African Jubilee: Mau Mau Resurgence and the Fight for Fertility in Kenya, 1986-2002

• Published in: Revue canadienne d'études du développement Vol. 22; no. 4; pp. 1037 - 1088
• Main Authors: Turner, Terisa E., Brownhill, Leigh S.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Canada Taylor & Francis Group 01.01.2001; Canadian Association for the Study of International Development
• Subjects: Agriculture - economics; Agriculture - education; Agriculture - history; Agriculture - legislation & jurisprudence; Commodification; Culture; Fertility - physiology; Food - history; Gender Identity; History of medicine; History, 20th Century; History, 21st Century; Income - history; Kenya - ethnology; Land claims; Ownership - economics; Ownership - history; Ownership - legislation & jurisprudence; Politics; Politics & government; Social Behavior; Social Class; Social Welfare - economics; Social Welfare - ethnology; Social Welfare - history; Social Welfare - legislation & jurisprudence; Social Welfare - psychology; Socioeconomic Factors; Transients and Migrants - education; Transients and Migrants - history; Transients and Migrants - legislation & jurisprudence; Transients and Migrants - psychology; Women; Women's Rights - economics; Women's Rights - education; Women's Rights - history; Women's Rights - legislation & jurisprudence; Women, Working - education; Women, Working - history; Women, Working - legislation & jurisprudence; Women, Working - psychology; Kenya; Africa
• ISSN: 0225-5189; 2158-9100
• DOI: 10.1080/02255189.2001.9669954

This study examines a key moment in the "fight for fertility" in post-colonial Kenya: the large-scale reappropriation of land by landless people across Kenya in the new millennium. This rebirth of the 1950s Mau Mau armed struggle for "land and freedom" is pursued through the 4.5 million-strong Congress-Mungiki in Kikuyu-and the Organization of Villagers-Muungano wa Wanavijiji. It is a struggle between subsistence and commodification, which is conceptualized as a fight for control over fertility. Fertility is understood as the capacity to produce people, food, cultural expressions, social networks, and natural and built space. The fight for control over fertility is a three way struggle amongst i) women producers and their male allies who seek to defend and revive subsistence, ii) Kenyan "male dealers" who seek to control women's labour and other production resources within commodified capitalist relations, and iii) international capitalists and their governmental brokers. The study examines ten cases of land occupation and assesses the gains and losses to each of the three sets of actors in the fight for fertility. It concludes that women subsistence producers and their allies in gendered class alliances have gained much ground and that the Kenyan land occupations are part of the movement for globalization from below to rebuild the civil commons alternative to corporate rule.