(3 of 5)
"But what can I do? Give up the farm? All my life savings are in it. And who would buy it anyway? Nobody in Kenya is such a bloody fool as to want to buy a farm, today!"
Relatively a Liberal
On his 1,200-acre farm at Subukia, near Nakuru, Yorkshire-born Michael Blundell, the burly, boyish-faced political leader of the white settlers, admitted there was something in the farmers' case. "I try to force the government to take bigger steps, provide more armed protection for isolated farms," he said, "but it takes weeks to get them to move." Blundell, as political leader of the dominant whites in a colony that is still run from London, is in a difficult position. His influence is considerable, but intangible; officially he has little power. The governor of Kenya may listen to Blundell, but has to take his orders from the Colonial Office.
Blundell arrived in Kenya 18 years ago as a "farm pupil." During the war he bought the site of his present farm. It was virgin bush. Today it is a trim model farm, with neat contours and terraces, fields of asparagus (canned for export) and sleek Guernsey cattle. Relatively speaking, he is a liberal. That is to say, he thinks the whites should run Kenya with only a junior position for the Indians and the Africans (each of whom outnumber the whites). But at the same time he believes in uplift for the aborigines. Or did.
"I used to think reforms, especially economic, would solve most race problems," said Blundell. "But you just can't fight Mau Mau with new schools and indoor lavatories." This is how Blundell sees Mau Mau: "The Kikuyu have acquired our civilization faster than any of the other tribes. Mau Mau, however, is confined to the Kikuyu. Why? We whites are to blame. We've forced the Kikuyu to try to assimilate 2,000 years of civilization in 50. The result has been mental bewilderment, spiritual frustration. Mau Mau is a deliberate going back to primitive ways. They're rebelling against us primarily for taking away from them what they had—their tribal customs, their social structure —and putting nothing really satisfying in its place."
Blundell has advised farmers to "get rid of all Kikuyu or at least never to let a Kikuyu enter the farmhouse after dark. I've been told this was drastic, brutal and unnecessary. But the Mau Mau oath has a terrible binding power. One Kikuyu who had worked on a farm for 25 years went to his bwana. 'I'm leaving,' he said. 'They made me take the Mau Mau oath. This means they may ask me to kill you and I won't want to be in a position where I could obey. So it's better I get off the farm.' The 'loyalest' Kikuyu can't be trusted if he has taken the oath, even if he was forced to take it."
On Blundell's own farm, the Mau Mau oath administrators arrived one night at the huts, tortured several of his Kikuyu into taking the oath. The victims were beaten almost to death, and half-strangled. Only one, a sobbing teen-ager dared confide in Blundell what had happened. And the chief oath administrator was a well-dressed, well-educated young Kikuyu whom the Blundells had fully trusted
Playing It Rough