Word: kikuyu
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...sparkling meadow at the edge of Kenya's Elburgon Forest, a husky African district officer named Eliud Mahihu asked one of the 200 assembled Kikuyu tribesmen to close his eyes, then led him through the crowd with a broom handle. "He is like a blind man because he has shut his eyes," shouted Mahihu. "If you have taken an oath with the Land Freedom Army, you have shut your eyes too!" By sundown, 130 men and women had stepped forward to renounce their membership in the shadowy army. Suspected members who held back faced arrest and imprisonment...
Such "de-oathing" ceremonies are the British government's answer to the L.F.A., which since its first appearance 18 months ago has enrolled thousands of land-hungry Kikuyu tribesmen as members and threatened to plunge Kenya into a fresh round of Mau Mau-style terror. What gives the campaign a sense of urgency is the timetable of independence. Within a year Kenya may be on its own, and if the L.F.A.'s black terrorists make good their pledge to seize the white settlers' land, the country could find itself in the same shape the Congo...
...jail and rehabilitated, but is also the hottest prospect to be Kenya's first ruler when the colony becomes a nation, possibly within a year. So far, the electioneering has been fairly moderate, but trouble is threatened by something called the Land Freedom Army, a mysterious group of Kikuyu tribesmen with terrorist aims, who have gathered in the forests to revive the hideous Mau Mau oathing ceremonies over carcasses of strangled cats. Like the Mau Mau, they have begun slipping onto white farmers' property by night to maim cattle and terrorize the inhabitants. Once again, Rift Valley farmers...
...fact, the constitution proposes substantial concessions to Ngala's minority KADU party. By contrast with KANU, which is overwhelmingly backed by Kenya's six most powerful tribes-notably the powerful Kikuyu-KADU seeks support from the Masai, Baluhya and other tribes that are numerically smaller but occupy far more land than KANU'S tribes. Fearful of a massive land grab by KANU supporters, many of whom devoutly believe Kenyatta's pledge that there will be land or jobs for all, Ronald Ngala demanded-and got-a measure of decentralization giving local control over African land rights...
Each plan reflects the fears of either party. KANU's strength comes overwhelmingly from Kenya's three most powerful tribes: the Kikuyu (Kenyatta's kin), Luo and Kamba, who represent nearly half of Kenya's entire African population...