Syracuse University SURFACE Pan African Studies - Theses College of Arts and Sciences 5-2013 "Thaai thathaiyai Ngai thaai": Narratives of Rituals, Agency, and Resistance in the KLFA (Mau Mau) Struggle for Kenya's Independence Henry Muoki Mbunga Syracuse University Follow this and additional works at: https://surface.syr.edu/panaf_theis Part of the African History Commons, and the African Studies Commons Recommended Citation Mbunga, Henry Muoki, ""Thaai thathaiyai Ngai thaai": Narratives of Rituals, Agency, and Resistance in the KLFA (Mau Mau) Struggle for Kenya's Independence" (2013). Pan African Studies - Theses. 4. https://surface.syr.edu/panaf_theis/4 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the College of Arts and Sciences at SURFACE. It has been accepted for inclusion in Pan African Studies - Theses by an authorized administrator of SURFACE. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Abstract The purpose of this project is to examine the role of rituals in the Mau Mau struggle for Kenya’s independence. Traditionally, research on the Mau Mau has focused on the political and socio-economic aspects of Kenya’s anti-colonial struggle. As a result, the place of spirituality and, in particular, the role of rituals in the Mau Mau struggle has largely been ignored in existing literature. Initially, when KLFA rituals were studied at the height of the Mau Mau struggle, the task was undertaken by colonial anthropologists and psychologists who were often unable to escape the snare of racist and Eurocentric prejudices in their analyses. Subsequent revisionist studies have attempted to be more objective in their analyses, but the focus has mainly been on the elements and details surrounding the actual ceremonies, at the expense of how these rituals impacted individual freedom fighters.