It is called the Second World War. Everybody was touched by it. – General Nkungi
When I think of World War II, I think of the Holocaust, I think of Stalingrad, I think of Pearl Harbor, I think of Normandy, I think of Iwo Jima. I think of Europe, Japan, and America. I did not think of Africa. Until I asked The General the following question: What do you remember from World War II? He remembered a lot…
It makes sense that Africa was involved in WWII. The major powers had African colonies along the Eastern Coast:
Germany: had Tanzania
British: had Kenya, Uganda, Northern and Southern Rhodesia (now Zambia and Zimbabwe)
Italian: Had Somaliland and occupied Ethiopia
Many of The General’s peers went to fight in Asia and Europe – against the “Queen’s Rivals,” as they were called. The General was 15 years old in 1939, so he remained in Kenya. He remembers:
And it was from that time, my age mates who were in the army, they became more brave. To know even they can fight against the European. They know Europeans were not – most of us were told, they said to us, “The Europeans are cowards. They feared the Japanese very much. We fought with the Japanese. The Japanese feared Africans. But they were furious to see the Europeans.” So that is the beginning of how Mau Mau came. When Kenyatta came, these people from army were very supportive.
WWII had a similar effect on the American Civil Rights Movement, but the African inspiration came less from the ideological boost of democratic values and more from the discovery that the white people were beatable. They were trained to use modern weapons (accessing them would prove more difficult), and they learned that they could fight together with Europeans.
The Europeans knew that these Africans are not fearing now. They are not fearing Europeans as they were fearing before the war. Because they were together. They were fighting together.
The General remembers that even his home in Eastern Kenya was a battlefield:
Also our houses – there in Chogoria. We covered them with banana leaves. Because we were fearing bombing from Italians here. Because Italians were here. Even they bombed Isiolo in 1941. So we were to pray ourselves. We lived in fear. In Chogoria there. Where we were. We were not allowed to have light during the evening time. Because we were fearing.
The man who was here, Dr. Irving, was telling us, we should not, we are to put off lights in the evening because even planes flying from Somali this way can bomb us. I tell you – whoooo – all the Italians who were in our country were taken captive by Europeans. They were the ones who were making the highway from Nairobi to Nakuru. In Nyeri there was a big prison for Italians.
Although The General said that not much was known in Kenya about Hitler during the War, he learned a great deal through his trip to Israel, in 2001:
Hitler was an animal, not a man. We were fearing him, because we were thinking he was a very powerful warrior but we never knew he had that animal mind. Ay. And I don’t know whether anybody would like to be called Hitler. Have you heard of him? He was a killer. He was not fighting people to conquer, but to finish them.
The General’s reflections from World War II span more than fifteen pages of transcribed material. From two questions (“What do you remember from WWII” and “What did you know of Adolf Hitler”), The General talked for an uninterrupted hour.
I had no idea that I would come to Kenya to sit at the feet of an African Independence leader, and that he would teach me about the Second World War. You never know who you can learn from and what they’ll teach you. Perhaps all of my readers here should ask these two simple questions to anyone in the family over the age of 70. Our greatest historical resources – the living and breathing ones – are untapped. Let’s open them up together.
Kwaheri – Laura Lee/Nkirote
Ps- Please enjoy the picture of former Mau Mau Warrior (General Nkungi) playing with his pet kitten.
