"I wanted to fight for African freedom and the return of our land."
 |
War in the Forest by Kiboi Muriithi (General Kamwana) with Peter N. Ndoria Trafford Publishing
book review by Barbara Deming
A soldier of the King's African Rifles drew a bead on Kiboi Muriithi (Charlie). The reflex developed as a freedom fighter once again saved his life. But Charlie was the only survivor of the Glade of Death battle—the beginning of the end for this forest soldier who had risen from clerk to become known as General Kamwana.
Tricked into taking the oath of allegiance to Mau Mau (an anti-colonist group) in 1952, Charlie soon rallied to fight for an end to decades of confiscation of land, forced labor, and brutal treatment of the Black citizens of Kenya. His allegiance embroiled him in five-years of guerilla warfare against the Home Guard and elements of the British Army. Firefights, scavenging for food, wounds, and survival became his everyday life.
With handmade rifles, fighting a large army well-equipped with automatics, sub-machine guns, spotter planes and bombers, the forest warriors retaliated with hit-and-run engagements. They often outmaneuvered the enemy which brought more danger. And though these skirmishes produced good rifles and hundreds of rounds of ammunition, they came at a high price. Eventually, alone, wounded, with a price on his head, Charlie surrendered to a citizen. This saved his life but being a prisoner sentenced him to a world of brutality.
This author has given a true accounting of life before and during the battle waged for freedom. He gives the reader an unvarnished picture of the fighters who would struggle, with spears and homemade guns, to at last free a repressed citizenry.