Mau Mau Uprising 1952-60 - Anti-British Rebellion in Kenya
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 12 ก.ย. 2024
- Our historical documentary series on the history of the Cold War continues with a video on the Mau Mau uprising in Kenya, which was one of the first anti-colonial rebellions of the Cold War
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#ColdWar #Kenya #UK
Please, don't spare us the gruesome details, they deserve to be taught as well.
Just add a little warning beforehand so those who eat breakfast can skip forward.
Warnings are for the weak.
I agree
I think it's more about demonetization rather than an unwillingness to cover it.
There was a report that the British sodomized Mau Mau prisoners with sand.
I'm taking dinner, and I say thanks Cold War for knowing your audience 😅✌🏻
“Oppress the bell button” 😂
How fitting for this channel! :D
He DID say that!! Freudian slip?
Call me bwana
I'm a Kenyan and this is part of the history I learned in primary school and high school.
My grandparents grew up during colonial rule and were in their teens- early and mid 20s during the Mau Mau Rebellion.
In Kenyan schools, we learned that both the Mau Mau Rebellion and the peaceful constitutional changes that followed it were instrumental in gaining independence. And the acts of both the political party KANU (that under Jomo Kenyatta formed the first independence government) and the leaders of the Mau Mau are a source of pride to my native ethnic group (the Kikuyu) as well as the entire country as a whole. We say that even though the Rebellion failed, it showed the British Empire that Kenya was sick and tired of colonial rule and all its injustices.
(And also it is said that many Mau Mau soldiers were ex-World War II veterans who were denied renumeration and retirement)
@@OxAO I wondered why he was not mentioned in the video. He is by far the most memorable officer and member of the Mau Mau and became a symbol of the Rebellion even after his execution.
@@OxAO I'll need to get back to you there. 😂😂😂
It's been about 3 years since I last studied the history of the road to independence. I need to go through some stuff I wrote back in high school. 😂😂
But I can tell you that given that I see his statue pretty much every time I head to town (Nairobi), he is still revered as a national hero.
Was force necessary to achieve their ends? I would say that it was logical for them to believe so. After all, countries like Mozambique were more successful in their rebellions than Kenya was. Many Mau Mau veterans had seen soldiers of the apparently invincible British Empire suffer and get killed in the World War. They had seen the British Myth shattered and thus they believed that they had a fighting chance.
Additionally, until that point, peaceful demonstrations were often met with deadly force by British police, such as the capture and execution of Harry Thuku in the 1920s and the detention of the famous Kapenguria Six in the 1950s. So men like Dedan Kimathi would have believed that violent means would be more effective at getting the settlers and colonial officers out of Kenya.
How was mozambique more successful in their rebelions than kenya when the war in mozambique only started 10 years after?
@@marechalrommel I realised that my wording may imply the interpretation that the Mozambique fight for independence was proir to the Mau Mau. My apologies. That was not my intent and was just an error in how I worded the paragraph.
@Marcelo Henrique Soares da Silva no fight, no change.
same as west papua, today. now.
No matter the injustices the African has faced, when you meet them they always have a smiling face and good hearted people
Yes and that is the African's undoing too.
@@v.a.993always has been to loving to trusting
We're the original people for a ppl to originate at the cradle of humanity, we were too accepting and it ended up costing everything
Great video! The British were not the only power to commit mass atrocities in Sub-Saharan Africa. In Cameroon, the French were waging an atrocious war against the UPC since 1954. Not many people mention it today. As someone who had come through the French school system, I can confirm sadly no single mention of this brutal uprising appeared in the textbooks. Maybe it is time for France to come to terms with its Françafrique policy.
Not sure what you are watching there are more videos in French about what happened in Cameroon, there is very little exposure about this very covered history of British history under Queen Elizabeth.
Normally you guys are very thorough in your historical research, but as a student of the Mau Mau Uprising I have to say you grossly understated the horrifying war crimes that the Mau Mau committed on their fellow Kikuyu and Kenyans.
It was these actions: the forced oathing, the kidnapping/conscription of unwilling individuals, and of course the mutilating murders (including women and children) and occasional massacres (especially at Lari); that were key components in the Mau Mau never gaining support among Kenyans at large and even for large portions of the Kikuyu people.
Yes, the British committed war crimes. There were gross miscarriages of the justice system throughout the uprising. The concentration camps were compared to Nazi and Soviet camps by contemporaries. And the routine beating and assaulting of suspects in order to get "information" makes a mockery of any regime that claims to be for "law and order" (As the colonial government claimed).
But to basically brush over the influence of the Mau Mau war crimes on the Kenyan peoples to both not support the uprising and how it actively moved many into the colonial camp does this topic, your viewers, and your channel a major disservice.
There were no "good guys" in this conflict, both sides were equally capable of getting bloody and dirty to advance their cause; it's just that the magnitude of British war crimes was larger and thus more easily spotted and (rightfully) condemned.
To anyone interested in the era I would recommend "Histories of the Hanged" by David Anderson. It remains mostly neutral when many books on the topic are decidedly in one camp or the other.
The british did more damage than mau mau
@@eazya1523 I agree, which I feel is reflected in my original post.
Should the video have been equal parts covering the British and Mau Mau war crimes. No.
The British had more instances of guilt and they were the ones who held the reigns of power. But to not mention how the Lari Massacre and the cumulative impact the Mau Mau murders had on turning the public favor towards the colonial government despite it's multitude of issues and heinous crimes is missing a key part of the uprising.
It's one of, if not the, turning point(s) of the conflict. It is just very surprising that they covered it as superficially as they did. To me it would be similar to if in their videos about the Korean War they barely went over the Landings at Inchon, or the Chinese intervention.
Again, I don't disagree with you, I'm just surprised they didn't cover that aspect of the uprising more because the Cold War channel is normally 100% on their game.
