Blame the Collaborator not the Colonialist.
Today should have been ‘Dedan Kimathi Day’ in Kenya. Yet again, Africans rarely celebrate their real heroes. Today marks the 66th anniversary of the execution of this heroic freedom fighter, who led an armed independence movement known as the ‘Mau-Mau’ in fighting British colonialists. None of the political figures in Kenya felt the need to pay tribute or celebrate the achievements of this hero who fought for the very privileges that all of them are enjoying and abusing. This made me thoroughly investigate the story of this war hero. My conclusion was, ‘Do not blame the colonialist, blame the collaborator’. Collaborators were the chiefs and home guards that worked with the British imperialists and took advantage of their positions to torture subjects and acquire wealth at the expense of their fellow Africans. They acquired massive wealth in terms of land possession by imposing land alienation and control on their tribesmen. They abused their power by taking the law into their hands, resorting to brutal force in recruiting fellow men to be slave laborers, and heavily levied taxes on their villagers.
Unlike what has been reported, Africans despised these local chiefs and home guards more than the colonialists. Why? Before the settlers arrived, everyone was living in relatively equitable communal settings, where a sense of belonging was shared by all and sundry. There were revered village elders that acted as custodians of the law, and they handled all cases justly and fairly. Everyone got along for the mere fact that they did not want the embarrassment of having to face the village court, where all villagers gathered to hear the culprits get reprimanded. When the colonialists arrived, they recruited Africans that had excelled from the missionary schools by rewarding them with appointments to work with the local British Commissioners. The harsh rule often associated with colonialism was exercised directly by the chiefs and home guards who sold out their fellow clansmen to British colonizers for their own socio-economic gains.
Dedan Kimathi expressed the unfair treatment that he received from his fellow ‘black people’ rather than from the ‘white man’. Kimathi believed in fighting for what is rightfully yours, and believed that Kenya would only gain independence through guns and bloodshed. He joined other freedom fighters and rose in ranks to become a field marshal leading the Mau-Mau movement in their struggle to see Kenya gain independence. He took to the forest and formed a large group of fighters that were bound by their oath rituals. These fighters attacked the Africans that worked for the British and instilled a lot of fear in colonialists and their supporters. Kimathi was captured after two tribal Home Guards shot and wounded him and handed him over to the colonialists. On February 18, 1957 he was executed and his body buried in an unmarked grave to prevent his followers from building a shrine or memorial at the site. The Mau-Mau fighters that survived have always stated that the British may have never captured Kimathi, had he not been handed over by his tribal militia opponents, who were fellow Kikuyus. This is why I conclude that it is time to accord blame to the ‘Black’ collaborator not just the ‘White’ colonialist.
