We will never be silent until we get land to cultivate and freedom in this country of ours so sang Mau Mau activists. The struggle for independence in Kenya was waged at many levels. Never be Silent explores how this struggle was reflected in the communications field. It looks at publishing activities of the main contending forces and explores internal contradictions within each community. It documents the major part played by the communications activities of the organised working class and Mau Mau in the achievement of independence in Kenya. The book contributes to a reinterpretation of colonial history in Kenya from a working class point of view and also provides a new perspective on how communications can be a weapon for social justice in the hands of liberation forces.

ISBN-13: 9789966189059

ISBN-10: 996618905X

Language: English

Publisher: Vita Books

Year: 2006

Pages: 280

Cataloged: Nov. 13, 2024, 1:32 a.m.

This book is a contribution to the interpretation of Kenyan history, from the proletarian point of view. The book provides information on the people of Kenya; their history; their violent, brutal and deadly confrontation with the British imperialist invaders; their social and politicial struggle against the British occupiers and the national traitors; their transformation into the Mau Mau armed resistance; and their class struggle and revolutionary movement against the Kenyata and Moi neocolonial regimes. During dictator Moi's administration, the country was turned into a police state and the brutal torture of citizens became commonplace. Whatever form of torture one was subjected to, it inevitably led to either imprisonment or death. In vigorous language and with concrete examples, the author details the crucial role played by the Mwakenya-December Twelve Movement in the struggle against the Kenyata-Moi dictatorships for democracy and social justice in Kenya, from 1975 to 2002.

ISBN-13: 9781867886150

ISBN-10: 1867886154

Language: English

Publisher: Mau Mau Research Centre

Year: 2019

Pages: 392

Cataloged: Nov. 13, 2024, 1:13 a.m.

For over 30 years, Willy Mutunga has blazed the trail in starting many important public conversations about remaking Kenya and the wider world into a better society. As a public intellectual, he has consistently challenged convenient stereotypes in an effort to bring down the social barriers erected by fear and ignorance, and led in persuading individuals and communities to re-examine widely held prejudices and to start difficult dialogues. Between 2006 and 2011, Mutunga wrote a weekly column in the Saturday Nation. It is from these contributions, under the pen name Cabral Pinto a combination of the surnames of the two African ideologues he greatly admired that the 146 articles in this volume are selected. The clarity of Willys moral voice is unmistakable on a broad variety of themes, ranging from exhortations for an alternative leadership that would deliver a human rights state, to an unapologetic call for mass action as a peaceful way to bring change. This collection by Cabral Pinto is the story of Kenyas long democracy struggle, told by a pro-democracy activist.

ISBN-13: 9789914992182

ISBN-10: 9914992188

Language:

Publisher:

Year: 2022

Pages: 426

Cataloged: Nov. 13, 2024, 1:08 a.m.

The extraordinary Swahili poetry collection Sauti ya Dhiki (Voice of Agony), is a collection of prison poems composed by Abdilatif Abdalla between 1969 and 1972. He originally wrote the poems while incarcerated by the government of Jomo Kenyatta for sedition as a result of his political activism and smuggled them out of prison on scraps of paper. Imaginative Vision is the first complete literary translation into English—translated by the late Kenyan novelist and scholar Ken Walibora Waliaula and edited by Annmarie Drury—of one of the most esteemed and influential collections of Swahili poetry of the twentieth century. Yet, Imaginative Vision is also something more. Even as it centers on a literary translation of a singularly beautiful and influential book of poetry, it tells English-language readers the story of that book. Supporting materials illuminate the circumstances of its inception when Abdilatif, aged 22, was arrested and tried. They explore what the volume meant to its first readers and its affiliations with subsequent extraordinary works of prison literature by Alamin Mazrui and Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o. They trace its links to literary art of the past, including the nineteenth-century poet Muyaka bin Haji, and to writing that followed. And they explain social and historical aspects of the Swahili coastal world that nurtured Abdilatif’s political engagement and stunning verbal art. Under the editorship of scholar, translator, and poet Annmarie Drury, contributors bring insights from their diverse backgrounds to present contextualizing material that illuminates the poems at the heart of this book.

