Forty Group

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The Forty Group ("Group Forty") was a Kenyan group that contributed significantly to the Mau Mau movement .

The name is a translation of the Kikuyu phrase Kiama kia 40 , which means something like "The young men from the 40s". Another name was Anake a 40 .

The Forty Group was founded in 1946 by Mwangi Macharia and several other former Kikuyu soldiers and also consisted of some members of the Kenyan African Union (KAU). Many of these members had just been discharged from service during World War II .

Forty Group was born out of the founders' impatience with the pace of the KAU's proposed changes and anger that protesters were shot at in Nairobi . They allied with the intention of using violence to give voice to their voice. Over time, they began to organize violent opposition to the white settlers. In addition, they joined other groups and began raiding shops and carrying out armed robberies. They took oaths and executed "traitors" who were unwilling to support their struggle for freedom.

From 1948 on, women were also involved when the workers on the Olenguruone agricultural settlement scheme went on strike: the women refused to take part in the work to clear land - which was necessary to maintain terraces that were supposed to prevent erosion . to participate if they were not previously entitled to their own land. Backed by the employers' associations, the answer was the colonial administrators - repression. The organization that was set up specifically for this purpose was later called the Land Freedom Army (LFA), whose violent resistance to colonial rule would later be better known than the Mau-Mau uprising itself.

Thus the Forty Group played a major role in the development of the Mau Mau movement.

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