From the start the trade union movement played crucial part in the political struggle for freedom in Kenya. Makhan Singh, the author of this scholarly book, has for a long time been one of the most formidable figures in the growth of Kenya’s trade unions. In this careful and readable study, authen-tically based on personal knowledge and a deep study of all available documentary sources, he has outlined the growth of labour protest from the earliest years to the outbreak of the ‘Mau Mau’ Emergency. For the first time many of the forgotten heroes of this long struggle are given their rightful place and the book adds important new perspectives to the history of the nationalist movement in Kenya.
From the start the trade union movement played crucial part in the political struggle for freedom in Kenya. Makhan Singh, the author of this scholarly book, has for a long time been one of the most formidable figures in the growth of Kenya’s trade unions. In this careful and readable study, authen-tically based on personal knowledge and a deep study of all available documentary sources, he has outlined the growth of labour protest from the earliest years to the outbreak of the ‘Mau Mau’ Emergency. For the first time many of the forgotten heroes of this long struggle are given their rightful place and the book adds important new perspectives to the history of the nationalist movement in Kenya.
