Legacies of Insurgency and Counterinsurgency: Activism and Politics in Central Kenya, 1956-75

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AHRC PhD Studentship in collaboration with Imperial War Museums (IWM) and the University of WarwickThe project will examine the aftermath and legacies of the Mau Mau War in Kenya, and will contribute to IWM's collections-building in partnership with Kenyan-based organisations, the development of its public programme, and to wider conversations about the way in which countries of the former British Empire are represented and engaged with in UK museums more broadly.The Mau Mau Insurgency and the violence of the British counterinsurgency campaign politicised hundreds of thousands of Kenyans and shaped their expectations of independence. Counterinsurgency methods such as villagisation and the punitive use of land reform influenced the nature of post-colonial society for decades to come. Returning to an earlier generation of scholarship this project will explore the ways in which the conflictinformed grassroots political action by veterans of the war and sympathisers with their cause.Potential strands for research include examining the role of Mau Mau activists within the local politics of Kenyan nationalism in the years immediately before and after independence; the role of activists within opposition and radical politics through the 1960s; and the place ofwomen activists within non-formal political organisations in the late 1950s and early 1960s.This studentship will help IWM to amplify under-represented voices within its collections by exploring the cultural and social changes-both in Britain and crucially in the former colonies themselves-that accompanied the 'retreat from Empire' and the consequent radical shift inBritain's role in the world. There is a small window of opportunity to discover, acquire and preserve for posterity material from veterans (in the broadest sense) of the complex conflict in Kenya, and to contextualise their stories within more expansive narratives that bring into focus their contribution to shaping the world. The studentship would specifically enhance and expand IWM's holdings relating to post-1945 conflict, by targeting partnerships in Kenya and through dialogue with communities in Britain. This would include, but not be limited to, the collection of oral history, and would include the opportunity to shape dialogues around whether and how UK institutions can and should collect physical material-ephemera, clothing, private papers, imagery etc. The research would assist IWM in meeting the needs of its diverse audiences-now and in the future-through a variety of public programme outputs.