A shrewd observer, just back from the last of 'several
visits to Kenya, confessed himself unable to explain Mau Mau save in imponderable terms. His first contacts with the Nazi move- ment in 1934 had, he said, given him the same feeling of being up against the Powers of Darkness, but there the comparison ended. Mau Mau, with no really effective centralized leader- ship, with only primitive methods of control and cohesion and with no defined and attainable objectives, seethes with a kind of spontaneous malevolence; and my friend begins to wonder whether the frenetic compulsion now gripping the Kikuyu may not be of roughly the same nature as the mass urges which affect swarms of ants. He admits this to be a far-fetched theory, but no more far-fetched than any attempt to compare Mau Mau with nationalist revolutionary movements among less primitive peoples. The new rituals accompanying the administration of the oath are of an indescribable bestiality. They are without precedent in the known practices of the tribe and some think they have been introduced as a counter to the " cleansing " ceremonies instituted by the authorities; for confession plays a part in these ceremonies, and it would not be an easy thing to confess to having undergone the latest forms of initiation into Mau Mau. One encouraging thing about the cult is that (so far) it shows few signs of spreading to other tribes; and here again there is an analogy with ants, among whom feverish and exceptional activity in one com- munity in no way affects its neighbours.
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