MAU MAU'S ARMY OF CLERKS: COLONIAL MILITARY SERVICE AND THE KENYA LAND FREEDOM ARMY IN KENYA'S NATIONAL IMAGINATION

2017 ◽  
Vol 58 (2) ◽  
pp. 285-309 ◽  
Author(s):  
TIMOTHY H. PARSONS
Keyword(s):  
Military Service ◽  
Combat Veterans ◽  
Second World War ◽  
World War ◽  
War Veterans ◽  
Combat Experience ◽  
Security Forces ◽  
Mau Mau ◽  
National Imagination ◽  
Second World

AbstractScholarly and popular histories of Kenya largely agree that African Second World War veterans played a central role in the Kenya Land Freedom Army. Former African members of the colonial security forces have reinforced these assumptions by claiming to have been covert Mau Mau supporters, either after their discharge, or as serving soldiers. In reality, few Mau Mau generals had actual combat experience. Those who served in the colonial military usually did so in labor units or support arms. It therefore warrants asking why so many Kenyans accept that combat veterans played such a central role in the KLFA and in Kenyan history. Understanding how veterans of the colonial army have become national heroes, both for their wartime service and their supposed leadership of Mau Mau, reveals the capacity of popular history to create more useful and inclusive forms of African nationalism.

Development of the Concepts for Providing Close Air Support

2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 64-74
Author(s):  
Hristov Manush
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Air Force ◽  
The United States ◽  
Second World War ◽  
The State ◽  
World War ◽  
Present Stage ◽  
Combat Experience ◽  
Second World

AbstractThe main objective of the study is to trace the perceptions of the task of an aviation component to provide direct aviation support to both ground and naval forces. Part of the study is devoted to tracing the combat experience gained during the assignment by the Bulgarian Air Force in the final combat operations against the Wehrmacht during the Second World War 1944-1945. The state of the conceptions at the present stage regarding the accomplishment of the task in conducting defensive and offensive battles and operations is also considered. Emphasis is also placed on the development of the perceptions of the task in the armies of the United States and Russia.

Military Service and Canadian Army Suicides of the Second World War, 1939–44

2021 ◽  
pp. e20200008
Author(s):  
William J. Pratt
Keyword(s):  
Military Service ◽  
Second World War ◽  
World War ◽  
Canadian Army ◽  
Total War ◽  
Individual Agency ◽  
Difficult Time ◽  
Military Mobilization ◽  
The Many ◽  
Second World

Over 230 Canadian Army soldiers took their own lives during the Second World War. For many, soldiering seems to have exacerbated stresses and depressions. Their suicide notes and the testimony of family, officers, and bunkmates reveal that wartime disturbance was an important section of the complex array of reasons why. In attempts to explain the motivations for their tragic final actions, the instabilities brought by the Second World War and the stresses of military mobilization must be added to the many biological, social, psychological and circumstantial factors revealed by the proceedings of courts of inquiry. Major military risk factors include: access to firearms, suppression of individual agency, and disruption of the protective networks of friends and family. Some Canadians had a difficult time adjusting to military discipline and authority and were frustrated by their inability to succeed by the measures set by the army. Suicide motivations are complex and it may be too simplistic to say that the Second World War caused these deaths, however, it is not too far to say that the war was a factor in their final motivations. Some men, due to the social pressures and constructs of masculine duty, signed up for active service despite previously existing conditions which should have excused them. Revisiting these traumas can expose the difficulties that some Canadians experienced during mobilization for total war. Many brought deep personal pain with them as they entered military service and for some, the disruptions, frustrations, and anxieties of life in khaki were too great to bear. Like their better-known colleagues who died on the battlefield, they too are casualties of the Second World War.

