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41 pages

English

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The Kenya Socialist exists to: Promote socialist ideas, experiences and world outlook; Increase awareness of classes, class contradictions and class struggles in Kenya, both historical and current; Expose the damage done by capitalism and imperialism in Kenya and Africa; Offer solidarity to working class, peasants and other working people and communities in their struggles for equality and justice; Promote internationalism and work in solidarity with people in Africa and around the world in their resistance to imperialism; Make explicit the politics of information and communication as tools of repression and also of resistance in Kenya. This issue, No. 3, is devoted mainly to an extended article by Shiraz Durrani and Kimani Waweru, under the title, Kenya: Repression and Resistance: from Colony to Neo-colony, 1948-1990.

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Political Science

African

World

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Publié par	Vita Books
Date de parution	26 novembre 2021
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9789914992151
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	3 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,1100€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

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The Kenya Socialist is published by Vita Books, Nairobi, Kenya.
Editors: Shiraz Durrani and Kimani Waweru
September 2021

Uni.Way House, Second Floor, University Way
Next to Lilian Towers Hotel
P.O. Box 62501-00200
Nairobi
Kenya
info.vitabkske@gmail.com
http://vitabooks.co.ke

The Kenya Socialist aims to encourage free flow of information, knowledge and discussion which can lead to a better understanding of socialism. It will seek to:
• Promote socialist ideas, experiences and world outlook
• Increase awareness of classes, class contradictions and class struggles in Kenya, both historical and current
• Expose the damage done by capitalism and imperialism in Kenya and Africa
• Offer solidarity to working class, peasants and other working people and communities in their struggles for equality and justice
• Promote internationalism and work in solidarity with people in Africa and around the world in their resistance to imperialism
• Make explicit the politics of information and communication as tools of repression and also of resistance in Kenya

The Kenya Socialist welcomes submission of relevant articles (normally up to 5,000 words) - send to The Editors at info.vitabkske@gmail.com . The submissions will be reviewed and the Editors reserve the right not to publish.
Vita Books or the Editors do not necessary agree with the views of contributors.
The Kenya Socialist is available at: http://vitabooks.co.ke/the-kenya-socialist/

Paper copies are available from African Books Collective (ABC) https://www.africanbookscollective.com/publishers/vita-books