ISBN-13: 9780472056613

ISBN-10: 0472056611

Language: English

Publisher: University of Michigan Press

Year: 2024

Pages: 370

Cataloged: Nov. 13, 2024, 1 a.m.

Public spending is under threat and public libraries are suffering. At a time when libraries can play a critical role in supporting people facing difficult economic and social situations, the dominant conservative model of librarianship has nothing meaningful to say about the role and relevance of libraries. It offers more of the same, but no qualitative change so necessary today. . It continues to maintain the myth that there is no alternative to its own policies and practices. There is thus an urgent need for alternative ideas and practices to address people's needs. The progressive librarianship movement - in USA, Europe and other places - is taking up this challenge. P It has also been active in in Kenya and Britain but its work is not widely known. The Kenyan movement differed from the others in that it grew within the underground political movement in the 1980s - the December Twelve Movement. It was its Library Cell that set out its ideas on what a relevant library service should be and put many of its ideas into practice. This experience later reached Britain. Using original documents, this book records this hidden history. In the process, it examines key concepts such as the role of libraries and the relevance of service. Linking library work with the wider social and political concerns, the book explores issues such as politics of information and the role of activism and "neutrality" in library work. Deriving ideas from practice, it offers an alternative approach to librarianship, to the training of librarians and to organisational change to make libraries more relevant to people's lives. The book will be of interest to library staff and professionals, students and teachers of librarianship as well as to political activists and historians.

ISBN-13: 9781869886202

ISBN-10: 1869886208

Language: English

Publisher: Vita Books

Year: 2014

Pages: 435

Cataloged: Nov. 13, 2024, 12:55 a.m.

ISBN-13: 9781869886097

ISBN-10: 1869886097

Language: English

Publisher: Vita Books

Year: 1997

Pages: 254

Cataloged: Nov. 13, 2024, 12:51 a.m.

"It is my duty to take the message of revolt to other[s]. is is the only way to liberate the victims of suffering and slavery", Nazmi Durrani quotes W.L. Sohan in this book. Resistance to imperialism in pre-independence Kenya by progressive South Asian Kenyans propelled the Kenyan liberation struggle to new heights. They were active in almost every field, from publishing progressive newspapers to supplying arms and material to Mau Mau. Liberating Minds consists of biographies of progressive South Asian Kenyans written by Nazmi Durrani. Originally published in Gujarati in the 1980s, they are available here in English for the first time, together with the original Gujarati. Also included is Naila Durrani's 1987 conference paper, "Kenya Asian Participation in People's Resistance", while Benegal Pereira introduces Eddie H. Pereira (1915-1995) and his resistance letters to the Colonial Times Newspaper.

ISBN-13: 9789966097415

ISBN-10: 9966097414

Language: English

Publisher: Vita Books

Year: 2017

Pages: 202

Cataloged: Nov. 13, 2024, 12:40 a.m.

ISBN-13: 9780980200409

ISBN-10: 0980200407

Language: English

Publisher: Vita Books

Year: 2008

Pages: 345

Cataloged: Nov. 13, 2024, 12:34 a.m.

This book examines the life and work of a remarkable trade unionist and revolutionary. Makhan Singh laid the foundation for radical trade unionism and influenced the liberation struggle in Kenya. He actively participated in the struggles of the working classes in India. For this, the colonial authorities in India and Kenya detained him for over 15 years. This collection, marking 101 years of Makhan Singh's birth, explores different aspects of his life as a father, a trade unionist, a political activist, a poet and a communist committed to social, political and economic liberation from colonialism and imperialism. His vision, his action and his courage are as relevant today as they were in his time.

ISBN-13: 9781869886226

ISBN-10: 1869886224

Language: English

Publisher: Vita Books

Year: 2015

Pages: 192

Cataloged: Nov. 13, 2024, 12:31 a.m.