British Gazette readers may have heard that some former members of the Kenyan resistance group the Mau Mau are taking legal action against the British government for human rights abuses.
Perhaps a comparison of the respective oaths of the combatants may be instructive:
The oaths of the British servicemen:
“I, (Insert full name), do swear that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, her heirs and successors, according to law. So help me God.”
The oath (according to historian David Lovatt Smith) of the Mau Mau members:
“I promise to burn European crops and kill European cattle; steal firearms; if ordered to kill, will do so; having killed, will extract eyeballs and drink the liquid from them and cut the head off; I will particularly kill Europeans.”
What a delightful bunch!
Speaking the Truth unto the Nation
You have to wonder what drives any man to this state of hatred toward another group. If you torture my family I am going to get pretty nasty I suspect.
My history lessons at school spoke of tens of thousands of Kenyans being executed by the colonial power and over a hundred thousand detained in appalling conditions. I can remember that history lesson as though it were yesterday, it had a stunning affect on a 15 year old lad.
I just wonder how history looked at in another 60 years will be viewed.
We’ll be sued by members of the Gestapo, next.
I cannot, for the life of me, understand why we tolerate this abuse, from terrorists.
Anyone dealing with terrorists, nowadays, should shoot them. Dead men don’t sue.
How was a standardized and well organised army defeated ….???
By Field Marshall Dedan Kimathi and all other associates who led the resistance against the British to victory.
R.I.P
PROUD TO BE KENYAN
Clearly there is wrong on both sides, history is a wonderful example to us and teaches us how to manage ourselves using the past as examples of both good and bad….. God forbid we forget history and the past.
I feel that the clear message we keep getting from history is that greed and the inability to be fair with our luck and gains have been our downfall.
The cause for MauMau rebelion aka Kenya Land and Freedom Army (MauMau is a British creation) was pure hatred and bitterness. The colonial master humiliated the Kenyan man and treated him like a lesser being in his own land. The colonialist greatly underestimated the Kenyan man and erred in particularly not understanding the Kikuyu culture which would help transition change with moderation. Dedan Kimathi endured seeing his fathers and uncles being humiliated and the forced labour, limited mobility in his own country….it was just too much. The tension was building up inside and when he was fully grown the tension found direction and purpose in building an army that would end the humiliation and bring some form of contentment in revenge. Remember the Kikuyu had being politically frustrated because any party he tried to form be it the trade unions for workers of the KAU political party (to express his grievances) was immediately shot down to show how inferior the black man is to the white man. This did not sink in well with especially the Kikuyu.