This is a study of the genesis, evolution, adaptation and subordination of the Kikuyu squatter labourers, who comprised the majority of resident labourers on settler plantations and estates in the Rift Valley Province of the White Highlands. The story of the squatter presence in the White Highlands is essentially the story of the conflicts and contradictions that existed between two agrarian systems, the settler plantation economy and the squatter peasant option. Initially, the latter developed into a viable but much resented sub-system which operated within and, to some extent, in competition with settler agriculture. This study is largely concerned with the dynamics of the squatter presence in the White Highlands and with the initiative, self-assertion and resilience with which they faced their subordinate position as labourers. In their response to the machinations of the colonial system, the squatters were neither passive nor malleable but, on the contrary, actively resisted coercion and subordination as they struggled to carve out a living for themselves and their families….
It is a firm conviction of this study that Kikuyu squatters played a crucial role in the initial build-up of the events that led to the outbreak of the Mau Mau war.
—from the introduction

Squatters & the Roots of Mau Mau: 1905-63 (Eastern African Studies)

Literature & Fiction

Kanogo, Tabitha

World Literature

Ohio University Press

African Womanhood in Colonial Kenya, 1900–1950: 1900-1950 (Eastern African Studies)

"This is the most interesting general Kenyan social history that I have had the pleasure to read for many years. It fills a large gap in the colonial history of Kenyan women as they negotiated changes in the most domestic areas of their experience. Within a broad analysis of colonial opportunities for physical, social and educational mobility, Kanogo shows how African and British male authorities tried, with uncertain opinions and from different perspectives, to control female initiatives, and how, to varying degrees, women managed to achieve increasing measures of control over their own lives."—John Lonsdale, Trinity College, Cambridge

History

Africa

"This is the most interesting general Kenyan social history that I have had the pleasure to read for many years. It fills a large gap in the colonial history of Kenyan women as they negotiated changes in the most domestic areas of their experience. Within a broad analysis of colonial opportunities for physical, social and educational mobility, Kanogo shows how African and British male authorities tried, with uncertain opinions and from different perspectives, to control female initiatives, and how, to varying degrees, women managed to achieve increasing measures of control over their own lives."—John Lonsdale, Trinity College, Cambridge

<div> Wangari Muta Maathai is one of Africa's most celebrated female activists. Originally trained as a scientist in Kenya and abroad, Professor Maathai returned to her home country of Kenya with a renewed political consciousness. There, she began her long career as an activist, campaigning for environmental and social justice while speaking out against government corruption. In 2004, Maathai was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her leadership of the Green Belt Movement, a conservation effort that resulted in the restoration of African forests decimated during the colonial era. In this biography, Tabitha Kanogo follows Wangari Maathai from her modest, rural Kenyan upbringing to her rise as a national figure campaigning for environmental and ecological conservation, sustainable development, democracy, human rights, gender equality, and the eradication of poverty until her death in 2011. </div>

Wangari Maathai (Ohio Short Histories of Africa)

Biographies & Memoirs

Community & Culture

<div> An omnibus collection of concise and up-to-date biographies of four influential figures from modern African history. Chris Hani, by Hugh Macmillan Chris Hani was one of the most highly respected leaders of the African National Congress, the South African Communist Party, and uMkhonto we Sizwe. His assassination in 1993 threatened to upset the country's transition to democracy and prompted an intervention by Nelson Mandela that ultimately accelerated apartheid's demise. Wangari Maathai, by Tabitha Kanogo This concise biography tells the story of Wangari Maathai, the Kenyan activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner who devoted her life to campaigning for environmental conservation, sustainable development, democracy, human rights, gender equality, and the eradication of poverty. Josie Mpama/Palmer: Get Up and Get Moving, by Robert R. Edgar Highly critical of the patriarchal attitudes that hindered Black women's political activism, South Africa's Josie Mpama/Palmer was an outspoken advocate for women's social and political equality, a member of the Communist Party of South Africa, and an antiapartheid activist. Ken Saro-Wiwa, by Roy Doron and Toyin Falola A penetrating, accessible portrait of the Nigerian activist whose execution galvanized the world. Ken Saro-Wiwa became a martyr and symbolized modern Africans' struggle against military dictatorship, corporate power, and environmental exploitation. </div>

African Activists of the Twentieth Century: Hani, Maathai, Mpama/Palmer, Saro-Wiwa (Ohio Short Histories of Africa)

Edgar, Robert R.

Falola, Toyin

MacMillan, Hugh

Doron, Roy

Historical

The author follows the story of the squatters farming the land in the 'White Highlands' at first unused by the Europeans. After 1923 the white settlers demanded more labour from the squatters and began to restrict their use of the land for cultivation and animal husbandry until by the early 1940s most of the squatters livestock had gone. Kanogo traces the squatters' increasing poverty and disillusion and their involvement in Mau Mau, particularly that of the women. North America: Ohio U Press; Kenya: EAEP

Squatters and the Roots of Mau Mau, 1905-63 (Eastern African Studies)

James Currey

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Kanogo, Tabitha. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Kanogo, Tabitha

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Kanogo, Tabitha. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Squatters & the Roots of Mau Mau: 1905-63 (Eastern African Studies)

African Womanhood in Colonial Kenya, 1900–1950: 1900-1950 (Eastern African Studies)

African Womanhood in Colonial Kenya, 1900–1950: 1900-1950 (Eastern African Studies)

Wangari Maathai (Ohio Short Histories of Africa)

African Activists of the Twentieth Century: Hani, Maathai, Mpama/Palmer, Saro-Wiwa (Ohio Short Histories of Africa)

Squatters and the Roots of Mau Mau, 1905-63 (Eastern African Studies)