@@OutcastWriter31 they did..the video said mau mau killed 2k kenyans
@@eazya1523 8:25-8:39 is the amount of time they spend on crimes the Mau Mau committed. To bring up my previous example, it would be equivalent to spending that same amount of time, 14 seconds, on covering the Chinese intervention in Korea in 1950, which saved the North Korean cause; or how the Battle of Inchon drastically shifted the war in favor of the UN forces. They just very briefly mention one of the biggest factors to why the uprising failed.
Not only that but the comment the video makes about "massacres of loyalist troops" could be interpreted as intentionally painting a false narrative (which I do not think they are doing) as it is agreed upon scholarship by all sides that the overwhelming majority of the people killed by the Mau Mau were civilians, Anderson places the number slightly above 1,800 so a rough percentage would be 85-90% of all Mau Mau killings were on civilians not on pro-government military forces.
The Mau Mau uprising was more than just the colonial government being horrible, terrifying, and brutal. Those adjectives had plenty of application to the Mau Mau side as well; because the truth is that the Kenyan civilians, loyalists and Mau Mau sympathizers alike were caught and suffered between an increasingly paranoid colonial government and a desperate uprising. They wanted a better and freer life and they didn't see the violence of the two sides as an answer to their desires, as can be indicated by the video in 9:20-9:38.
The video even touches on what I was saying in 10:46-10:56 when it mentions that "it was a conflict with no heroes or villains, but a lot of cruelty and an overwhelming amount of injustice." I was expecting them to cover the Mau Mau side of things, considering how crucial it was, more than what they did, I feel that that coverage is important to have a full view of the conflict.
What I am trying to say is that the coverage of the Mau Mau activities, and terror they inspired in the population at large during the uprising (the British inspired more than their share of terror as well), didn't do the topic nor the high standards of the Cold War channel, justice.
Horrible things happens in every Civil war on both sides.
As a Kenyan, I appreciate this excellent video on our struggle against oppression. I look forward to more content on Sub-Saharan Africa's turbulent history during the Cold War. Zimbabwe, Congo and Angola have very compelling stories that could be explored in future videos.
Excellent??? Great video just lacking in facts.
@@briangithinji8901 My opinion stands. Think you can make a better, factual video with a running time of less than 13 minutes? Go ahead.
I wasn't aware the struggle that you people lives to have their the independence. It's remaind the struggle of our neighbors Algeria.
Good to see a Kenyan approval of this video.
Strength to Kenya from Ireland. Your cause is our cause as well. We are all in the same struggle - for the victory of freedom over evil and greed!
@Richard Horrocks Kenyans don't have beef with Britain. The British legacy is prominent. But something that all Kenyans would unite over again and again is dealing with colonizers. Whenever the British government tries something that seems imperialistic they are usually met with ferocity.
When are you going to make a video on de-Stalinization in the Soviet Union? Stalin died in 1953, so it makes sense chronologically to make it now
Soon, the script is ready now
Would like to see a doc on Angola, and the factions involved in the struggle for independence, the Cuban involvement, and Unita’s charismatic leader, the late Jonas Savimbi.
@@TheColdWarTV can you do the markov affair
@@TheColdWarTV did stalin like hentai?
Imagine this. You are from Yorkshire. Very proud of your heritage. A Kenyan comes to your region and declares the whole of Yorkshire " black highlands ". He brings his fellow kenyans and forcibly take the land from you. They banish you to concentrated villages where due to lack of income you are forced to work in the farms they establish. You are not allowed to open any business. You are given an ID Which you must produce at anytime and if you want to move about you require special permission. Now tell me would you just sit back and accept this? Or would you rise up against the oppressor? What would you call such a person? A terrorist or freedom fighter? Now the occupier best chance is to use divide and rule tactics. He rewards loyalists and punishes those who rebel. So if the one who is rising up attacks those who supports the oppressive regime is that wrong? Am a child of those who were dispossessed. My grandmother had bottles pushed up her secret parts by the British soldiers. They took our land and killed many people. This is my history. You can spin it anyway you want. After all , until the lion tells his side of the story, the tale of the hunt will always glorify the hunter. The British did exactly as I described. They called it white highlands and invited other leeches like them to come and settle. Sorry for the language. They tortured and killed alot of people. So there is no moral equivalence here. In our eyes they are the African nazis.
no need to be sorry for the language
They even castrated our freedom fighters. Like how I watch James Bond in his movies, how he gets hit in his private parts by an amorphous heavy object, that's exactly what they did to our freedom fighters: particularly the Kapenguria Six, I remember reading about it, so sad that they did this to us, anyway, we forgive and today we do business with them, and they are our allies, but I hope they acknowledge the mistakes of their government
This!!
Nah, that comparison would be fair if Britain had nothing resembling a coherent nation when the kenyans arrived and the british isles were barely inhabitable by humans due to disease etc and was cut off from the rest of the world before the kenyans arrived and if the kenyan arrival increased their living standards by an astronomical marginz
@@hkl1459 good thing for his comparison then that none of these would apply to the ‘Kenya’ of the late 19th century, isn’t it?
Hi, i was born in Kenya in 1950, grew up during the Mau Mau era, as a child it was very bad for me to grow up in such tense and cruel circumstances, we were farming 7miles out of Nairobi on the way to Kiambu. One of the last murders of two young boys were committed on our farm. They went out with pellet guns to shoot birds, where they came upon a mau mau gang who chopped them up with pangas. However i never knew the true reason behind the mau mau uprising. Now that i do it makes sense to me, who do the British think they are to force their colonial beliefs on people, who have been care free lives for years. Of course it had to back fire. We left in 1961. I miss and love my country, i have never been back. Obviously i don't condone the very cruel murders on the settlers, but it cuts both ways.
That sounds like Thika road today, there was coffee farms and the like all the way to Thika?!
Listen my friend, you didn’t rape, pillage and burn the world either! These murderers stole everything they could get their hands on. Just look at the riches in London today!
