Land, Freedom and Fiction: History and Ideology in Kenya [Hardcover]

David Maughan-Brown’s authoritative work on the Mau Mau Uprising during the 1950s in Kenya, examines how the Mau Mau struggle for land and independence has been mirrored, and often distorted, in accounts by English and white Kenyan writers, as well as by indigenous Kenyan novelists. Against the turbulent background of the Mau Mau Uprising, Maughan-Brown explores the relationship between history, literary creation, and the myths that societies cultivate. Spanning the breadth of colonial and post-colonial African literature, his subjects range from the colonialist authors Robert Ruark and Elspeth Huxley, to the post-independence novels of Meja Mwangi and Ngugi wa Thiong’o. 

By presenting a concise account of the uprising and its place in Kenyan identity,Land, Freedom and Fictionsignificantly increases our understanding of settler attitudes and the role of literature within colonial ideology. 
 

David Maughan-Brownis the former deputy vice chancellor of York St John University. Raised in East Africa and educated in South Africa, he previously lectured in the Department of English at the University of Natal.