Revolta do mau mau

Jessica de Morais Lima
American History
05/05/2010
Decades magazine – International news
The Mau Mau revolt A nationalist movement which aim the removal of the British influence in Kenya, Africa. This blood full conflict involved the whole country but mainly the Kikuyu tribe formed the secret society called the Mau Mau, who invaded white neighborhoods and burned houses of Africans who refused to participate in the movement. In 1952 the Kenyan government imposed a curfew in three districts in the outskirt of the white neighborhood called Nairobi where they believed that most of the Mau Mau’s members lived; this was an attempt of stopping the meetings of the Mau Mau. The Senior Chief Waruhi is assassinated after he spoke against the group’s actions against the colonial government. The British government got worried and announced that they were going to send troops to help fight the movement. With the troops in the way the Kenya declares state of emergency and the increasing actions on both sides brought the tension higher. The British declares the Mau Mau group as terrorists after the murder of over forty people in Nairobi. They also arrested the country’s nationalist leader, the president of the Kenya African Union, Jomo Kenyatta for involvement with the group. He was charged for managing the terrorist society and he is sent to a distant district with no communication to keep him away of the rest of Kenya. Over 500 Mau Mau activists and over 70000 suspected memberships were arrested by the British troops. Thirty-four schools in Kikuyu were closed. Death penalty is imposed to anyone related with the movement. More than 13000 involved were brutally killed. So far both sides are losing and nobody knows how many more years of rebellion and increasing deaths. Who is going to win is still undefined.