Am sure now you are in old age and you vividly remember the African stories of your childhood. Am sure it's come rushing back to you
Long live to the mau mau
@@daviwilliam281 Long Live indeed. And as if my guy said *"It cuts both ways"* given what he described
Can't wait for the episodes on apartheid and federation of Rhodesia Nyasaland
Why? They won't be a honest look at Rhodesia
Wow I am sure he is going to call Mugabe a freedom fighter and Zimbabwe a success story.
@@RangerGSP
" It's the story of Rhodesia,
A land both fair and great,
On the 11th of November an independent state,
It was much against of whishes of certain goverments"...
@@Krishus15 My grandparents left in 71. My mother had moved to the US a few years earlier.
@@Krishus15 RHODESIA WAS SUPERB !!!
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They did this to my grandparent's generation. My father was born before this colonialism ended. Racism and imperialist violence is not that far back
It isn't any far back; it is ongoing.
My grandmother hates white people to this day. She keeps reminding me to Never trust them. That's trauma.
They did nt kill any of my parents
Thanks for this. I am writing my grandmas biography and a big part of her story is the Mau Mau concentration camps. in 1952 she had just been married and in 19554 she and her mother and sis in law were taken to concentration camps with their babies, the youngest being months old. I need to understand what happened from the British side, why there was so much cruelty, loss of land, etc. A once wealthy family lost everything including their homes to be put in slum areas with no land of their own. A decision by a power-hungry that changed the lives of families for generations. This is very nformative!
The British gave us the bible and taught us to close our eyes when we pray. But When we opened our eyes our land was gone.
who's fault this the one who gave the bible or the one who shut the eyes?
@@user-zs8hv1lg2g the one who give bible
they say the sun never set on the British empire because even God doesnt trust the British in the dark
I am a proud Kenyan and my grandfather and granduncle were in Mau Mau🇰🇪✊🏾.
My grandmother used to deliver food to the Mau Mau warrior.
my grandfather was a piper in the british army, he presided over 2000 funerals of keenyans. we were not the enemy, the mau mau were a bunch of pick pockets. they beheaded anyone. your uncle and grandfather were probably petrified.
Absolute monsters
Respect
@@13thcenturyso are your ancestors
I believe those that are oppressing others are the Vilains and those that are fighting for liberation are the heroes.
Amen. When you oppress others you don't get to dictate how they react. They automatically gain the right to resist you in whatever way they can.
RIP to the families who were mutilated but unfortunately war is ugly
People act like this wasn't slavery as recent as the 60s. My dad was alive during this and we are suppised to put it in the past like the effects are not there still today.
I'm Kenyan, but grew up in UK. My granda and his brothers were mau mau. My ex girlfriend was from England and at Christmas dinner with her whole family a few years back, her granda told me his brother was killed by mau mau. He was a British colonial soldier in Kenya. Imagine how awkward that conversation went as he cursed out the mau mau, while I explained how my granda and his brothers were heroes.
Lol. That must have been weird
You should've told her gramps that his brother deserved it
@@joshua7015 is that on the list of ways to ruin Christmas at the dinner table? If they were in tune with my thoughts I would have been kicked out. In hindsight you are correct
@@kylespectra6685 too right
My great uncle served as an officer in the British Army in the later phase of the Mau Mau Rebellion. He was stationed in Kenya after the British pulled out of Malaya in 1957, he fought in the Malayan Emergency before he was moved to Kenya. Before he was in Malaya he served in India and Burma during World War II.
He was a good imperialist. Did anyone ever tell him to 'go on home English soldier, go on home?'
@@seanmccann8368 Probably at some point. But he was very much in favor of a powerful, independent, Britain. He felt Ian Smith was a traitor and that Rhodesia was rightfully British. I'm sure he felt that colonies breaking away was a foolish thing. He hated Japanese but was very respectful of Indians, especially Sikhs, he led a bunch of Sikhs during World War II.
@@walterfielding9079 Do you not think that 'Rhodesia being rightfully British' is almost as ridiculous as 'anywhere in Ireland being as British as Finchley?'
@@seanmccann8368 I don't think my uncle liked the way Ian Smith went about his declaration of independence
@@walterfielding9079 But he felt it was okay for Britain to own other people and places? Hypocrites both.
We mostly don’t get taught about these atrocities at school in the UK. I had to go look for myself when we were studying decolonisation at A-level - got taught we committed war crimes, but they mostly spared the gory details and concentration camps.
My parents and most of their generation still seem to think the Empire was a good thing, because we built railways. They always try to minimise it deny the evils of our past whenever I try to remind them. It’s staggering to me that anyone can even try and justify this shit, and the only answer I can find is that they simply don’t want to feel complicit. It’s easier to look away.
Oliver Keane The empire should be celebrated, it was after all the accomplishment of generations of British people. Don’t hate your national heritage because of differing standards of the days of colonialism and today.
But ask yourself instead was it not better that Britain had the largest empire of the European powers given how other countries treated their colonies? Belgium with their genocide on the Congo or the especially bloody nature of the French or Spanish. Instead Britain built railroads and other infrastructure, made slavery illegal in the 18th century in Britain (although not its colonies via a legal loophole), used the awesome power of the Royal Navy to end the Atlantic slave trade in the 19th century and brought the world today centuries ahead of where it should be through its industrial revolution. That is cause for celebration.
World empires aren't a good thing as they are made though wars and people on the receiving end lose lives and can be subject to injustice like the Bengal famine
Really, a college professor taught you to hate your country. I am shocked,
@@yt_2077_ I suggest you research what Shaka Zulu did under his African Empire.
@@kevinsullivan7831 exactly empires commit atrocities just like like the British empire and it should be taught so that future generations don't make the same mistakes
Kenya: can I be independent
UK: can ya?
god won't do it, religion won't do it, the government won't do it.
you. you'll have to do it.
Well the British did suppress the rebellion but Kenya still attained independence. So it was like:
British: Hell yeah we won the war and suppressed the rebellion
Mau Mau: Shit!
British: Okay you can be independent now
Mau Mau: Really?
