The Catholic Father and the elusive Mau Mau general: A study of Father Ottavio Sestero's novel L'inafferrabile Mau Mau (1957)

Abstract

This article is, arguably, the first study of a novel that has been ignored by scholars, possibly because it was brought out in Italian by a minor Catholic publishing house. L'inafferabile Mau Mau ('The elusive Mau Mau') was published in 1957 by Ottavio Sestero, a Consolata priest who eyewitnessed the Emergency years in Kenya. His novel describes the hunt for the 'Mau Mau' leader Dan Kima -- inspired by the historical figure of Dedan Kimaathi -- and his friendship with a British Catholic priest, Father Richard. Numerous fictional works have been and still are being published on the Mau Mau period. Some, written by Western authors to endorse the colonial settlers' ideology; others, written by Kenyans, can be broadly divided into those that support the loyalists' views and those that celebrate the Mau Mau cause. L'inafferrabile Mau Mau does not fit into any of the above categories and presents a different perspective on the movement, that of an insider -- a man who knew the Gĩkuyu language and spent thirty years among the Gĩkuyu people -- but who, as an Italian, was at the same time a foreigner, an outsider, whose views did not necessarily coincide with those of expressed by most British officials and settlers