Mau Mau A Pictorial Record

Nairobi, The English National Press, 1953. 1st edition. Pictorial paper covers. Covers slightly worn and soiled. Internally very good. Numerous some unseen photographs of the emergency war in Kenya against the Mau Mau. Rare.

During the early 1950s, resentment grew amongst the Kikuyu tribe against European settlement and their lack of political representation. This was first shown in attacks carried out in the latter half of 1952 by the banned secret society, Mau Mau, against Kikuyu loyal to the government. Strongly paramilitary in outlook, Mau Mau used secret ceremonies to enforce allegiance amongst its members and began a campaign targeting European settlers in their isolated farms. Armed groups of Mau Mau formed forest gangs in the Aberdare and Mount Kenya areas from where they would emerge to carry out attacks against the civil authorities and settlers. These attacks increased and a state of emergency was declared by the Governor Evelyn Baring in October 1952. Leading members of the Mau Mau organisation, including Kenya’s future president Jomo Kenyatta, were detained by the authorities.