The Rhetoric of ‘Speaking in Tongues’ amongst the Mbeere Mau Mau in Colonial Embu

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The article aims to understand the Mau Mau secrets that probably prolonged the war from the insurgents' perspectives before a severe blow from pseudo-gangs and home guards. The Mbeere preserved and guarded the secret communication against irresponsible ears for survival. This article builds on previous research on the Mau Mau movement secrecy and survival system that involved evasion, deception, dodging and secret languages of the Mau Mau participants. The article argues that 'guarded words of secrecy' sustained the Mau Mau war of decolonisation longevity over the colonial idea of a quick victory. The control of words for social order in colonial Kenya stretched from the movement's core to the peripheral regions where the Mbeere lived. To earn the movement moments of greatness, words of confidentiality exerted a positive force until oath takers failed to control their vocals to invasive British ears. As counterinsurgency measures, the British Intelligence used the words of secrecy to infiltrate and enforce an array of enforcement measures that ultimately dismantled the Mau Mau movement. The Kikuyu, Embu, Meru, and the 'forgotten' Mbeere insurgents, irrespective of their gender, and those who failed to 'circumcise' their mouth, contributed to the failure of Mau Mau's realisation of the imagined state. The Mbeere, just like any other subaltern group, were subject to the activity of the ruling group. For example, the oath, oath ritual, argots, and the songs they sang originated from the Kikuyu. The historical materials and their representation ignored the Mbeere Mau Mau adherents who subverted the British Intelligence prolonging the war but focused on the lauded communities in Mau Mau historiography.