British Visions, African Voices: The “Imperial” and the “Colonial” in World War II

Itinerario ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 287-315
Author(s):  
Myles Osborne
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
Military Service ◽  
Racial Segregation ◽  
Second World War ◽  
General Interest ◽  
World War ◽  
African Writers ◽  
And Shifts ◽  
Second World

AbstractThis article is focused on a magazine called Jambo, which was published by the British East Africa Command for troops in its employ between 1942 and 1945. Jambo was an agglomeration of political articles, general interest stories, propaganda, cartoons, crosswords, and more, with many of its contributions authored (or drawn) by men serving in the Allied forces. Here, I use Jambo to consider notions of the “colonial” and “imperial” during the Second World War, exploring how the realities of racial segregation in the colonies fit awkwardly with imperial service. Jambo also permits us a window into the views of some hundreds of British servicemen, who wrote extensively about the Africans with whom they served, revealing the complexities and shifts in British perceptions of African peoples during the conflict. Jambo is unique in another respect: it also provided a forum for African troops. In few other publications—and even fewer with such wide circulation—could educated (but nonelite) African peoples reach thousands of British readers. Though their published letters and articles were few compared to those written by Jambo's British authors, African writers used the venue to critique the conditions of their military service, argue about the sort of social ordering they desired in their home communities, and create an alternate narrative of the war. Like most colonial publications, Jambo had intended audiences, but also voracious, additional, alternate publics that mediated the articles which appeared in its pages. All this suggests that we might think of the colonial public sphere as both local and global, inward and outward looking, personal and communal, and situated along a continuum between colonial and imperial contexts.

scholarly journals Coping with traumatic memories: Second World War veterans' experiences of social support in relation to the narrative coherence of war memories

2009 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 57-78 ◽  
Author(s):  
KAREN J. BURNELL ◽  
PETER G. COLEMAN ◽  
NIGEL HUNT
Keyword(s):  
Social Support ◽  
Narrative Analysis ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Second World War ◽  
Narrative Coherence ◽  
World War ◽  
War Veterans ◽  
Traumatic Memories ◽  
War Experiences ◽  
Second World

ABSTRACTThis paper reports a qualitative study that used narrative analysis to explore how social support helps many armed-services veterans cope with traumatic memories. The analysis was carried out on two levels, that of narrative form (level of narrative coherence), argued to be indicative of reconciliation, and narrative content (themes of social support), which allowed exploration of the types of social support experienced by veterans with coherent, reconciled and incoherent narratives. Ten British male Second World War veterans were interviewed regarding their war experiences, presence of traumatic memories, and experiences of social support from comrades, family and society. Different patterns of support were qualitatively related to coherent, reconciled and incoherent narratives. Veterans with coherent narratives were no less likely to have experienced traumatic events than those with reconciled or incoherent narratives, but they reported more positive perceptions of their war experience and of the war's outcomes, more positive experiences of communication with family in later life, and more positive perceptions of societal opinion. The results are discussed in relation to how veterans can be supported by family and friends to reconcile their traumatic memories, thus to lessen the burden in later life when vital support resources may be unavailable.

scholarly journals ON THE MAJOR TURNAROUND IN THE EAST FRONT OF WORLD WAR II (according to memoirs of German and Soviet military commanders)

2020 ◽  
pp. 68-76
Author(s):  
Andrei M. Belov
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Large Mass ◽  
Second World War ◽  
Left Bank ◽  
World War ◽  
Combat Experience ◽  
Initial Stage ◽  
Military Commanders ◽  
Red Army ◽  
Second World

The author refers in the article to such an important aspect of the major turnaround in the East Front of the Second World War as mastering the combat experience of contemporary warfare, based on the memoirs of German and Soviet military commanders. The author concludes that if, at the initial stage, Germany’s sudden attack on the USSR and the use of a large mass of tanks and aircraft in combat led the Wehrmacht to success, by the end of 1941, the Red Army’s victory near Moscow had defi ned a turnaround in the war. The Red Army endured the worst challenges of the initial stage and began to master the methods of conducting contemporary war by Soviet military commanders. Of those commanders who advanced in the future, there were those military commanders who asserted themselves in the battles of Moscow and Stalingrad. Contemporary war required them to master the experience of guiding a large mass of equipment – tanks, aircraft – in accordance with the potential embedded in them. The formation of tank, aviation divisions, corps, armies laid the material foundation for the major turnaround in the war. The ability to anticipate the actions of the enemy and make decisions unexpected to it had become an essential component of the commanders’ experience. The experience of coordinating the actions of different fronts and branches of troops, the formation of armies possessing the latest ammunition, the proper provision with arms and other materials became the guarantee of victory around Stalingrad and Kursk, the liberation of the Ukraine on the left bank of the Dnieper and of Donbass, that is, the victories considered to be the major turnaround in the Second World War.