British: Yeah man we had it enough.
Mau Mau: Okay then
@@atomictraveller You comment is excellent. Exactly what people in developing countries need to hear. Spot on!
@@el_iron_duke More like
British: huff puff finally done
Kenya: or have you? Until next time...
British: what? No no no God no, here, take your independence. I didn't care anyway
@@mrcapybara3579 funny hearing people who have never struggled in that way say shit like that 😭 we literally live in mostly self sufficient countries so are economically and somewhat politically privileged 😩
A few years ago, Netflix produced a series called the “Crown” about the Windsor Royal family from Princess Elizabeth to her death. The first season was about Elizabeth's II rise to be Queen and her reign coinciding with of the decline of the English colonial Empire. I enjoyed how the series juxtaposed between the trivialities of Royal family and the political conflicts of the Government.
The wedding of the Princess and Prince Philip included a honeymoon in Kenya. In Nairobi the people were lined up for review when Philip inadvertently insulted a tribal king in regards to his crown, Philip replayed, “Nice hat.”
The native King was stoic.
I watched with keen interest... I thought to myself, “Finally they are going to confront the Mau Mau rebellion.”
It was not to be. The series turned soapy and I abandoned it...
It seems that there great periods of unacknowledged history are swept under the rug. The news is that they are still there.
Thank you for your thoughtful series..
Sir, the villains were the British for invading a foreign country and taxing the locals to live on their own land, work for free or for less than deserved, starving locals etc. You can't play it off like it was all good and the Kenyans were happy for the colonial rule. The British should've stayed their behinds in Europe. So the heroes are the Kenyans who fought for their land. Fixed it for ya! You're welcome!
Right? The audacity of them to say there were no heroes. The mau mau were absolutely heroes.
So glad for this episode, war crimes by the "usually good guys" western regimes are not something people tend to keep in memory, thank you, much appreciated.
Canthama we do, but we also remember the atrocities commited by the opposition.
@@neildahlgaard-sigsworth3819 not remember in the right way.
@@bertholdvonzahringen6799 most of them are dead? This is my grandma's time.
From what I see online on various history pages, groups and channels
Westerners do tend to remember these and acknowledge them, they usually either say they are ashamed of it or try to justify it by saying every empire in history did the same
Problem is that when such crimes are discussed they are treated with such almost hatred for the perpetrators which I suppose by hinting at ‘they should have known better’ is (in this instance) actually racist.
Commenting to boost engagement in the TH-cam algorithm. Keep up the good work.
im kenyan and would love to see more content like this my grandfather was part of the mau mau
mau mau was deprived from the word uma which meas get out in Kikuyu if said repeatedly it sounds like maumau
Many interpretations, also Mau Mau meant Swahili for "Mzungu Aende Ulaya, Mwafrika Apate Uhuru"(MAU MAU) which also literally means "White man go to Europe so that the African man can be free"
It was simply a made up name, to strike terror , they used every inhuman type of torture they could dream up , and the poor fools thought once they had been given the oath , they would die a terrible death if they betrayed it
@@robertboyd3863 stfu.stop acting as if they were the villains.im assuming ur white and have no say in the name.
I read an account where a British former soldier said they rounded up people they thought were supporting the Mau Mau, but they torture this one guy so bad that his left eye dangled out of his eye socket and he shortly after died. Some of these crimes were unthinkable. But today British want to act like arbiters of righteousness
I hope you have been home to visit. It's a beautiful place for sure
"arbiters of righteousness" nice wordplay there, how much of a thesaurus did you scavenge to come up with that little phrase?
@@patrickhanley696 I mean his word use is pretty good gets the point across also insulting someone for bad and especially good vocab or grammar is ridiculous
@@patrickhanley696 what does this have to do with british war crimes
That's just one tiny example of what went on. in Kenya. They were doing a wide variety of horrific things on the daily.
If you won't talk about the brutality of the Mau Mau attacks you can't explain the British response
I know right it's like he's justifying the British controlling the country.
If you won't talk about the brutality of European colonialism, you can't explain the Mau Mau response. Get it right.
@@jason4275 Exactly.
Great video guys, keep up
the british used the same practices also in Cyprus during the 1950s. the cypriot revolt (EOKA against the british) will be a nice subject to bring on on one of your videos.
0:55 Context
2:58 Mau Mau Rebellion
5:42 Brutal tactics of the brits
8:40 Aftermath
The mau mau were the real heroes and still are in the kenyan setting......i have never really understood how someone thinks they can come to your land and oppress you........in this new era Africans need to free themselves from mental slavery......change is gonna come
Does anyone remember the Magnum PI episode on the Mau Mau and the PTSD it inflicted on the British soldiers? Ahead of its time I would say.
I remember. It was for Network Television at the time, deep thinking
Great episode as always really are doing a service covering everything that falls in your period in such detail, I was wondering will you guys be discussing the 'troubles' in Northern Ireland in future episodes as the fire in Britain's back garden that burned on throughout this period or would ye consider it to fall outside the scope of this channel because it doesn't conclude during the cold war and depending on your political thinking (though I would not agree with this thinking) could be considered a domestic British concern?
How could it be considered a domestic concern in Britain?
I love this video. The only thing I'd lift up is that contrarary to your closing statement, this conflict did have heroes and villains. The heroes, no doubt, were the men women and children who defended themselves from colonial oppression in their native land. We often choose not to glorify indigenous people who rebel violently, because they used violent means. Truthfully, as your analysis shows, their oppressors were more than willing to exercise violence even in times of "peace". Therefore, we must not strip them of the title of "hero" because they used the only means available to make change, though we have been sensitized to it.
Absolutely, there were heroes. It a common tactic to use the narrative of “there were no heroes” by so called historians when discussing topics like this.
Video guy is right, there were no heroes.
@@Rosa01010101wrong
@@alex4k486 right 🤷♀️
@@Rosa01010101 who were the real villains in Star Wars ?
