Thus, as Anderson (4) suggests, there was sure enough an element of racial tension implicit in the Mau Mau tumult but at the same time the war was fought against white power than against white people. It is interesting that only 32 European settlers were killed during the entire Mau Mau rebellion and there were less than 200 casualties among the British police and military during this period. It was African civilians who were the primary targets of the Mau Mau and while much(prenominal) than 1,800 were murdered, hundreds more disappeared. The total number of Mau Mau who were killed was between 12,000 and 20,000 (Anderson 4).
The attacks by the Mau Mau began in the early 1940s as a campaign of blood-red rural action which included labor strikes, burning erect buildings and crops, and maiming livestock. As the 1940s ended, the action of these gorilla rebels had become more organized and focused on frightening settlers into abandoning their farms and on preventing African civilians from siding with the white elites.
It was during 1952 that the conflict
Lonsdale, John. "The Moral Economy of Mau Mau: Wealth, Poverty
Bruce Berman and John Lonsdale, Editors. Unhappy valley:
Shillington (392) states that rural rather than urban Kikuyu were instrumental in the basic movement that comprised the vast majority of Mau Mau activists. This movement developed surface of grievous oppression in the white highlands and was not "as colonial authorities assumed, a movement invented and led by African nationalists in Nairobi, though their ultimate aims were similar and whatever nationalist party members had sworn the Mau Mau oaths" (Shillington 392). Though the British arrested many African nationalist leaders, the struggle did not end and severe government and anti-Kikuyu oppression continued.
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