After the end of WWII, the second Labour Government embarked on a program of managed decline for Great Britain. This started an indecent rush to abandon the Empire. Often described as the Mau Mau Rebellion, this saw Kenya engulfed in civil war as the Kikuyu sought to take over at the expense of other tribes and the Asian community – Strongly Recommended.
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NAME: Mau Mau Rebellion, The Emergency in Kenya 1952-1956 FILE: R2536 AUTHOR: Nick Van Der Bul PUBLISHER: Pen & Sword BINDING: hard back PAGES: 250 PRICE: £25.00 GENRE: Non Fiction SUBJECT: Escape from Empire, colonial rebellion, Kenyan Civil War, Obama, National Service, Kikuyu, Indian ex-pats, fertile agriculture, East Africa, German East Africa
ISBN: 1-47386-457-7
IMAGE: B2536.jpg6 BUYNOW: http://tinyurl.com/y7vbwplw LINKS: DESCRIPTION: After the end of WWII, the second Labour Government embarked on a program of managed decline for Great Britain. This started an indecent rush to abandon the Empire. Often described as the Mau Mau Rebellion, this saw Kenya engulfed in civil war as the Kikuyu sought to take over at the expense of other tribes and the Asian community - Strongly Recommended. Great Britain lost its way in 1945 and failed its former colonies. It was a huge opportunity to help colonies to evolve into independent countries within the Commonwealth Community. Unfortunately, the policies of managed decline, that eventually led to absorption of Great Britain into the alien European Community project, meant that destructive forces within many colonies were allowed to develop into civil wars that have continued to bubble on at great cost to their populations. In Africa, the lessons of Malaya were largely forgotten and British troops, mainly National Servicemen, were exposed to danger without any clear exit strategy, or real understanding of the needs of the total populations. Kenya was a combination of British East Africa and German East Africa that came into being at the end of WWI. It was a complex mixture of tribes and races. In the South there was a strong Muslim population that had been there for centuries and was originally active in the slave trade and commerce. The British provided a further influx of foreigners, although in relatively small numbers, and to the befit of agriculture in the colony. As the British moved in farmers, miners, traders and administrators, they also brought in Indians who soon established themselves in niche areas, providing engineers and electricians, traders and administrators. They were particularly active in the development of the railways. This collection of immigrants, old and new, lived separately from the native population that was composed of African tribal groups that were mostly in annual migration, as hunter gatherers and herdsmen. Inevitably there was regular friction between the tribal groupings and a large part of British colonial administration had been taken up with policing the warring tribes. One of the consequences of the Mau Mau emergency was that it shaped the views of the first Kenyan President of the United States, Barack Obama, and may account for his anti-white views and disastrous foreign policies that have created so much conflict at the start of the 21st Century. For the Kenyans themselves, it has seen continuing conflict between the tribes and a racist policy of 'Africanization' that has led to businesses stolen from Kenyans descended from Asian and European immigrants and handed over to cronies of the Government. In the process, Kenya has become less able to feed itself and produce strong exports of agricultural products. It has also seen a significant increase in the Muslim threat and a rise in general crime. On the credit side, the rule of law does continue and the Governments of Kenya have been much less corrupt than some of their neighbouring former colonies. When the Mau Mau emergency began, the violent and secretive Kikuyu sect embarked on a campaign of atrocities against other Kenyan tribes, the White settlers and the Asians. The British forces were rapidly overwhelmed by the scale of the violence and had to be reinforced. It became a vicious civil war that slowed down only on Independence. The author has provided a very clear picture the campaign where the British defended the non-Kikuyu population and worked with it, infiltrating the terror gangs and achieving some success, particularly in winning support from other tribal groupings. Solid research has provided balance and this is an absorbing account of one of the many sad events of the second half of the 20th Century.