As someone eating lunch right now I thank you.
Am Kenyan, this piece is not only informative but very educative. Thank you.
@@MOOSEDOWNUNDER exactly. Sounds like more western propaganda
@@Ducedaily so propaganda is informing a citizen of an ill treated nation that our own allies were the ones that caused them harm? Propaganda is meant to persuade by fabrication, embellishment, deflection, and denial. None of that is in this video.
This is what the civilized society calls truth. It's gray and often dirty because the reality is that no nation or individual is purely good or evil.
Thank you for not ruining my lunch with those details. Good job!
The story of the Mau-Mau does answer the question: how could a rebellion be defeated? The methods were not nice but this broadcast (necessarily) glossed over some horrific murders of white women and children - while mentioning the death of black women, etc.
Neither side came out of the fight with reputation unblemished.
` It does mention that the first victim of their campaign was a lady, stabbed to death in the night. This is yet another instance of what I've noticed about the British People: quite capable of the most merciless cruelty, but _only_ if it will not impede their ability to look themselves in the mirror the next morning without hating who they see. MK Ghandi, for one, realized this, and exploited it to brilliant effect.
He missed the punitive expeditions from 1900 till 1912, a scorched earth policy, if you could understand... Such ignorance, please locate Kenya on a map then come revisit
@@kibe3602 This is the Cold War Channel, not the Pre-Great-War Channel. There's a open market there, you should fill it before someone else does!
@@johnd2058 Your ignorance and utter disregard for the all the facts is such a shame if you consider yourself a student of History.
@@johnd2058 got it, whitewasher.
Anyone who says that the U.S. and its allies were the 'good guys' in the Cold War is most likely either selectively remembering history or (as was the case with me for several years) uninformed of what truly occurred. I now realize that there were only 'bad guys' and 'badder guys' with each title belonging to different groups at different times.
More like you don’t have a clue. Soviets were the bad guys and that’s it. 🤡
Replace "Kenyans" with "American colonists" and suddenly a story of people using violent methods of achieve independence from the British becomes worth it.
the same old story again and again.
You are one man with a brain
One man's freedom fighter becomes another man's terrorist. You can still find people in TH-cam comment sections calling the American colonists "terrorists". It's all a matter of perspective
"American colonists" were British citizens with equal rights and privileges
@@cv4809so equal Indeed thaty they became The first ones to fight for Independence....haha
Well from what i remember ,The Mau Mau didnt really fail,and wasnt the only movement ,we tried both peaceful political ways and the military ways......the political won in the end but without the mau mau we would have been discussing independence into the 80 or 90s,what the mau mau did is crank up the pressure in the country for both the political parties and british government to show their hands ,which they did and the political parties started up from grassroots demanding elections,seats in the government which we got,majority representative and even a kenyan for a prime minister and outright independence which we got in 1963!!
It is not a straightforward as it seem remember most countries in Africa had gotten independence before we did and most without any violence the only reason in kenya there was so much violence is because this was a settler economy and the settlers were presuring the british government not to withdraw from kenya for their own interests another country that saw significant violence was Zimbabwe which also had a large settler population
The settler community would have been huge, even after independence. They were coming in droves after the 1940s. The Brits were advertising everywhere (London, Australia, South Africa etc) for people to come to Kenya and "live like royalty". My parents live in a former settler house and farm, where I also grew up. Relatedly, I learned just recently that the Brits were strongly thinking of setting up the state of Israel in Kenya/UG.
Not to be antisemitic, but i always wondered why countries like the US, USSR and UK condemed Germany for the holocaust but continued to do stuff like this to other cultures...or how not many people know about these atrocities.
Joshua Condell That is completely incorrect. The Belgian Congo ALONE dwarfs anything the Nazi’s accomplished in terms of numbers of victims.
By that logic, the Armanian genocide, the Ukraine starvations, ALL of the colonial power crimes that happend in Africa, South Asia, India before and after WWII are ok bceause le nazi bad
Ye man. This is the first time I'm hearing about this (one day just randomly decided to research africa's decolonisation as a whole) and I'm pretty fucking grossed out, though not that shocked, that in my whole education this was never once mentioned while the Holocaust was talked about school-wide every half a year as a "never again". If fifteen years is a never then sure, never again.
Even here in kenya we are constantly quoting churchill even if he was prime minister during this period and gave most of the instruction no one told us about this we are learning it now
It’s an unfortunate fact that the allies didn’t fight in ww2 for moral reasons, not to say that the average person wasn’t disgusted by the things done in Germany when it became public, but that the ethics of it really wasn’t a concern for the us uk or Soviet government the us and ussr only got involved when they were attacked directly, the uk only got involved when it became clear Germany was looking to conquer all of Europe. The us provided supplies to the Soviets and Brit’s before Pearl Harbor but that was just keeping their end of the alliance. A good example of this is how The us and uk Air Force knew about specific rail road tracks taking Jews to concentration camps had the ability to destroy said tracks potentially saving countless lives and just didn’t, they didn’t deem it important enough.
You completely glossed over all the horrific things the Mau Mau did to both the British and their fellow Kenyans
What justification is there for the British to impose their will on this region? It is little different then what Japan did to Korea. Things like this should never happen it is a sad testament that might makes right.
@@kikufutaba1194 that's not the point he's making at all, so that argument doesn't work here
@@theredhunter4997 Yes I think I missed his point also. I will apologize and thank you for the clarification. My English is not as good as it should be.
You completely glossed off over all the horrific things the French resistance did to both the Nazi and there fellow French people. Why are you choosing to side with occupiers and those who had concentration camps?
Abolishing Slavery there
My grandfather fought in this conflict.
Are you Obama?
Have any memorabilia?
He seems to have a Western name, I'm guessing he's a descendant of the colonisers.
Both my grand fathers were thrown into detention camps because they were young influential Kikuyu men.
My mom's Dad was a long distance trader with links all over Nyeri. My dad's old man was a telex exchange operator for the home office in Nairobi.
