, ‘African Guinness’ can be found all over Kenya, and indeed Africa, and (in my view) tastes so much better than the ‘original.’ Although today also a symbol of Irish national identity, its 18th Century founder - Arthur Guinness, was actually a devout unionist firmly against home rule. Arguably, the global trade routes the Empire provided helped make possible the global distribution of this most beloved of stouts. If you’re interested in more history on this, I highly recommend Empire of Booze available both in print and on audible.
3/ Lake Naivasha. We passed through here on the drive to Lake Nakuru. It was home to both British soldiers and tourists who would fly in on planes that would land in the Hippo-dominated lake. The railway from the port city of Mombasa also ran through here on its way to Uganda. We ate at the old La Belle Inn, which dates back to 1922. The waiter gave us a tour of the old colonial hotel and also claimed the late Queen had once visited there. Although I haven’t been able to verify this as yet it still makes for a cool story. The Inn is as old as Kenya’s famous beer, Tusker, and they held a 100th birthday bash there last year.
4/ Indian Restaurants. Friends and colleagues told us Nairobi has some of the best Indian food. They didn’t disappoint as we discovered during our dinner to celebrate Lunar New Year at Open House Indian Restaurant. The colonial rule in both countries helped facilitate the migrations of tens of thousands of Indians from India to Kenya. While not a story without its darker chapters, the number of Indian restaurants throughout the country is testament to this period.
The Mau Mau Emergency 1952-1963
My mum is still in the process of securing Ted’s military records from the British Ministry of Defense so we’ll have to wait a little longer to find out exactly what his prescribed unit would have been up to. Although one thing we do know is that at some point early on Ted contracted malaria and got so ill, allegedly almost dying, that he had to be sent back to the UK. He never returned and upon being discharged pursued his dream of becoming a dairy farmer in Wiltshire, England.
It also possible that during Ted’s brief tour of Kenya he was there at around the same time as Elizabeth II. The then Princess of Wales, famously arrived in Kenya a princess and left, upon the death of her father, a Queen. More broadly however, I was intrigued why Ted - and other young Britons like him - were sent to Kenya in the first place and what the British were up to.
Overall, the broader story makes for a dark chapter in British history, and one that is worth recollecting more in school classrooms. Its also not without controversy even to the present day and thus I apologize if in my writing I have missed out any critical parts.
Going back to World War II, many Kenyans had served in the Allied cause against the the Fascist powers. Upon their return, these same soldiers questioned why their own country could not have its own independence. There were many injustices of colonialism they could point too to bolster their cause. A major factor though was the alleged acts of land grab. Over successive decades, European settlers had been lured to Kenya and arbitrarily given land grants (often through quite duplicitous methods). Now many Kenyans wanted this land back. Some sort to use acts of activism, petition and the courts to pursue their cause. Others believed the British would only be pushed out through armed rebellion.
This armed rebellion, which begun in 1952, would become known (mostly by the British) as the ‘Mau Mau Emergency.’ During our recent visit to the Nairobi National Museum, our guide, Nathan, told us that the term’s meaning has long been disputed. He summed it though as meaning, essentially, that Europeans should leave and return the land. Land rights was very much at the core of their mission. They referred to themselves as The Kenyan Land and Freedom Army.
Much of the fighting involved guerrilla style tactics waged in the Kenyan highlands and caves of central Kenya. Many of the European settlers were not happy about this struggle and the Empire’s armies was called in to restore order. What occurred was a decade of conflict and draconian crackdown.
As is so often the case with Imperial crackdowns, what first assumed to be a simple and quick mission becomes more entrenched. Eventually the result would be nothing less than Kenya’s independence in 1963.
British ‘Reeducation’ Work Camps
At the core of the British response was a so-called “Pipeline” of work camps across the country, especially the central parts of the country around Mt. Kenya. The virtual Museum of British Colonialism has quite an extensive history of this perverse system, including a map of the reported locations, a 3D modeling of what the camps might have looked like, and a history webinar featuring Rhianna Ilube and Meera Somji (scroll down to number 4).
In summary, in their webinar, Rhianna and Meera outline how the Pipeline rotated captured Mau Mau fighters from one camp to another. As they note, “The aim was to break your spirit so much… until you were neutralized, rehabilitated and able to go back into society.” The camps had its own colour code system distinguishing allegedly more entrenched fighters from their seemingly less indoctrinated companions. In total, it is estimated that over this period as many as “150,000 suspected Mau Mau members and sympathisers were detained without trail in about 150 detention camps.”
You can listen to the oral histories on the Museum of British Colonialism website to get a feel of the treatment many of these freedom fighters endured. As one example, one gentleman was continuously beaten until he denounced his desire for freedom.
The Legacy of the Mau Mau, and Empire
It is only in the last decade or so that the history of the Mau Mau has been more comprehensively told, including in Kenya. Eager to move on post-Independence, and aware of the need to keep European settlers onside, the early Kenyan Government initially tried to downplay the importance and sacrifice of Mau Mau fighters. Many veterans also kept their involvement hidden out of fear of recriminations. The Mau Mau was apparently only unbanned as recently as 2003.
Then, in 2009, a group of veterans sued the British Government over alleged acts of torture and detention they endured during the Mau Mau Emergency. The British Government reached a settlement, which included funding the construction of a memorial in Nairobi (it was unfortunately closed for renovations when we tried visiting; also not all veteran groups appreciated the project it seems and it has also been criticised for being silent on the contributions of women to the Mau Mau cause). More should be done however to remember the overall story of this period in British-Kenyan history.
In our history textbooks, we’re taught about the detention camps of Nazi Germany and the gulags of the Soviet Union. Rarely though are we confronted with the full reality of the British Empire. Like Churchill himself, the Empire’s lieutenants, even as it evolved into the Commonwealth, always had an eye to how history would remember it. Departing colonial officials were apparently given orders to burn all documents that portrayed the ugly truth about some of the Empire’s less known ‘crimes.’
Indeed, apologists for the Empire continue to present one sided tropes to this day. The most prevalent of these is that the British brought railways, education, literacy and the English language to its colonies.
There is, to be sure, some truth in these claims. When I asked our Nairobi Museum guide, Nathan, how he felt the British were remembered today he gave quite a positive account. “From my perspective”, he said “they [the British] brought currency, and education. That is the best thing they gave us.” It also does not distract from the ongoing British-Kenyan relationship that exists to this day with Kenya being Britain’s largest trade partner on the continent.
My worry however is that such comments get distorted and used out of context by Empire apologists today, often with a political agenda. More, they may delay a fuller, more deeper reckoning with the past, which is ultimately the only way to move forward as a more inclusive, prosperous society.
As the author Ty Seidule concludes in his book, Robert E Lee and Me: A Southerner's Reckoning with the Myth of the Lost Cause,
Wow, the last words of the Mau Mau James’s interview:
“So now even when you see a white man, there is nothing you feel? James: Not at all. What would I feel?”
Despite losing 3-4 years of his early twenties being locked up and beaten.