@dnjaga1 Kiambu is not Gíkúyú-land.
Gíkúyú are the only community in Kenya that is supposed to feel guilty for being itself. The Maasai are celebrated for sticking to themselves.
The Luo are openly chauvinistic and they are praised for it.
But for the Gíkúyú, try being yourself.
Death.
@dnjaga1 This is not new. It is a colonial heritage. From Elspheth Huxley to Robert Ruark.
The Gíkúyú were marked out as the most progressive and therefore the most dangerous to the colonial project.
The stereotypes that grew therefrom:treacherous, greedy, disloyal, are perpetuated today
@dnjaga1 By those that seek to deny the Gíkúyú there right of voice in their own destiny.
Here are a few narratives: 1. Drunkardsin Central but mean drinking mates in diaspora. 2. Hopeless laggards in Central but greedy hawkers elsewhere. 3. Proliferating elsewhere but impotent at home.
@dnjaga1 4. Their women are killing everyone elsewhere but their men are obliterating them at home. 5. They are dying from illicit drinks in Central but are selling poison elsewhere without them taking it. 6. They are beneficiaries of State funds, but they are cited as the most hopeless
@dnjaga1 7. They will never vote for anyone else other than their own. Who else have Luos or Luhyas voted for but their own? 8. Half the businesses in Kiambu are not Gíkúyú. Somehow,they are to blame. 9. They are not filling classrooms fast enough.Very bad. 10. Where is their candidate?
Emotionally - under the guise of "listening" to their women but not provide a solution and get sucked in emotionally into issues they will never resolve
_From elsewhere_
2. or know whether they were resolved and thereby get release...when women say they want to just rant and you listen and not say anything or provide a solution... Run.
3. Physically - through violence that is visited on them after being emasculated by being made to believe they are the cause of the violence(guilt-conscience) and thus losing the need to defend themselves or even run.
It must be understood that MauMau was a movement of an entire people with a fighting unit in the forest.
But many confuse the fighting unit as the entire MauMau.
Oathing was a way of excluding those among the people that did not identify with the cause.
MauMau Oath-taking has been twisted by colonial and the collaborator spin-masters as a savage and barbaric ritual.
But any body that involves an element of secrecy and a measure of loyalty have oath-taking as a core ritual of membership in such an organization.
During pass-out parades, soldiers take an oath.
Priests and nuns take an extensive oath of loyalty and vows of maintaining the secrecy of the mysteries they learn for two years cloistered away.
An oath says you commit yourself to the cause.
A refusal to take it says you do not
The need for dehumanization of peoples based on their physical characteristics is brought about by capitalistic competition. Racism is a child of capitalism.
Capitalism is based on the drive for personal gain at the expense of the many. Profit is the net gain from labour and physical resources. To make a profit, one must acquire resources cheaply and underpay labour.
The real cost of labour and the cost of resources equals the price of the product. To make a profit, a commercial enterprise must underpay labour and acquire the resources needed at as low a cost as possible.