David Andersons Histories of the Hanged

SEQ CHAPTER \h \r 1 Atrocities in Kenya : A Review of David Anderson 's

The History of the Hanged (Norton , 2005

Abstract

This is a book review concerning the violence n Kenya in the late 1940s and 1950s . Kenya is relatively unique in the anti-colonial literature because of the Mau Mau movement , a bloody and violent sect that sought to eject the equally bloody British from Kenya . This work is critiqued and praised in turn , ultimately failing because of its lack of comparative treatment . No convincing analysis on the uniqueness of the

br Mau Mau is offered

There are no innocent victims : colonization brutalizes colonizer and colony alike . That is the thesis of this book reduced to one sentence It is rare that anti-colonialism in Africa is done without violence . But some of the worst types of violence were found in the Mau Mau rebellion after World War II in Kenya . This will be a review of one of many recent works on this rebellion , its causes and its effects on Kenya and Africa . This review will be divided into three parts . The first is a general of the anti-colonial rebellion and its causes . The second will be a of the major issues , both theoretical and practical , the book raises , and lastly , by way of conclusion , a general critique of the methods and basic approach of the author

I . The Mau Mau Rebellion : Some Basics

Colonialism in Kenya took on the same coloring that colonialism takes throughout...