The worst thing about it is the government that came in didn't do anything for them. They had to find a way to pick themselves up after being incarcerated for so many years yet still finding ways to leak Intel to the MauMau......
Reserves,
A nice British word for concentration camps......
The same thing happened to the South Africa Boers.
I know Britain has been a U.S. allie for many years(due to President Woodrow Wilson). That does not change the fact.
Nor does nice words, change history.
Knut Der Große but it helps people sleep at night.
We British only find the dark stuff if we go looking for it.
Probably learned it from the Americans
@@Kanbei11 No, the British have come up with some pretty unsavoury stuff over the centuries, concentration camps along them (Boer war). The US borrowed the same ideas for Vietnam.
The British empire so heavily influenced the world from economics to war, that it's hard to escape their influence. The Americans are just the latest in a long line of superpowers imposing their will and co-opting tactics from the past powers when it suits them.
The United States also had concentration camps
If Britain had been allies with America since Wilson (WWI) then explain war plan red, Suez, Falklands. Hardly allies all the time.
Kenyans were the Heroes,the UK were the villians.simple
Like The Vietnamese were the heroes and the Americans are the Villains
A great book to read on this, 'British Gulags, The brutal end to British rule in East Africa' by Caroline Elkins
But only if you also read all the review articles and subsequent demographic analysis critiquing it…
A book known to be absolutely full of lies.
@@joshwenn989 your grandfather got some land for free down here huh...
@@nickelmouse451 critics in the UK maybe...same ones lying about the madness in the occupied lands of Palestine and it's cause.
Think there's more truths in that book than lies (if any)
Great book
My cat loves the mau mau she always cheers for them
I’m a big fan of your channel! I’m wondering about the back drops you all use. Is that stuff in the room with you or is it green screen? I can’t tell. It’s kinda making me crazy! Just curious.
Was there ever any evidence of Soviet involvement with the Mau Mau leadership?
Was there evidence of Nazi involvement with the British giving advice on camps
@@HYDRAdude Hitler: "Hmm I wonder if we could improve it".
*Since it was a student movement, it would make sense that they would reach out to anti-colonial groups and Countries Russia being #1 at Anti west colonialism, They may have supplied weapons and training.*
@@jason4275 Student movement??? Which students were they?? They were the remnants of the men who fought for the British empire in the 2nd world war in Asia. Spare us your democratic prejudice
@@briangithinji8901 in the End the rebels won got what they wanted and the British power was force out.
talk about the bush war and the border war please
Racist spotted
@@bernard8793 what he said to make you think he is racist?
The Rhodesian bush war and angolan civil war are(if thought well) extreeeeeeeeeeemly affacinating
Dr death and his crew of hooligans. Apartheid South africa lost the war, communists won.
@@bernard8793 The so called racists were the good guys in that war
@@fanelemabaso2514 No the Commies didn’t win that, liar. South Africa gave up Apartheid. Meanwhile, commies lost the Bameleke war
Will you do for EOKA (55-59)in Cyprus?
Idi Aimin served in the East Africa Rifles during this time
How many Kenyans were straight out murdered by British soldiers?
"I want you to know that this was a conflict with no heroes and no villain". How can you even say that. What were the British doing there in the first place ? How did they end up with the land and resources, surely not by peaceful means.
Historians easily and loudly blare out their racial biases when recounting colonialism lol. No heroes wtf ?
The Cold War, when exactly are you gonna make a video on Argentina under Juan Peron?
@ 10:50 You said, "This is a story with no heroes and no villains?" Wow! I must've not heard this story correctly.
They study our history to just to rewrite it for their own comfort
I wish that I could put myself in the mindset of the Europeans who felt that it was acceptable to treat indigenous people this way. You’d think that the tenants of Christianity would have tempered their animalistic behavior, apparently not. Was life still so rough at the time, that it was still a matter of extreme selfishness?
Same thought occurred to me and how the Irish in Ireland 'the land of saints & scholars' were treated by their fellow Christians. Being white was no more advantage than being black when it came to colonisation, enslavement, cruelty & brutalisation including starvation & land-theft. But ALL those people who were guilty then are dead & gone. How all of us alive in this day & age treat each other is what is relevant now. Colonisers, invaders & oppressors cannot be overlooked or ignored now - because people the world over now do know better.
Shame on England
My great grandpa served in the King's African Rifles and his description of the Mau Mau rebellion gave us the picture of a Kenyan civil war rather than a fight for independence.
See those days the idea of Kenyan nationalism wasn't like today and was mostly in Nairobi and central Kenya for him in Trans-Nzoia district he wasn't really into Kenyan nationalism.
He believed the colonial government would have given us the independence without that rebellion although I don't agree with him on this but i can understand his logic as Uganda, Sudan, Tanzania all were given independence before Kenya without loosing 100 thousand people.
I should also say that the Mau Mau rebels also did some messed up stuff especially in their ways of getting more fighters and supplies the conflict was very complex we thank God it didn't end up with a other conflict like that again
Well done look at this often overlooked post-colonial conflict. I hope to see a similar video on the Congo soon.
They are doing so well! Average monthly wage is $76.00 U.S. dollars per month, corrupt government, human rights abuses!
As an Indian, I feel for my Kenyan brother and sisters who had to go through this gruesome ordeal. History is truly written by the winners of war and the ones that control the world. This is no less than nazi camps.
1 million were killed in Auschwitz, a bit of a hyperbole to say it was no worse
@@billyosullivan3192 brits are no different from nazi
I just read the book Dreams in a Time of War: a childhood memoir, what a great book about Kenya history, greetings from Brazil and shame on you England.
I ain’t taking sides but a Brazilian really shouldn’t lecture anyone on morals of colonialism 😬
@@stuarttimocin7929 How so? It was your kinfolk (other Europeans) wreaking havoc across the planet.
Shame on England
"So uncivilized..."
