The Royal African Society invited members of the Kenya Society to attend what turned out to be a very interesting and lively talk on Thursday, 13th January at 6 pm at the Khalifi Theatre, the School of Oriental & African Studies (SOAS), University of London, Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square, London WC1:

The talk by David M. Anderson was on
Histories of the Hanged: Reparations, Reconciliations and the Mau Mau War.

British justice in 1950s Kenya was a blunt, brutal and unsophisticated instrument of oppression.

For the first time, an eye-witness history fo the dirty war the British fought in Kenya in the run-up to the country's indepejndence - the mau Mau rebellion. Between 1953 and 1956, Britain sent 1,000 Kenyans to the gallows, often on non-existent charges; 70,000 people were imprisoned in camps without trial, and men and women were kept together in conditions of institutionalised violence overseen by British officials. Anderson's meticulously researched and controversial book puts the British government in the dock, providing evidence that will enable the press, public and politicians to decide for themselves about Britain's recent past. In the face of rebellion, was the country's behaviour honourable or not?

David Anderson is Lecturer in African Studies at the University fo Oxford, and a Research Fellow at St. Antony's College, Oxford; he is also author and editor of ten other books on the history of Africa.

The copies of 'Histories of the Hanged' which were on sale after the talk and question and answer session were quickly sold out.

Price: completed       # 087