A few days ago, Olivia travelled from London to meet with Susan and Mary in Nairobi for the very first time and began the next steps in helping our upcoming projects come together.
The first few days were busy getting acclimatised and meeting people. We welcomed some new members to the research team, including Adam Rodgers John and Evans Maingi and chatted widely with people in Nairobi about our work.
Over the weekend the team took one of our first visits to The Standard Newspaper archive, to search through their collection for photographs and documents relating to the Mau Mau Emergency. We found some fascinating images of detention camps, many unlike any we’ve seen before, as well as Mau Mau and colonial soldiers, several other locations significant to the Emergency (such as caves used as hide-outs by the Mau Mau), and images of screening centres where suspects were interrogated. The images may prove incredibly helpful in mapping the physical locations and remnants of the camps, and creating digital recreations of the sites.
Throughout the rest of the research trip, we will be meeting with many others to help our exhibition and documentary come together; talking with veterans, visiting monuments and historic sites, and undertaking more archival research. So keep your eyes peeled on here and our social media for updates!