Dedan Kimathi

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Tens of thousands of anti-colonial fighters were in the camp

locked up In a school in Central Kenya, is a small building, to torture that once British colonial troops, prisoners.

A weathered sign on the outside describes it as a "torture chamber" serves as a reminder of what it is to be used, but the 91-year-old Wambugu wa Nyingi does not need to be reminded of that.

The small cell is one of several that were once on The Site and in 1959, he spent three months in solitary confinement within.

without a real bed and a bucket for the toilet in The Corner of the 2. 5m (8ft) of 2m space, he is not allowed to leave and was forbidden from communicating with anyone.

What Mweru High School was 60 years ago, the Mweru works Camp, one of a network of More Than 50 detention sites in Kenya is now.

In the camps of suspected Mau Mau fighters were held and subjected to brutal treatment, including torture, at the hands of the colonial Government .

Wambugu wa Nyingi, pictured shortly after his release, 60 years ago, and now was locked up, in More Than a dozen camps in The Mau Mau launched a vicious Guerrilla War in the year 1952, to land, which was of White Settlers after The British established The East African protectorate in 1895.

The Government responded by declared a state of emergency and detention of tens of thousands of men in the camps.

At the top, More Than 70 ' 000 people were at one time detained.

Shackled in detention militarily, the Mau have Mau defeated in 1956, as one of its leaders, Dedan Kimathi , was captured and later executed.

But The State of emergency lasted for a further three years. Kenya's independence came at the end of 1963, and Some historians argue that the Mau Mau uprising, a role in the acceleration of the end of the colonial rule.

This is a small hut from when The Site was a reception camp, still on The School grounds, Mr wa Nyingi is one of those who have taken accused, the Mau-Mau oath. From 1952 to 1959, he was moved by More Than a dozen camps, finally landing in Mweru, before they are released.

now He has difficulty walking, a result, he says, is tied up, while the hard work during his detention, forced. He also reminded, intentionally starved, and was knocked unconscious, during what was known as the Hola massacre in 1959.

a total of 11 prisoners at the Hola camp were found, were killed by The Guards and Mr wa Nyingi, who later gained consciousness and was accidentally taken to the morgue as one of those who had died.

It was All In an attempt to keep him, his faith in the anti-colonial struggle.

It is believed that a total of More Than 20,000 Mau Mau fighters were killed in the fighting, while they killed at least 1,800 African civilians and 32 White Settlers , The Historian David Anderson has written.

There were many other deaths due to harsh treatment and disease in the camp network.

Maintained cellsIn 2013, after a long legal battle on the part of the Mau-Mau veterans, including Mr wa Nyingi, acknowledged to be The British Government that "the Kenyans were subjected to torture and other forms of ill-treatment" and regretted that the "abuse" took place. Thousands of people received Compensation .

a total of 11 passengers were killed in the remote Hola camp in 1959 In the case of Mweru High School , not far from where Mr wa Nyingi was held in solitary confinement, is a building that was once a cell for prisoners.

It is now a class Room , but the rusty Barbed Wire that can be seen just above the panel in The Gap between the wall and the roof, made of metal instructions on the previous use.

are There more modern buildings in The School and on the campus, as the Vice-rector, Patrick Karaya says, is ideal in the former cell would be in use. But he is committed to the preservation of a few structures from the 1950s.

"We have decided that you must stay," he says. "Some people think that it's a myth [that this was a Mau Mau detention camp], but if you come and see and look at it, and we encourage you to touch it, you know, it is a reality.

"the fact That an educational institution, we always tell The Students to value history, because it has the story that made us what we are. "

It is also the attempt to extend The Act of remembrance, to those who visit The School .

A multi-national team of volunteers with The Museum of British colonialism (MBC) make a digital 3D reconstruction of the camp have created. and its buildings, how it looked once.

The Museum , it's only available online, is devoted to what he called the "restorative history" calls. On your website it describes as an effort to fill in the gaps where the story has been "removed, hidden or destroyed".

Barbed Wire from when this was a prison cell is still visible in a classroom at Mweru story is based on the physical and documentary evidence, as well as people, the memories of the events.

But it often relies on the willingness of officials to want the story to be told. Without that evidence, which can be deleted, and witnesses will not be heard.

destroyed The British Government either or misplaced documents refer to systematic torture in the camps, Mr Anderson writes.

at The same time, the post-independence Government did not want to celebrate, a violent and radical movement that could threaten his own vision for the country, Kenyan historian Vincent Simiyu says.

In the digital reconstruction can be seen by the spectators, The Buildings from The Inside and the outside, as she had been there once, It is these two forces, which led, in England and in Kenya, to the partial deletion of the history of the Mau have Mau and what happened to them. It is not so, that the violence was unknown, it was, it was hardly talked about in official circles.

The Mau-Mau conflict and the broader anti-colonial movement is part of the Kenyan curriculum, but the 26-year-old Kenyan, the MBC volunteers Chao Tayiana was not satisfied with what you learned.

"Despite Growing Up in Kenya, and go through the system of education, I knew very little about the fight," she says.

to Create digital 3D models Of warehouse, but concentrated in Central Kenya, polka dots were all over the country. There were also villages where women and children were forced To Live .

disappeared, But after independence in December 1963, these sites either, or were converted to other applications, Ms Tayiana, a digital heritage specialist says.

Some of the stones Mweru occupant Works were forced, are still visible in The School , she argues that the Mau feels Mau-fight "very abstract".

"We can. not in relationship to the actual experience of the people and the actual Websites Somewhere I can stand on and say, 'Something Happened here'. "

this is what drives you to create your fellow volunteers, the digital 3D models can be viewed online.

they started with Mweru and in the vicinity of Aguthi works Camp, which is now The Site of Kanguburi girls High School , as Some of the Physical Evidence still exists.

'forgiveness of The Past ' At Kanguburi, Anthony Maina, who is working in the Region for The National Museums of Kenya, points to a bathroom at the bottom of the door, in what is now a store Room , but was once a cell.

It was built under the earth, so the prison concentration camp guards could be survivors, they pour water in the cell, to prevent The Inmates from are, he says, citing The Testimony of a warehouse.

Barbed Wire can be seen from the 1950s, on the roof of another building, which was once one cell, and is now a storage Room .

The British authorities to persuade "de-oathing" ceremonies, Mau to renounce Mau suspects, The Struggle of The School and the name carries an echo of what used to The Site . Kangubiri is a change in The Local Kikuyu language, the English phrase, "" free," that reflects what was said to the prisoners, after they believed, were reformed.

Despite these warnings, Local Knowledge , and the Physical Evidence of what the pages were for, decades of official silence, the independence followed.

wanted to In the months building up to the time of independence, Founding Father , Jomo Kenyatta , distancing itself from radical land-redistribution policy, and was at pains to promote reconciliation with the white settler population.

you may also be interested in: In August 1963, he insisted on a white audience that he was "clear intention to look backward... We are going to forgive The Past ".

on another occasion, he described the Mau Mau as "hooligans", The Historian , Mr Anderson says. Later in the decade, Kenyatta described the Mau Mau as a "disease that has been eradicated and must never be forgotten again".

The Act of oblivion was relieved, as the Kenyan independence Government holds the official ban on the Mau Mau and it remained a banned organisation until 2003.

kenya

Source of news: bbc.com