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Speaker 1: This Day in History Class is a production of I

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Speaker 1: Heart Radio. Hi everyone, I'm Eves and you're listening to

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Speaker 1: This Day in History Class, a podcast where we build

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Speaker 1: the time machine and all you have to do is

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Speaker 1: hop in. Today is October one, nineteen. The day was

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Speaker 1: October twenty one, nineteen fifty six, leader of the Mau

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Speaker 1: Mau Uprising in Kenya, day Dan Kimathi was captured. The

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Speaker 1: Mau Mau Uprising was a conflict in British Kenya between

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Speaker 1: British colonists and the Kenya Land and Freedom Army, also

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Speaker 1: known as the Mau Mau. Britain had been establishing its

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Speaker 1: rule in Kenya since the late nineteenth century as part

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Speaker 1: of the scramble for Africa. Kenya became part of the

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Speaker 1: British Empire in nineteen twenty. As the British began to buy,

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Speaker 1: for control and exploit resources in East Africa, they also

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Speaker 1: attempted to quell resistance from local Africans. Though some locals

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Speaker 1: were initially tolerant of the British, some ethnic groups rebelled

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Speaker 1: against the intrusion and violence of British forces and authorities.

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Speaker 1: In turn, the British met this resistance with violence including executions.

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Speaker 1: On top of the suppression by British forces, Famine and

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Speaker 1: disease were also affecting local populations, and European colonists were

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Speaker 1: seizing and claiming land for themselves. As more Europeans moved

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Speaker 1: into Kenya and indigenous canyons were dispossessed of their land,

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Speaker 1: Africans began forming groups that advocated for their rights, like

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Speaker 1: the Kenyan African Union. There was also a large disparity

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Speaker 1: of wealth between the disenfranchised Kenyons and the Europeans and

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Speaker 1: Indians who lived in and around Nairobi, as well as

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Speaker 1: some rural areas. Relations between colonists and indigenous canyons were hostile,

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Speaker 1: and the oppression that Kenyans faced under British rule fed

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Speaker 1: the spirit of resistance and led to nationalist movements. As

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Speaker 1: discontentment grew, nationalists with radical ideologies separated themselves from Kenyans

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Speaker 1: who were working for constitutional reform. Many of them were Kikuu,

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Speaker 1: an ethnic group and Kenya that was seriously affected by

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Speaker 1: European colonization and land dispossession. In the early nineteen fifties,

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Speaker 1: Kikilu militants, along with Inbo and Meru fighters, carried out

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Speaker 1: attacks on Europeans rated farms and destroyed livestock. They gained

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Speaker 1: support for their anti colonial cause using a campaign of

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Speaker 1: oath taking, often resorting to intimidation and threats. As the

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Speaker 1: movement grew, some branches of the Kenyan African Union became

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Speaker 1: more radical. Still, Europeans and the colonial government made few

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Speaker 1: concessions and continued their oppressive rule. By mid nineteen fifty two,

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Speaker 1: an overwhelming majority of Kikiu adults had taken the mau

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Speaker 1: Mau oath. The origin and meaning of the term maum

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Speaker 1: maw are nebulous, but it broughtly referred to the anti

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Speaker 1: colonial militants in the conflict. The mau Mau went after

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Speaker 1: kiku You who aligned themselves with the colonists, and soon

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Speaker 1: the government realized that the militants were a threat that

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Speaker 1: could not be ignored. In October of nineteen fifty two,

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Speaker 1: just weeks after a kiku U chief who opposed the

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Speaker 1: mau Mau movement was assassinated, a state of emergency was

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Speaker 1: declared in Kenya and British troops were sent in. This

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Speaker 1: marked the start of the Mau Mau uprising. Police rounded

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Speaker 1: up Kikuu who were suspected of being leaders of the

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Speaker 1: Mau Mau uprising, but the Mau Mau continued to organize

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Speaker 1: and kill colonists and their Kikuu supporters. Some people emerged

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Speaker 1: as military commanders, including Wa Rohio Itote and Dadan Kimati.

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Speaker 1: The government responded by evicting Kikuu from land claimed by

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Speaker 1: colonists on a mass scale. It also put suspected Mau

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Speaker 1: Mau actors and concentration camps, where they faced torture and abuse.

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Speaker 1: These actions drove more indigenous Kenyons to join the anti

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Speaker 1: colonial fight. The Mau Mau continued to lead raids and

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Speaker 1: attacks against police and loyalists. Even after British forces dropped

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Speaker 1: bombs on Mau Mau camps and Itote was captured. The

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Speaker 1: rebels continued fighting, but by the end of nineteen fifty five,

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Speaker 1: most Mau Mau fighters had been driven out of the

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Speaker 1: forest and we're basically incapable of organizing any military campaigns.

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Speaker 1: The conflict lasted until nineteen sixty, when the state of

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Speaker 1: emergency was ended, though it effectively was over when ki

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Speaker 1: Mati was captured and put on trial in nineteen fifty six.

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Speaker 1: The true death toll is a subject of debate. The

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Speaker 1: official number of deaths is at eleven thousand Mau Mau

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Speaker 1: and rebels, and only thirty two white colonists along with

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Speaker 1: about twenty six Asians, but other estimates put the death

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Speaker 1: toll at a much higher number, with up to ninety

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Speaker 1: thousand Kenyons executed, tortured or injured, and even more detained.

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Speaker 1: Though the Mau Mau had been defeated and endured thousands

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Speaker 1: of deaths, the conflict encouraged anti colonialism and nationalism in

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Speaker 1: Kenya and inspired a movement for independence from colonial rule.

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Speaker 1: I'm Eve s Jeffcote, and hopefully you know a little

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Speaker 1: more about history today than you did yesterday. If you've

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Speaker 1: seen any good history memes lately, you can send them

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Speaker 1: to us on social media at t d I h

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Speaker 1: C podcast. Our email address is this day at i

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Speaker 1: heart media dot com. Thanks again for listening. We'll see

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