Visualising Violence and Memories of Mau Mau: The Kenyan Emergency and Representations of the British Empire, 1952-2020

这个项目将研究如何公共话语塑造了英国在肯尼亚的反叛乱战争的历史记忆，从20世纪50年代到现在。通过讨论记忆和帝国，帝国背景下的宣传，以及使用视觉图像来证明殖民暴力，这项研究将绘制茅茅战争的解释如何随着时间的推移而转变，并询问为什么以及如何发生这种感知变化。该项目将通过追踪紧急状态公共历史中茅茅暴力的关键图像的生命周期来做到这一点。肯尼亚紧急状态（1952-60）将茅茅战士的“野蛮”推到了英国公共话语的前沿。作为反茅茅运动宣传运动的一部分，肯尼亚政府向全球媒体提供茅茅暴行的图片，并培养了耸人听闻的报道，这在很大程度上支持了英国的反叛乱方法。然而，随着对安全部队的指控浮出水面，越来越多的批评者出现了。对肯尼亚紧急状态的对比解释在英国造成了一种知识悖论，因为政治家，反殖民主义活动家和政治压力团体动员起来挑战政府授权的茅茅叛乱的叙述，包括其理由，以及对殖民地反叛乱暴力的混淆。然而，英国民众对紧急状态的记忆自1960年以来一直受到茅茅暴力的困扰。Mutua & Others诉FCO（2012年）诉讼和Hanslope Park披露，导致国际媒体批评英国政府的殖民暴行。然而，帝国怀旧继续影响英国的建设和部分人口仍然认为帝国是值得骄傲的，（Yougov，2014，2020）。该项目将主要研究英国帝国历史。它将研究用于证明肯尼亚政府的暴力反叛乱策略的宣传机制，分析帝国和反殖民主义的文本和视觉符号之间的关系。通过电影，摄影和媒体证据，该项目将提供对英国视觉文化的新见解，同时分析什么类型的暴力形成持久的记忆。这个定性的历史项目主要利用殖民历史，英国政治和社会文化当代历史和肯尼亚历史的关键框架和方法，但采用视觉文化，后殖民研究和电影研究的跨学科方法。在这个过程中，该项目旨在发现为什么流行的英国记忆的肯尼亚紧急状态一直痴迷于茅茅暴力，而几十年来在很大程度上忽略了英国反叛乱的暴力。本论文的中心研究问题是：如何紧急肯尼亚的图像使用的新闻界，政治家和活动家在英国茅茅叛乱期间？1952年至2020年，这些意象对英国公共话语产生了什么影响？当代公共历史如何描述肯尼亚紧急状态期间的殖民地和茅茅暴力？

This project will examine how public discourse has shaped the historical memory of Britain's counter-insurgency war in Kenya, from the 1950s to the present. Engaging with discussions on memory and empire, propaganda in the imperial context, and the use of visual images in justifying colonial violence, this study will chart how interpretations of the Mau Mau war were transformed over time, asking why and how such changes in perception occurred. The project will do this by tracing the life cycles of key images of Mau Mau violence in public histories of the Emergency.The Kenya Emergency (1952-60) thrust the 'savagery' of the Mau Mau fighters to the forefront of British public discourse. As part of its anti-Mau Mau propaganda campaign, the Kenya Administration supplied global media outlets with graphic images of Mau Mau atrocities and cultivated sensationalist reportage which largely supported Britain's counter-insurgency methods. However, as allegations of trigger-happy security forces surfaced, a growing body of critics emerged. Contrasting interpretations of Kenya's Emergency then created a paradox of knowledge in Britain, as politicians, anti-colonial activists and political pressure groups mobilised to challenge the government-mandated narrative of the Mau Mau rebellion, including its justifications for, and obfuscation of colonial counterinsurgency violence. Nevertheless, British popular memory of the Emergency has remained plagued by Mau Mau violence since 1960. The Mutua & Others vs the FCO (2012) litigation and Hanslope Park disclosures, led the international press to criticise the British Government for its colonial brutality. However, imperial nostalgia continues to influence constructions of Britishness and sections of the population still perceive empire as something to be proud of, (Yougov, 2014, 2020). The project will primarily be a study of British imperial history. It will study the propagandist mechanisms used to justify the violent counter-insurgency tactics of the Kenya Administration, analysing the relationship between textual and visual rhetorics of empire and anti-colonialism. Through film, photographic and media evidence, the project will provide new insights into British visual culture while analysing what types of violence form enduring memories. This qualitative historical project primarily utilises critical frameworks and methodologies from colonial history, British political and socio-cultural contemporary histories and Kenyan history, but employs interdisciplinary approaches from visual culture, post-colonial studies and film studies. In the process, the project seeks to discover why the popular British memory of the Kenya Emergency has been obsessed with Mau Mau violence, whilst for decades largely ignoring the violence of the British counter-insurgency.The central research questions of this thesis are: how was imagery of Emergency Kenya used by the press, politicians and activists in Britain during the Mau Mau rebellion? What impact did this imagery have on British public discourse from 1952-2020? How have contemporary public histories depicted colonial and Mau Mau violence during the Kenya Emergency?