Dedan Kimathi on trial : colonial justice and popular memory in Kenya's Mau Mau rebellion / edited by Julie MacArthur ; introductory note by Willy Mutunga ; foreword by Micere Githae Mugo and Ngugi wa Thiong'o.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

MacArthur, Julie, 1982- editor.

Mutunga, Willy, writer of introduction.

Mugo, Micere Githae, writer of foreword.

Ngũgĩ wa Thiongʼo, 1938-2025, writer of foreword.

Series:

Research in international studies. Global and comparative studies series ; no. 17.

Ohio University research in international studies. Global and comparative studies series ; no. 17

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Kimathi, Dedan, 1920-1957--Trials, litigation, etc.

Kimathi, Dedan.

Kimathi, Dedan, 1920-1957.

Mau Mau--History.

Mau Mau.

History.

Kenya--History--Mau Mau Emergency, 1952-1960.

Kenya.

Genre:

History.

Trials, litigation, etc.

Physical Description:

xxiii, 406 pages ; 22 cm.

Place of Publication:

Athens : Ohio University Press, [2017]

Summary:

Dedan Kimathi embodied the ambiguities, colonial fears, and collective imaginations of Kenya's decolonization era. The self-identified field marshal of the Mau Mau rebellion, Kimathi personified many of the contradictions Mau Mau represented: rebel statesman, literate peasant, modern traditionalist. His capture and trial in 1956, and subsequent execution, for many marked the end of the rebellion and turned Kimathi into a martyr. Dedan Kimathi on Trial unearths a piece of the colonial archive long thought lost, hidden, or destroyed. This landmark publication of the entire trial transcript unsettles an already contentious history and prompts fresh examinations of its reverberations in the present. This critical edition also includes provocative contributions from leading Mau Mau scholars on such topics as the nature of colonial justice; the moral arguments over rebellion, nationalism, and the end of empire; and the complexities of memory and memorialization in contemporary Kenya. Book jacket.

Contents:

Introductory note / Hon. Chief Justice Willy Mutunga

Foreword / Ngũgĩ wa Thiongʼo and Micere Githae Mugo

Introduction: The trial of Dedan Kimathi / Julie MacArthur

Primary documents

Trial of Dedan Kimathi

Judgment

Appeal to the Court of appeals for Eastern Africa

Appeal to the Privy Council of the United Kingdom

Interrogation report of Dedan Kimathi

Select letters and exhibits from the trial

Final letter from Dedan Kimathi to Father Marino

Critical essays

Mau Mau on trial : Dedan Kimathi's prosecution and Kenya's colonial justice / David M. Anderson

Mau Mau's debates on trial / John M. Lonsdale

Unfolding of Britain's and Kenya's complex tango : an uneasy revisit to a critical past and its implications / Nicholas Githuku

Dedan Kimathi : the floating signifier and the missing body / Simon Gikandi

Memorialization and Mau Mau : a critical review / Lotte Hughes.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780896803176

0896803171

9780896803169

0896803163

OCLC:

982091679