Mũkami Kĩmathi: Mau Mau Woman Freedom Fighter is the story of the brave wife of one of Kenya’s foremost freedom fighters, Field Marshal Dedan Kĩmathi Waciũri. Kĩmathi led the Mau Mau war in Kenya’s independence struggle against the British colonialists. Mũkami’s role as a daughter, wife, mother, freedom fighter and leader is varied and very complex. Her story spans pre and post-independent Kenya. Her experiences provide an important complement to existing written literature on Kenya’s history. In 2003, the Mwai Kĩbakĩ Government lifted the ban put in place by the British colonialists declaring the Mau Mau as terrorists, and recognised Mũkami Kĩmathi and other freedom fighters as national heroes and heroines celebrated on 20th October as Mashujaa Day. This book gives an insight into the role of women freedom fighters and the struggles they faced both during and after the war. It is an incredible story of immense self-sacrifice and love for Kenya. Mũkami provides the lens to see the wider picture of women in the independence struggle, the neglect and betrayal of wives of Mau Mau fighters in particular and women in general in Kenya’s making. Beyond her role in the independence struggle, Mũkami’s story has many historical highlights such as time shared with Kĩmathi, meeting Nelson Mandela and her fruitful and strong relationship with Kenya’s human rights movement.

Kenyan-born novelist and playwright Ngugi wa Thiong’o and his collaborator, Micere Githae Mugo, have built a powerful and challenging play out of the circumstances surrounding the 1956 trial of Dedan Kimathi, the celebrated Kenyan hero who led the Mau Mau rebellion against the British colonial regime in Kenya and was eventually hanged. A highly controversial character, Kimathi’s life has been subject to intense propaganda by both the British government, who saw him as a vicious terrorist, and Kenyan nationalists, who viewed him as a man of great courage and commitment. Writing in the 1970s, the playwrights’ response to colonialist writings about the Mau Mau movement in The Trial of Dedan Kimathi is to sing the praises of the deeds of this hero of the resistance who refused to surrender to British imperialism. It is not a reproduction of the farcical “trial” at Nyeri. Rather, according to the preface, it is “an imaginative recreation and interpretation of the collective will of the Kenyan peasants and workers in their refusal to break under sixty years of colonial torture and ruthless oppression by the British ruling classes and their continued determination to resist exploitation,oppression and new forms of enslavement.”

“The definitive African book of the twentieth century” (Moses Isegawa, from the Introduction) by the Nobel Prize–nominated Kenyan writer The puzzling murder of three African directors of a foreign-owned brewery sets the scene for this fervent, hard-hitting novel about disillusionment in independent Kenya. A deceptively simple tale, Petals of Blood is on the surface a suspenseful investigation of a spectacular triple murder in upcountry Kenya. Yet as the intertwined stories of the four suspects unfold, a devastating picture emerges of a modern third-world nation whose frustrated people feel their leaders have failed them time after time. First published in 1977, this novel was so explosive that its author was imprisoned without charges by the Kenyan government. His incarceration was so shocking that newspapers around the world called attention to the case, and protests were raised by human-rights groups, scholars, and writers, including James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, Donald Barthelme, Harold Pinter, and Margaret Drabble.

This volume critically analyses political strategies, civil society initiatives and modes of representation that challenge the conventional narratives of women in contexts of violence. It deepens into the concepts of victimhood and agency that inform the current debate on women as victims. The volume opens the scope to explore initiatives that transcend the pair abuser–victim and explore the complex relations between gender and violence, and individual and collective accountability, through politics, activism and cultural productions in order to seek social transformation for gender justice. In innovative and interdisciplinary case studies, it brings attention to initiatives and narratives that make new spaces possible in which to name, self-identify, and resignify the female political subject as a social agent in situations of violence. The volume is global in scope, bringing together contributions ranging from India, Cambodia or Kenya, to Quebec, Bosnia or Spain. Different aspects of gender-based violence are analysed, from intimate relationships, sexual violence, military contexts, society and institutions. Re-writing Women as Victims: From Theory to Practice will be a key text for students, researchers and professionals in gender studies, political sciences, sociology and media and cultural Studies. Activists and policy makers will also find its practical approach and engagement with social transformation to be essential reading.

I congratulate Andebrhan Welde Giorgis on his high quality and extremely informative book that has not only the merit to be an update on the political situation in Eritrea but also asks the pertinent questions on the future of his marvelous country. He does it with tact and success, based on his long experience as freedom fighter, as senior public servant, as Ambassador and his rich experience of Africa. Each country in Africa must be able to determine its own future. Freedom, responsibility, control over its destiny, and solidarity, are the key ideas of the new vision for international cooperation that will help ensure the sustainability of the development process. The urgent need to create a democratic government resonates throughout the book. Good governance, respect for human rights, principles of democracy, and rule of law are essential universal values underpinning it. Andebrhan is one of those men, visionaries, and open to dialogue, reform and change. Eritrea at a Crossroads is key to understanding the challenges facing Eritrea and Africa. It is an eye opener on a complex and little understood crisis that is festering in Africa and holding the continent back. The book provides a solid intellectual foundation to understanding the region and will give anyone who wants to build a better future for Africa a great starting point. I congratulate him on this most valuable book which finds its place among all the lovers of Africa. Louis Michel Member of European Parliament, European Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid (2004-2009) and Foreign Minister of Belgium (1999-2004) Freedom fighter, scholar, central banker, diplomat, and now unhappy exile, no-one could be better placed than Andebrhan Welde Giorgis to trace Eritrea's distressing slide from triumph to tragedy. It's a harrowing story, but the author tells it comprehensively, objectively and lucidly in this excellent study. The future can be rescued, as Andebrhan makes clear, but only if the past is understood, and the present confronted -- by decent, concerned Eritreans, acting with the moral, political and economic support of the wider international community. May his voice be heard. Gareth Evans Chancellor, Australian National University; President, International Crisis Group (2000-09) and Foreign Minister of Australia (1988-96)

This book is a contribution to the interpretation of Kenyan history, from the proletarian point of view. The book provides information on the people of Kenya; their history; their violent, brutal and deadly confrontation with the British imperialist invaders; their social and politicial struggle against the British occupiers and the national traitors; their transformation into the Mau Mau armed resistance; and their class struggle and revolutionary movement against the Kenyata and Moi neocolonial regimes. During dictator Moi’s administration, the country was turned into a police state and the brutal torture of citizens became commonplace. Whatever form of torture one was subjected to, it inevitably led to either imprisonment or death. In vigorous language and with concrete examples, the author details the crucial role played by the Mwakenya-December Twelve Movement in the struggle against the Kenyata-Moi dictatorships for democracy and social justice in Kenya, from 1975 to 2002.