scholarly journals John Alexander Sinton, 1884-1956

1956 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 268-290 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Military Service ◽  
Medical Service ◽  
Solomon Islands ◽  
Medical Officer ◽  
Second World War ◽  
Public Affairs ◽  
World War ◽  
Indian Medical ◽  
Active Service ◽  
Second World

Few can have had so varied experiences in life and at the same time contributed so greatly to knowledge in a field of science as Sinton. Educated and taking his medical qualifications in Northern Ireland, and first in every examination he took in school or university, entering the Indian Medical Service, again the first on his batch, Sinton was to see active service in both world wars. In the first, as medical officer to an Indian cavalry regiment on active service in the Mesopotamian Expeditionary Force, he received the award of the Victoria Cross for conspicuous bravery and devotion to duty during an action at Sheik Sa’ad in 1916, thus having the unique distinction of being the only bearer of this honour to be also a Fellow of the Royal Society. Later in the Medical Research Department of the Indian Medical Service he was appointed the first Director of the Malaria Survey of India (now the Malaria Institute of India) an institution that under Sinton’s direction and that of those following him was to become one of the chief centres of malaria research in the world. Then after retirement, but being still on the reserve of officers of the Service, he was in the second world war again recalled to military service and as Consultant Malariologist in several campaigns again saw active service in many countries, travelling extensively in India, the Middle East and Africa and later, as Adviser on Malaria to the War Office, again to travel and advise on measures against malaria, visiting Australia, New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and other areas. Finally retiring to his native Ulster at the age of 60 he took an active part in academic and public affairs and besides other activities was Pro-Chancellor of his University and in 1953 High Sheriff of Co. Tyrone.

Living with a Bullet in One’s Body: General Magoto and Kenya’s Quest for Independence

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 16-25
Author(s):  
Julius M. Gathogo
Keyword(s):  
Poor Quality ◽  
Second World War ◽  
Quality Education ◽  
British Colonialism ◽  
World War ◽  
Mau Mau ◽  
Identity Card ◽  
Forced Labour ◽  
The Military ◽  
Second World

Mau-Mau revolutionary rebels began fighting for Kenyan independence in the 1940s, with the warfare reaching its zenith in the 1950s. The war was fought mainly by soldiers in their 20s and 30s, most of whom were from the central region of Kenya. The rebels and society at large were against British colonialism, which began when Kenya was declared a British protectorate in 1885 and a colony in 1920. It was the elites who encouraged people to see forced taxes, poor wages, the carrying of the Kipande (identity card), poor quality education, the colour bar (as Kenya’s version of apartheid was called), forced labour, constant harassment and arbitrary beatings and mass arrests, especially in the major towns, and indeed the general systemic poverty to be indicators of their enslavement. Furthermore, the African soldiers who returned from fighting on the side of the British during the Second World War came out strongly against the assumed superiority of the coloniser. By 1952, various Mau-Mau platoons had been established, with General Magoto joining the erstwhile Haraka platoon of Embu district. He is deserving of mention not only for having survived the military offensives via land and air, but also for having lived with a bullet lodged in his body for over 50 years.

Jewish Consultants after the Second World War

2003 ◽  
pp. 252-285
Author(s):  
John Cooper
Keyword(s):  
Race Relations ◽  
Military Service ◽  
Hospital Staff ◽  
Second World War ◽  
World War ◽  
Show Evidence ◽  
Post War ◽  
Set Up ◽  
Second World ◽  
Selection Of

This chapter explores Jewish consultants after the Second World War. In the years immediately after the Second World War, there was a shortage of places in British medical schools, and in the intense competition for admission between recent school-leavers and returning soldiers, priority was given to those who could show evidence of military service. As a result, there were instances of prejudice being shown against Jewish applicants and refugees, some of whom were of Jewish origin. Meanwhile, because of the shortage of consultants at the inauguration of the National Health Service in 1948, hospitals had to employ a large number of refugee doctors, many of whom were specialists. While the post-war period saw an expansion of the number of Jewish doctors practising in London, the increase over the late 1930s was not dramatic. Following the Race Relations Acts of 1965, 1968, and 1976, a more tolerant climate of opinion gradually evolved which assisted Jews and others when they applied for medical scholarships and appointments as specialists. The chapter then examines how the new machinery set up for the selection of senior hospital staff enhanced the opportunities for Jewish candidates to make successful applications.

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