*proceeds to throw the blaster away*
*the brits, that is
To say there were no villains is absolute puerile nonsense.
VERY well done! Thank you!
my knowledge on the revolt comes from antidotes from people who where missionaries there at the time. There little to nothing said in world history classes that I took in high school which was in the seventies. Thanks for your explanation of the issue. On a second note I notice that your back round changes throughout the episode. Would you do an episode that explains some of the items you use & their significance to the series?
This makes me ashamed to be British. I. Atrocities such as this are well documented, but not taught in the UK. Through this, we are not only denying the victims of these crimes justice, but are (to take an ironic stance) "doomed to repeat it". This is no excuse for ignorance in the UK, however. We must still educate ourselves.
They aren't taught? They were taught to me?!
Shame on England
Hmm, I'm happy my beloved Tanzania didn't go through anything as bad as that. Tanganyika became independent in 1961 and united with Zanzibar in January 1964 to become Tanzania. Thus the Mau-Mau had little to do with that. And I would not be surprised if Kenya had become independent, just as Tanganyika, without the Mau-Mau.
So what makes you think it would not have gone Zimbabwe way? In Tanzania the white population was very few as compared to Kenya. Mau mau rebellion showed these people that the status quo was not viable
@@jeseitotiano8105 Yes, I totally agree with you. It could have happened - if Tanzania had the same system of laws as Kenya. I don't know Kenya that well, but I think a big difference from Tanzania is that in TZ the old rules for land ownership were kept intact, while in Kenya it was possible to buy land, first by the British, later by mainly the Kikuyo. I wonder if some twist - like more reasonable and respectful laws and rules in Kenya following the old traditional African laws (like those we have in TZ) - could have made the whole independence process more peaceful. And of course, intermarriage is a key too. I believe many whites in TZ - like me - have married Tanzanians. The Indians (Wahindi) were kicked out of Uganda because they lived in their own tight-knit communities without intermarriage. We see the same in TZ too now with Indians - and it might end badly later.
Tanzanian and uganda land was not grabbed by the British as happened to kikuyu land in Kenya.Pliz kikuyu are the Jews of Africa and we cant be colonized
@@fredmidtgaard5487 Tanzania then and now has no white settlers,that's why they still speak swahili as kenyans speak English
@@ezekielmburu3418 Tanzania always retained its old law - the laws that Kenya lost. I strongly believe that has been a major factor stabilizing Tanzania. There are other aspects as e.g. we have 144 tribes and none are very big. A problem in Kenya has been that the very few big tribes fight each other. Thats not the case in Tanzania.
I am proud that my grandpa who was in his late teens back then, worked in supplying intelligence to the Mau Mau. Be glad that The Cold War spared you the gruesome details, I myself cant stomach some of the details of British colonial barbarity when my grandpa decides to share what he witnessed.
PS: Surprised that the Mau Mau leader, Field Marshal Dedan Kimathi didn't get a shout out in this video.
bump
the reality, malice of the invader
I was also surprised that Dedan Kimathi wasn't mentioned at all.
Dedan Kimathi, the orginal Dread Lock Warrior, doesn't need a shout out from a video. He has the respect and admiration of his Kenyan people, and a statue for all to see. Africa Forever.
Thought I would revisit this video on the death of the SYMBOL of Colonialism. Nothing is complicated here. the Mau Mau did their best to resist this atrocity and to every last one of them may their blood be a strength for future generations
So many lives brought to an end and so much torture inflicted on innocent people all because of British GREED, yet the British go on and on about Hitler being EVIL while their own evil doing is covered up.
Facts, no complexities here. The Mau Mau was fighting against a sadistic colonizer. They were the hero’s even though they may have done some bad deeds
Very informative. And yes, I know it glosses over some important details and leaves out some terrible things. It is still informative, if not perfect.
"no heroes and no villains"
doubt that very much. plenty of villains there and heroes too.
"I want you to know that this was a conflict with no heroes and no villains"....excuse you. But i must correct you and state that this was a rebellion of my people that opposed the colonial powers that oppressed us Kenyans. A colonial power that tried to wipe our culture and history, and a rebellion that actually resulted in the death of over 20.000 Mau Mau soldiers and Kenyan civilians and roughly 32 settlers and 200 British police officers
Maumau are the true fighters of freedom in my motherland..dedan kimathi ought to be the first presidend of +254...they were worriors,legends..we as kenyans owe them alot...#maumauforever
As an Indian, I fully support the right of the Kenyan people to self rule. We all know the horrors of being under British control
When a regiment of kings African refiles from Uganda was deployed to fight in Kenya, the British identified one soldier by the name Idi Amin who was very effective in fighting the rebels. He became one of the first officers in Ugandan army and the rest is history. An Act of violence just spreads more violence,
I'm from kandara feeling proud and respect our great grandfathers for freedom that we have I'm kikuyu also "Thai thathaya ngai" means God is Great
Thayu
Thank you for this. Here in Kenya , The MauMau are Heroes. Whatever cruelty the brits handed down, they never backed down until they left 🇰🇪
“No heroes no villains”... pretty sure if your side is building concentration camps then you are probably the villain...
Too simplistic.
Calling British motivations 'white supremacist' is shallow & inaccurate. To find the real motivations you have to follow the money trail. What was the economic situation? Which individuals controlled it?
What was the Mau Mau's ideology? Were they supported by foreigners such as communists?
Let's get deeper.
I agree. It seems almost... One sided?
But it is White Supremacy though. Regardless of motive. It sure was not a society of equals.
Acknowledging white supremacy almost impossible lol you point to it an no one wants to look. From sea to shining sea is white supremacy at its best. 🗽
Of course
colonial motivations were routed in White Supremacy. WS is an ideology that is used to justify pillaging and murder. What was the color of the Jesus they taught Kenyans to worship?
@@otsuspyre1841
Jesus was a Jew, which means mixed race.
Your example really shows you know little on this topic.
