Perhaps no figure embodied the ambiguities, colonial fears, and collective imaginations of Kenya's decolonization era more than Dedan Kimathi, the self-proclaimed field marshal of the rebel forces that took to the forests to fight colonial rule in the 1950s. Kimathi personified …
After four decades of British rule in colonial Kenya, a previously unknown ethnic name - 'Luyia' - appeared on the official census in 1948. The emergence of the Luyia represents a clear case of ethnic 'invention'. In this volume, which encompasses social history, geography and p…
Mapping political communities in Africa -- The geographies of western Kenya -- Land, gold, and commissioning the "tribe"--Ethnic patriotism in the interwar years -- Speaking Luyia: linguistic work and political imagination -- Mapping gender: moral crisis and the limits of cosmop…
After four decades of British rule in colonial Kenya, a previously unknown ethnic name-"Luyia"-appeared atop the official census in 1948. The Luyia disagreed over language, history, and customs-and yet, at particular points in time, they identified themselves as a united people.…
Mapping political communities in Africa -- The geographies of western Kenya -- Land, gold, and commissioning the "tribe"--Ethnic patriotism in the interwar years -- Speaking Luyia: linguistic work and political imagination -- Mapping gender: moral crisis and the limits of cosmop…