Defeating Mau Mau, Creating Kenya: Counterinsurgency, Civil War, and Decolonization

This book details the devastating Mau Mau civil war fought in Kenya during the 1950s and the legacies of that conflict for the post-colonial state. As many Kikuyu fought with the colonial government as loyalists joined the Mau Mau rebellion. Focusing on the role of those loyalists, the book examines the ways in which residents of the country's Central Highlands sought to navigate a path through the bloodshed and uncertainty of civil war. It explores the instrumental use of violence, changes to allegiances, and the ways in which cleavages created by the war informed local politics for decades after the conflict's conclusion. Moreover, the book moves toward a more nuanced understanding of the realities and effects of counterinsurgency warfare. Based on archival research in Kenya and the United Kingdom and insights from literature from across the social sciences, the book reconstructs the dilemmas facing members of society at war with itself and its colonial ruler.

Author: Daniel Branch
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 09/01/2009
Pages: 278
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.85lbs
Size: 8.90h x 6.00w x 0.80d
ISBN: 9780521130905

Review Citation(s):
Chronicle of Higher Education 10/30/2009 pg. 20
Choice 06/01/2010

About the Author
Branch, Daniel: - Daniel Branch is currently an Assistant Professor in African History at the University of Warwick. Previously, he taught at the University of Exeter and was a Fellow of the Macmillan Center for International and Area Studies at Yale University. His articles have appeared in a number of journals, including African Affairs, The Journal of African History, Africa Today, and the Review of African Political Economy. He is currently working on two forthcoming book projects and co-editing (with Nicholas Cheeseman) a volume on Kenyan politics since 1950.

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