Dedan Kimathi and Black Liberation

Abstract

The Black History Month is a time of commemoration, celebration, and reflection on the African's past and present in order to chart a fruitful future. The African in this context is every black person who identifies with Africa in terms of ancestral origins, residence, or experience. An African is a person who collectively has been the victim of European oppression in the form of the Atlantic Slave Trade, of classical colonialism, of neocolonialism, and of postmodern colonialism. What it is that the African has done to deal with the condition he finds himself in has varied over time from total submission to violent confrontation with his oppressors. Interest here is on those who tried to turn the tables of violence on their oppressors. Amongst these was Dedan Kimathi wa Waciuri of Kenya in the IQ/SOS . He was executed by the colonialists in February 195 7 and so it is only fitting that he should be a center of reflection in the month of February which happens to be the Black History Month.