ISBN 978-9914-9921-1-3

Cover Photo Illustration Credit: Inquiries Journal
CONTENTS
EDITORIAL: History as a guide to action
ARTICLES
Shiraz Durrani & Kimani Waweru: Kenya: Repression and Resistance: 1948–1990.
Liberating Minds: Reflections on Repression and Resistance—Mathare Forum, 2019 Report on the Forum.
Until Every One is Free: Podcast. Introduction & Notes from the Producers
Editorial Essay: History as a Guide to Action
The Kenya Socialist (TKS), in common with other organisations and individuals in Kenya and around the world, has faced disruption because of coronavirus and mismanagement by governments under rules of capitalism. However, we are now continuing the publication with two special issues on Repression and Resistance in Kenya. This issue, No. 3, is devoted mainly to an extended article by Shiraz Durrani and Kimani Waweru, under the title, Kenya: Repression and Resistance: from Colony to Neo-colony, 1948–1990. It was first published in the 2nd edition (2021) of The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Imperialism and Anti-Imperialism. Issue no. 4 of The Kenya Socialist will carry illustrations on the same theme.
This article is followed by a brief report on the Mathare Forum on Liberating Minds: Reflections on Repression and Resistance (in Kenya), held at the Mathare Social Justice Centre on October 26, 2019. The final section looks at the Sheng’ Podcast, Until Every One is Free, being podcast in seven episodes.
These articles have a common thread running through them. They all seek to record Kenya’s history based on facts, not on colonial and imperialist propaganda. The need is for the history to be told afresh from the perspective of working people of Kenya, not from that of colonisers, imperialists or the ruling elite. All the three items in this issue of TKS do this admirably.
The article by Durrani and Kimani, as noted above, was first published in The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Imperialism and Anti-Imperialism. It was then felt that not many Kenyans, not only individuals but institutions also, would be able to access the Encyclopedia, which sells for about UK £800—roughly 121,000 Kenya shillings.
The Editors of TKS then decided to reproduce the article in the magazine which is available free of charge at its website. This is still not totally satisfactory, for although mobile usage is available to more people in Kenya than in many other countries in Africa, this is mostly for texting and banking purposes. It does not allow people to access such articles and journals. A number of ways are being explored by Vita Books to overcome this shortcoming, details will be included in future issues of TKS.
But the article has another interesting story to tell. The article provided material for a paper by Shiraz Durrani which was accepted for presentation at the 3rd Biennial Conference of the African Studies Association of Africa held at the United States International University-Africa, Nairobi, Kenya from October 24-26, 2019. That paper was entitled The Other Kenya: Resistance to Colonialism, Capitalism and Imperialism in Kenya, 1945–1985.
However, the author withdrew the paper in protest at the fact that people from Kenya, not affiliated to an institution and without sponsorship, could not attend the Conference. His point was that since his paper was about Kenya, the main audience should also be people of Kenya, especially as this important Conference was being held in Nairobi. He wanted, at least his session, to be a public event, open to all and to be held in a central Nairobi location. When this was not possible, he withdrew from the Conference and decided instead to present the paper to a Kenyan working class audience. This was at the Mathare Social Justice Centre where it was open to all and where the participants were from Mathare - a working class area. This then became the Mathare Forum whose deliberations were videoed and made available to a wider audience. The episode highlighted the contradiction between academics talking to themselves and a public meeting where workers are the main participants. Thus, who is the real audience for information about Africa is an issue that needs to be highlighted. An interesting point at the Forum was that, as the conference was about to start, lights went off, a regular occurrence in Mathare. Undaunted, the background work of the youth ensured that replacement sources of power were provided. Emergency lights in the room were made available and videoing of the session continued. The PowerPoint presentation had to be replaced by showing the slides on the laptop. Handout notes kept ready for such an emergency filled in, to some extent, the lack of the screen presentation.
But it is not only the facts of history that are dealt with in the three articles. It is equally important that these facts become part of common knowledge among people of all ages and in all parts of Kenya. April Zhu and Stoneface (2021) are involved in yet another pioneering project under the title, Until Every One is Free which brings history to people. They discuss these issues in the third item in this issue, but it is instructive to listen to their commentary on history, Kenya and colonialism:
April: You know what this reminds me of. During the Holocaust, Nazi Germany put millions of Jews in concentration camps, where they were made to do hard labor, and executed. But everyone knows this story. Not just Jews themselves, everyone around the world, even us two sitting here in Nairobi.
Stoneface: Yes. That page of the book was not torn out, because those in power wanted to—and could—tell that story. Those who won WWII, they defeated the Germans, so they could freely tell the story of the terrible things that the Germans had done.
April: So then what about Kenya? Why was the Mau Mau page of the book torn out? Why doesn’t every single Kenyan know about the fact that the British tortured and executed and detained thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of Africans?
Stoneface: And, more importantly, the fact that that page was torn out, what does that tell us about those in power in Kenya?
April: Because it’s not even just about the fact that hundreds of thousands of people were detained, screened, tortured, forced to do hard labor... it’s about the fact that this history was erased. The fact that, Stoneface, even though you’re done with school, it wasn’t until a few weeks ago that you learned about the camps.
Stoneface: Yeah, this was not something that we were taught in school.
April: We can call this sanitizing history. Life is messy and complicated. But what gets called “history”—what is archived, what is documented, what is taught in schools—history is always written by whomever is in power. And often they sanitize history. Like pouring Jik on it and just rubbing it until it even burns off the color.
Stoneface: Yesexactly. So much of the history that we’re taught in schools is actually based on a curriculum from the perspective of those in power. We learned a “sanitized” version of Mau Mau, but definitely we didn’t learn about the mass detention camps. But! The thing about sanitized history is that...it has holes.
April: ....what do you mean?
Stoneface: If you go to Kimathi Road in town, you see that statue of Dedan Kimathi. He was one of the Mau Mau Generals, he commanded the fighters in Mt. Kenya.
April: Ah, yes, I’ve seen that statue. He’s carrying an automatic riffle, he has these long dreads. The way he’s put on a high podium, cast in bronze—he looks like a hero.
Stoneface: He is a hero. But, here’s the thing. We too often forget that the government could not have setup these detention camps without the Home Guard.
April: That’s fair. For example, in Algeria, the French were not able to recruit a “Home Guard”-type group of loyal Algerians. What sets apart Kenya’s independence struggle from other countries’ is that in Kenya there was a Home Guard. This prevented Mau Mau from spreading; it meant that Mau Mau had to fight a guerrilla war from the forest.
The podcast was based on another project of Vita Books which saw the publication of a number of books on the history of Kenya. Again, these books are not accessible to majority of Kenyans because of format, language or cost. Nor are they in school, college or university syllabus. How then can this history be taken