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Memory, materiality, and the afterlives of British-colonial detention camps

Friday 4 October

Join us for a talk for Black History Month on the material remnants of British colonial detention camps and their memorialisation in Kenya.

 

From 1952-1960, it is estimated that over 100 detention camps were constructed across Kenya by the British-colonial administration to detain and ‘rehabilitate’ suspected insurgent fighters during the Mau Mau Emergency.

Many were temporary and quickly dismantled at the end of the conflict, but those constructed with concrete, brick, and iron still stand, and have been widely re-used as prisons, hospitals, and schools. In this process of transformation, confinement cells have been repurposed as classrooms and storage rooms, guards’ quarters as offices, and trenches as banana plantations.

This talk with Hannah McLean, SGSAH PhD Candidate, will explore the material remnants of the camps that still survive, the memories that are held by former detainees, and the nature (and future) of their re-use and memorialisation in Kenya.

This event is part of Black History Month Scotland 2024. For more information and the full programme please go to www.blackhistorymonthscotland.org

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