Research Article: “Blackshirts” and “Blacklists”: The Politics of Late-Colonial Central Kenya, 1958–1963

Very excited to announce the publication of my latest article – the last in a trilogy about local politics in Nyeri District in the years surrounding Kenyan independence. I’m very grateful to Itinerario, and especially Drs Tim Livsey and Miguel Bandeira Jerónimo for putting together this Special Edition re-evaluating the notion of “late-colonialism”.

The article takes a deep dive into the life and times of the Nyeri Democratic Party, one of the myriad of district parties that formed the formal predeccesor to national party politics in Kenya. I argue that the NDP represents the potency of battles over post-conflict justice in the making of the national political settlement. It shows how national elites, colonial officials and grassroots “bush politicans” were dragged into a triangular contest over the nature of independence. Give it a read (as well as its two predecessors with JAH and CSSAAME)!

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/itinerario/article/blackshirts-and-blacklists-the-politics-of-latecolonial-central-kenya-19581963/C1429D452CB46EAA21559A4891C44ACE