The chapter we will be discussing in this workshop examines a key episode in the history of global conspiracist thought: speculative accounts and narratives regarding the Mau Mau Uprising in Kenya across mid-20th century Britain and its empire. In it, I argue that contemporary allegations about the uprising’s aim of “white genocide,” the Satanic rituals conducted by those who participated in it, and its role in global Communist plots should all be read as conspiracy theories which fundamentally shaped its history and attempts to suppress it. Reframing them as such allows us to see how speculative thinking about Mau Mau is part of a longer tradition of reading world events that continues to inform many of the most prominent iterations of conspiracism that shape Western politics and culture today. Developing this chapter also led to my second major research project, which aims to understand how the history of conspiracist literary production in European and African contexts shaped imperial governance and engagements with processes of decolonization on both of these continents.

Friday, February 28

Kaplan 348

1:00 - 2:30 PM Workshop

2:30 - 3:00 PM Reception

Cost : Free

Sponsor(s): African Studies Center, Comparative Literature