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

AHRC与帝国战争博物馆(IWM)和华威大学(University Of Warwick)合作开展的博士生项目将研究肯尼亚茅茅战争的后果和遗产，并将有助于IWM与肯尼亚组织合作建立藏品，发展其公共项目，以及更广泛地讨论前大英帝国国家在英国博物馆中的表现和参与方式。茅茅叛乱和英国反叛乱运动的暴力使数十万肯尼亚人政治化，并塑造了他们对独立的期望。反叛乱的方法，如村镇化和惩罚性使用土地改革，影响了未来几十年后殖民社会的性质。回到上一代学术，这个项目将探索战争老兵和同情他们的事业的人在冲突中形成的草根政治行动的方式。潜在的研究线索包括考察茅茅活动家在独立前和独立后的几年里在肯尼亚民族主义地方政治中的作用；活动家在反对派和激进政治中的作用，直到20世纪60年代；以及20世纪50年代末和60年代初女性活动家在非正式政治组织中的地位。这一学生身份将帮助IWM通过探索文化和社会变化--包括英国，尤其是前殖民地本身--来放大其收藏中未被充分代表的声音。这些变化伴随着从帝国的撤退以及随之而来的英国在世界上的角色的根本性转变。有一个很小的机会窗口，可以从退伍军人那里(在最广泛的意义上)发现、获取并为后代保存关于肯尼亚复杂冲突的材料，并在更宽泛的叙事中将他们的故事背景化，突出他们对塑造世界的贡献。该奖学金将通过瞄准肯尼亚的伙伴关系以及通过与英国社区的对话，特别加强和扩大IWM关于1945年后冲突的持有量。这将包括但不限于收集口述历史，并将包括围绕英国机构是否以及如何能够以及如何收集实物材料--星历、服装、私人文件、图像等--展开对话的机会。这项研究将帮助IWM通过各种公共节目产出满足其现在和未来不同受众的需求。

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.