Ancestor's Wrath: a Kikuyu Elder's Cry from the other World
A traditional hut of the Ameru people - Meru Museum Introduction In the late 1800s, Kikuyu land was invaded by the Imperial British East Africa Company IBEA. This company ventured deep into the interior, following in the footsteps of Ludwig Krapf who had been as far as Chief Kivoi’s Kamba territory but had not yet gone into Kikuyu land. IBEA rushed in to take territory before the French and the Germans could take everything. The territory that was administered by the IBEA was eventually taken over by the British Government when the IBEA went bankrupt. The British Government built a railway line from the port of Mombasa to Port Florence (Kisumu) in 1900 and declared Kenya a British Colony twenty years later. The railway line opened up the interior of East Africa, and the previously reclusive Kikuyu farming community were finally conquered and subjected to British rule. A way of life was slowly eroded, including a democratic system of government where an entire generation was in power an...