AlexKeto.com

It would be tough to come up with a better pedigree for being a White Settler than the one Niels Fjastad has. Even in the womb, he was part of the settler community.

Niels’ father, Nils emigrated from Sweden in the first wave of settlers in 1913, a wave that would lay the foundation for Lord Delamere’s dream of turning Kenya’s central highlands into the white highlands. In addition, Nils was a close friend of Bror Blixen, the husband of Karen Blixen who wrote Out of Africa. Bror Blixen mentions Nils in his own memoirs.

After spending time in the central highlands, I became used to the constant overlap between the characters in Out of Africa and the Mau Mau rebellion. After some thought, the reason is obvious. When the settlers came, they chose the best land in Kenya for their farms. At least at first, little thought was given to the fact the Kikuyu occupied it. When the rebellion broke out, the battle grounds covered grounds such as Delamere’s estates and those of Berkeley Cole, a close friend of Karen Blixen. In a very real sense, when Karen Blixen planted her coffee trees hoping for a harvest in a few years, she was planting the seeds of a rebellion that would take less the fifty years to germinate.

When Niels was born in 1928 he said he was the first white child delivered in a newly built Nairobi hospital, something he was clearly proud of. Niels didn’t talk much about his childhood other than to mention his father owned a coffee farm in Kiamba. Following the end of World War II, Niels went to Sweden where he received military and naval training. When the Mau Mau rebellion began to gather steam in 1953, his parents asked him to return to help oversee the farm and to provide security. He arrived just before Christmas 1953 which would have meant he came just as the British and colonial forces were most stretched.

As was common among the settlers, both of Niels brothers had joined the colonial security forces either in the Kenyan Regiment or the Kenyan Police. Howeve, in the broader context, the fact that both of Niels brothers had to serve and he would also play a role should have been deeply worrisome to the settler community. At the time of the rebellion, only about 50,000 Europeans lived in Kenya and without British military forces rushed in from around the world, the rebellion likely would have turned out quite differently. As it was, the rebellion broke the power of the settlers forever. By the time the conflict ended, Great Britain had come to the conclusion crushing the rebellion had been too expensive both morally and financially. Kenya was put on a fast course to independence. In this respect, the rebellion succeeded.

In the regiment, the training aimed at teaching white soldiers how to serve as officers in black rank-and-file units. Also known as the Buffalo Regiment, the men in the Kenyan Regiment were particularly loathed by the Mau Mau, a feeling that was wholly reciprocated. The police played a less direct but still critical role in the rebellion.

However, by the time Niels had returned to Kenya, some of the actions by members of both the regiment and the police had attracted the attention of British authorities who began a number of investigations into human rights abuses. A close reading of the historical record shows that certainly some abuses took place, but it isn’t clear how extensive they were. Nor were atrocities committed only by the colonial security forces. Both British forces and Mau Mau units also beat or murdered prisoners when it suited them.

What is clear is that many of the colonists greatly resented British oversight and felt that the Mau Mau had learned that any accusation they made would spark a formal inquiry. Interesting enough, some in the fight against al-Qaida level the same charge that they have learned to manipulate their enemies.

Faced with this, Niels said he declined invitations from both the regiment and the Kenyan police and instead opted to form his own platoon of Kikuyu fighters. Although a dozen men volunteered to join the platoon and help hunt down the Mau Mau, Niels said he never trusted them enough to arm them with pangas, or heavy machetes. Instead, he gave them sharpened bamboo spears. Niels had acquired a surplus Willis jeep and used this to mount patrols.

Niels group made frequent contact with Mau Mau units but rarely did these amount to much. He said the Mau Mau were so tremendously fit from life in the forest and bush, they simply outran their pursuers.

In 1955, when the fighting was largely over, one of Niels’s brothers left the Kenya regiment and returned to the farm. By this time, there was little point in maintaining the patrols.