Mau Mau Uprising

From 1952 to 1960 the Mau Mau rebellion against British colonial rule in Kenya was militarily crushed, yet it accelerated the end of white power.

Overview

Kikuyu land grievances from decades of white settlement and labor controls radicalized into oath-taking and militancy. The state of emergency declared in October 1952 saw Jomo Kenyatta jailed despite his limited connection to the forest fighters. Guerrillas in the Aberdare forest and on Mount Kenya, perhaps fifteen thousand strong under leaders like Dedan Kimathi, hanged in 1957, fought the British army and settler militias. The authorities herded over a million Kikuyu into detention camps and fortified villages where torture, disease, and forced labor killed tens of thousands. Defeat in the field still broke settler political dominance, and Kenya became independent under Kenyatta in 1963. In 2013 Britain expressed regret and paid compensation to surviving detainees.