Word: mau
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Before the seven-year Mau Mau scourge was eliminated in 1959, the British colonial government decided that it must counter witchcraft with witchcraft, and devised elaborate de-oathing rites, but they were not always successful. Once, when authorities persuaded tribesmen to abjure their bonds to the Mau Mau by sacrificing a goat, a Mau Mau agent slaughtered two dogs, nullifying the "goat oath" with the more potent magic of the "dog oath...
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...
Magic Rites. Among the superstitious Kikuyu, the British have learned, very little can be accomplished without magic rites. The Mau Mau forced horror-struck natives to violate tribal taboos, and so bound them to the movement by cutting them off from all else. Some of the grisly Mau Mau oath-taking rites called for copulation with sheep, eating the flesh of exhumed corpses or drinking the "Kaberi-chia cocktail," a blend of semen, menstrual blood and sheep's blood...
...Uhuru na ushindi!" (Freedom and victory) roared back the weaving, excited mob of 20,000 arrayed before him in Nairobi's stadium. Jomo ("Burning Spear") Kenyatta had lost none of his magic appeal with the crowds in the decade since he was jailed for leading the bloody Mau Mau rebellion. He also still had plenty of his political acumen, for Burning Spear quickly converted the happy celebration of the tenth anniversary of his arrest into a political rally to further the course of his KANU party in next year's elections...
...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 strap on pistols before going out to the fields...