Abstract: Facing the end of the colonial state during the Mau Mau crisis in 1950s, Britain sought to reshape native Kenyans. This process was dependent on the construction of various imaginations...Show moreAbstract: Facing the end of the colonial state during the Mau Mau crisis in 1950s, Britain sought to reshape native Kenyans. This process was dependent on the construction of various imaginations of the Mau Mau. The British sought to eliminate the Mau Mau “sickness” by responding in a comprehensive manner to what they saw as the issues which precipitated its development. Politically, religiously, economically, and intellectually, the British tried to control this conclusion to the colonial period and shape the future of Kenya by “rehabilitating” those “infected” by anti-British Mau Mau sentiments and create new citizens in the British image. Missionaries, teachers, economists, agrarians, doctors, anthropologists, and government officials in Kenya would contribute various constructions of the Mau Mau upon which rehabilitation efforts were based. Whitehall tried to reform or rehabilitate Mau Mau in prison work camps and in communities, freeing them from the political and psychological constraints of Mau Mau in a variety of while also creating a new economic and political structure in the colony which would allow those who had been successfully been rehabilitated to stay loyal to the British and maintain a privileged place in this nascent state. This essay will explore the efforts of the British to create new citizens and their efforts to define the Mau Mau upon which these responses to the conflict were based. The British government recognized the threat of Mau Mau and the implication its demands for “land and freedom” could have on their control of the State, thus they placed great emphasis on trying to understand, explain, define, and then reform Mau Mau adherents. For the British, this process was contingent upon the development of a construction of Mau Mau identity, an effort manifest in the research of colonial representatives and in their plans for “rehabilitation”. While Mau Mau was, indeed, a movement amongst ethnic Kenyans, it was also the subject of various colonial constructions. The various manifestations of this ‘movement of the mind’ which Mau Mau represented was as much a product of the minds of colonial officials, subjects, and representatives as it was a construction in the minds of the Kikuyu. These conceptions developed in tandem, informing each other, and shaping the development of the state. ‘Rehabilitation’ was at once, a response to the rebellion and a construction in the minds of colonial officials and one imposed upon the Kikuyu, one which was as much a representation of the colonials’ understanding of the conflict as it was an attempt to construct in Kikuyu minds a vision of the future that was already manifest in the minds of those colonial officials trying to shape it. These different perspectives would exist in the minds of colonials who would attempt to actualize their conception of the phenomenon in their plans for reconstruction. As the conflict progressed and conceptions of the phenomenon of Mau Mau and plans to counter the rebellion developed, the various colonial and Kikuyu constructions of Mau Mau would shape each other.Show less
This paper examines the 1706 Slave Conspiracy in Dutch Mauritius as a case of collective slave resistance and challenges the notion that collective resistance occurs mainly in slave societies where...Show moreThis paper examines the 1706 Slave Conspiracy in Dutch Mauritius as a case of collective slave resistance and challenges the notion that collective resistance occurs mainly in slave societies where there is a common slave culture.Show less
This research analyzes the socioeconomic impact of the implementation of a gas plant in progress in the Nzema region, a territory located in the South-Western Ghana which has around 250,000...Show moreThis research analyzes the socioeconomic impact of the implementation of a gas plant in progress in the Nzema region, a territory located in the South-Western Ghana which has around 250,000 inhabitants. In recent years the oil and gas found in the area have been a significant event in this locality consisting of the State acquisition of part of district territories in the area to launch some energy projects which promises to be revolutionary for the population. Work on the construction of the gas plant has already started in 2011 by means of the Ghana National Gas Company and of the Sinopec, a Chinese company hired by the Ghanaian government. To date, some of the local people in the area have been struggling with the lack of or insufficient compensation for their crops and they are still looking for alternative means of livelihood. Most are demanding corporate social responsibility from the gas companies or at least the opportunity to contribute in a more significant way in the implementation of the project since the main job opportunity in the gas plant is to work as unskilled workers. Directly or indirectly all of the people from surrounding area are strongly affected by the gas plant, and their ways of looking at the project are many and varied.Show less
The South African Border War 1966 – 1989 was a war fought between South Africa, Cuba and Angola. Battles were mainly fought in southern Angola but within South West Africa SWAPO attempted to mount...Show moreThe South African Border War 1966 – 1989 was a war fought between South Africa, Cuba and Angola. Battles were mainly fought in southern Angola but within South West Africa SWAPO attempted to mount an insurgency against South Africa. This saw the introduction of several unique South African unconventional units and managed to win many battles but this did not result in South African political success. This thesis looks at these units in depth and analyses their impact by describing some of the operations in which the Recces, 32 Bn, 44 Parachute Brigade and Koevoet were involved. In the introduction the background of the war is looked at, followed by an introduction to each of the four units in question. The main part of the thesis consists of various South African operations during the war, followed by an analysis and lastly a conclusion is reached regarding the political outcome.Show less
