A brave one-legged general: The story of Mau Mau General, Kassam Gichimu Njogu

Julius M Gathogo

doi:10.4102/hts.v76i4.6155

Abstract

This article sets out to demonstrate the role of the ‘one-legged devil’ (as the colonialists called Patrick Gichimu Njogu), also called General Kassam. Kassam was one of the pioneer generals of the Mau Mau, a guerrilla movement that operated from the central Kenya forests as they participated in the war of liberation from the early 1950s to the early 1960s. Was Kassam a one-legged general from the word go? Methodologically speaking, the article is partially based on interviews conducted with the general before his death at the age of 89 in 2011. Being an insider, Kassam helped to give an in-depth understanding of the Mau Mau war of independence by relating the role of the Kavirondo people of western Kenya in Mau Mau historiography. Were they enticed by the colonial government to abandon the idea of the armed struggle as a way of writing off colonialism? Or did the Kavirondo (western Kenya) embrace the theology of non-violence (and pacifism) and eventually left the central Kenya group to battle it alone? Or were the people of western Kenya dissuaded to take part in the struggle by the Christian ‘gospel of love’ that abhorred violence, leading to abandoning their colleagues from central Kenya at the last minute? Theoretically speaking, the article is largely informed by John Walton’s theory of reluctant rebels. Walton argues that rebels are always incited by the leading elites in a society that undergoes war or civil war at any given time in history.Contribution: The article contributes to growing knowledge by discussing the Mau-Mau Movement in Kenya’s quest for freedom, from the 1950s to early 1960s, to demonstrate the religious role of armed conflicts in Africa. In this case, General Kassam, a baptised Anglican Christian, whose loyalty to the ancestral pantheons drove him to the quasi-religious war of independence, is the key subject in this article. In this war of independence in Kenya, a seeming conflict between African religion and Christian religion appears as a key emerging issue. The article is relevant to the HTS Journal and the world of scholarship because it is a theo-anthropocentric piece of work which deals with God, creation, and inevitable human conflicts – all of which have answers before God.

Highlights

The year 2019 marked the eighth year since the time ‘one-legged’ Mau Mau General Kassam had met his Maker
Being the second Mau Mau general after Ndaya who hailed from the entire Embu district ( Kirinyaga and Embu counties), Kassam’s name is placed on a pedestal whenever writers attempt to pen the history of the Kirinyaga County of Kenya
The article has described the role of General Kassam, the one-legged Mau Mau General from Kirinyaga County, who commanded the Embu platoon with others such as General Chui, General Kubukubu, Major Judge, Major J

Summary

Introduction

The year 2019 marked the eighth year since the time ‘one-legged’ Mau Mau General Kassam had met his Maker. He proclaimed as follows: ‘The only thing we can remember him by is to name the stadium in his honour’ (Kamau 2017:6) Kassam, who lost his left leg in 1953 while fighting for Kenya’s independence, walked with crutches till his death at Tumu Tumu Hospital, Nyeri County. Important to take note is that the official name of the movement that sought to achieve Kenya’s independence by military means was the Kenya Land and Freedom Army This was a guerrilla army that was mainly comprised of the people of central and eastern Kenya and that violently and with gusto resisted the British rule. Their overall leader was General Dedan Kimathi Wachiuri (1920–1957)

Motivation

Conclusion