Of course this video decides not to include the brutal and relevant details of Mau Mau attacks on civilians, but will call British Courts biased. Gotta love that
Eh it's even, he didn't mention the homo forms of torture the British did or the bounties that those people put on humans for quotas or the weird obsession they had for the kikkuyu mens penis and testicles. And to end it of your ilk said there were no heroes . Lol he gave y'all out and you couldn't even pay attention to see it
Kenya must have been very valuable to the British government.
Vaughn Edwards still is, they have a military outpost in Kenya's heartland, its hard to get over Kenya once you get here.
They used the colony as a package for vets and the wild at heart. Check what the nutjobs were actually upto in Kenya, they were cowboys.
Why do they always pick on Germans? What the British did around the world was horrendous and did so much damage.
History is written by the victor
My grandparents didn't like to talk about the torture they went through in those concentrations camps. My grandma was particularly sensitive about the topic. You could tell she was struggling with PTST.
Atrocities committed by the mau mau are well documented but those committed by the British are understated. There are mass graves in central Kenya. Some have been built on buy colonial puppets as if to insult the memory of the fallen. Still our ancestors linger.
This conflict must have been horrible in order for the host to avoid talking about some of it. Wow. Glad Britain n Kenya are on good terms now. My compliments to those who made this video a reality.
You should read of the inhuman things they did, actually both sides were evil, but nothing compares to the evil of the Mau Mau
Shame on England
Colonialism is always the same with some differences, like french colonialization in North Africa.
Cold you do the Algerian War?
That was brutal
Britain 1945: Germany, what you did with those minorities was a crime against humanity. (talking about the concentration camps, not the extermination camps)
Britain in 1956: Put Kenyians in concentration camps
Germany : Wait what?
It was NOT the first time the British had done that - they INVENTED concentration camps when they did the same thing in the Boer war 1898-1902, and just like Kenya in 1952-60, many thousands died in the camps. Same old same old.
@@peterdebaan6345 Dude.. product of the time unfortunately.
Why does that helmet in the background keep moving through out the video?
its becoming sentient. its learning.
Name one EX colony that is better off today in africa.
You say that like having the British was better. Both are bad. That's what happens when you live under a repressive regime
Literally the most of the reason for the current state of affairs in Africa was and Is colonization! You don’t get to kneecap entire peoples, then claim to have nothing to do with the modern problems facing the continent!
@@charlesburton1001 So you are saying after 50+ yrs after colonial rule the countries have had a chance to even TRY to pull themselves out of the situation? So, it has nothing to do with the cultural of corruption, nepotism, tribal violence, and political oppression? See, I lived in Africa for 13 yrs, Kenya. What I saw everyday was not the USA, EU, RUSSIA, or China putting the average person down, it was the list of things above that is crushing Kenyans. When the police pull you over and threaten to beat you down for a few dollars....that's the kneecap problem. When we read that Kenya gets a grant, loan or a promise for a new highway, train, school, hospital....it's crap. We know the money goes straight to corruption. You need to enlighten yourself before you tell Kenyans what the problem is.
Namibia, Tunisia, Seychelles, Senegal, Ghana and Mauritius. Over-generalization is not a good thing to do.
Edit: Ethiopia as a colony was a mistake of my part, I'm sorry.
@@Ne0mega Oops that's right, my bad. But however it's still a good exemple of an african country doing well. I'll add Ghana on my list to compensate.
"This was a conflict with no heros and no villains?" WTF are you talking about?
4:48 WRONG! Wrong! WRONG!
You spare us the gruesome details just because a few people are eating while viewing this? So the majority have to suffer for the sake of the few? .... History wouldn't be history if all the details were about how everything was dandy and lavender. We 're fascinated by history because we learn about _the things people used to do_ that would be make our lower jaws drop today. And you just deprived us of that action, because you assumed _some persons_ might be eating? Since when did telling the history of war and brutality have to be censored? How do we learn to NOT let conflict get to that stage anymore, of we don't know how bad it used to get out of hand?
Please don't do this again. The least you can do is make a disclaimer or spoiler alert at the beginning. But, ALWAYS give us the details; that's what we subscribed for.
The atomic bombing of Japan wouldn't be interesting to learn about if the gruesome details were covered up by those who witnessed it. Get it?
@@OxAO Yeah all that too. Who wants to listen to a channel about what happened in Nanjing, or Nazi or Ustashe concentration camps, about Vlad the Impaler, where the narrator refuses to tell what the big deal about these people or the event was, because a few people were eating?
They're probably more concerned about demonetisation and having strikes against the channel. Want to know more about the Mau Mau Uprising? Buy a book.
@@Calum_S Only the first part of your explanation made sense.
Thanks, I'll divert my financial support for this channel to instead buy all the books written about this one event that occurred during the Cold War years; seems like the most efficient way to allocate a scarce resource for alternative uses.
@@OxAO Yeah it's just this current generation of snowflakes is why everything is censored - can't even talk about _"Jack and Jill went up the hill"_ and what actually happened to Jack that made him start rolling down the hill.
... And then we wonder why people who have never been exposed to the reality of tyrannical law enforcement, do not value their freedom and keep voting for policies that tighten noose on their enslavement by ruling authorities.
@@oslonorway547 if you are so interested in those information you can find it yourself, the host is not obligated to present EVERYTHING out in a short video
Thank you for doing a video about Kenya.
Interesting video, but I dont see how it's related to the cold war
They never wiped out the mau mau in four years. Many still live on today. Don't spare the gruesome details , ,, they castrated the rapist and put them on display for the rest to watch,, beheaded and made sure they created terror,, to the white settlers who had stolen their ancestral land and made them squatters on their own land ,,, The settlers slowly started to leave because they were scared.
Also known as internment camps. Also the death penalty wasn't abolished in the UK and the Empire (excluding those portions under the Statute of Westminster) until much later.
The death penalty wasn't abolished in the USSR under Stalin but that doesn't make his purges and killings any less unjust.
Of course it was influential in progress. What a ridiculous question