Unwrapping the Mau Mau oath. [THREAD]

The Mau Mau oath has remained a controversial exercise in the history of the movement. While the supporters of the colonial government dismissed it as “a regression to barbarism”, it has also been seen as the most unifying factor in the movement.

The recruitment of thousands of people into the Mau Mau movement from 1951 required a code of ethics to bind the groups together and keep the troops from leaking information to the intelligence system.

Taking the Mau Mau oath of secrecy became the spine of the movement and all recruits were required to take an oath to be considered full members of the liberation struggle. People who had not taken the oath were treated as outsiders and labelled thuya (flea).

And because Mau Mau members lived in the community, they devised the word as coded language identifying non-members. With their coded language, the Mau Mau supporters controlled the nature of discussion with the rest of the community.

Every Mau Mau veteran has a different story of how they joined the group – but the most common thread is that they first took the oath. But was it voluntary? Some of the veterans say they were tricked into taking the oath.

In his autobiography, General Kamwana narrates how his close friend called Kamau tricked him into taking the oath. He writes that Kamau led him into a strange room with unknown people that administered the Mau Mau oath and he was consequently recruited him into the group.

However, majority of the Mau Mau fighters say they willingly took the oath. There were various types of oaths. The oath of unity was the first. It was open to all people, including children recruited as spies. Done secretly, the oath process was not meant for the faint hearted.

In his book, Mau Mau from Within: Autobiography and Analysis of Kenya’s Peasant Revolt, Karari Njama paints a horrific picture of the oath taking process. He says he took the oath in a group of other recruits bound together “by goats’ small intestines on our shoulders and feet."

"Another person then sprayed us with some beer from his mouth as a blessing at the same time throwing a mixture of the finger millet and other cereals on us.”

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