Trapped in History: Kenya, Mau Mau and Me

by Nicholas Rankin

Trapped in History tells how the British colonised Kenya and how African nationalism arose under Jomo Kenyatta. It describes the terrifying first attacks by the guerrilla freedom fighters known as Mau Mau. Though defeated, the Mau Mau hastened the end of British rule in Kenya. Trapped in History explores the effect the uprising on the author, who grew up as a child in the Kenya colony.

The book is both a history, as well as a memoir, of the end of Empire.

Genres: History

753 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 14, 2023

About the author

Nicholas Rankin (b. 1950) is an English writer and broadcaster. He was born in Yorkshire, but grew up in Kenya. He was educated at Shrewsbury School and Christ Church, Oxford. He has lived and worked in Bolivia and Catalonia, Spain.

He worked for the BBC World Service for 20 years. He was Chief Producer, Arts, at the BBC World Service, when his eight-part series on ecology and evolution, A Green History of the Planet, won two UN awards.

He currently works as a freelance writer and broadcaster and lives in London with his wife, the novelist Maggie Gee. He has one daughter, Rosa.

He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2009.

Reviews

[Andrew Crofts]

Great history book made topical by Israel and Gaza

This is a scholarly history of colonial Kenya, leavened by some “white mischief” style personal memories, making it compulsively readable. The horrors inflicted by both the British and the Mau Mau are a chilling reminder that nothing which is currently happening in Gaza is new. Every nation has blood on their hands and we have learned almost nothing from our past mistakes.

[William Pike]

This book is full of anecdotes and information about Kenya and is well worth reading on that account. But it is too long and contains too many digressions into tangential topics. Perhaps this book suffers from the same problem as my book Combatants which provided too much detail about Ugandan politics for the average English reader. Let's hope it sells well in Kenya.

[Heather G]

Very informative

It was a very well written, informative book that interconnected the author's childhood with the history of Kenya. I highly recommend it.

[Karl Cook]

Loving the anecdotal approach and the gutsy, raw narrative but it's taking a while to read... More to follow!

[Lucy]

Dragged

[Eric Randolph]

There are few general histories of colonial Kenya and this is well researched and written. It's a little overlong in places but fairly balanced.