The blog belongs to Prof Gatua wa Mbũgwa .While visiting, I came across this video here released by the British on the capture of Field Marshall Dedan Waciuri Kimathi, heroic head of the Mau Mau resistance. What struck me most about the video was the characterisation of Kimathi as a terrorist hell-bent on making the British colony of Kenya ungovernable. Nowhere is there even the slightest rumour of recognition that the British were imposing themselves, nor that the resistance was a legitimate struggle.

This is the kind of deep-rooted conception of the MauMau that persists in the British psyche to this day, and sadly the one that was transferred to us through colonisation and the complicity of the independence government.

Given that the British did not seek our consent in invading our country, and plucking the best lands for their exclusive use, corralling us into reserves and indentured labour was their regime in any way rightful? Why then call Kimathi a terrorist for resisting this oppression? It is this wholesale demonisation of resistance to external control on our destiny that has led us down the path of low self-esteem as black people, and that currently prevents us transforming ourselves into economic powerhouses.

Instead we are restricted to what these external forces desire of us, what the World Bank and IMF see as our potential, the reach of our ability.

Almost half a century on, it is crucial that we as Kenyans confront the stature of the MauMau and realise that we would never have gained our independence without their sacrifice. The blood of these ‘terrorists' purchased our land and our freedom. In the video published, you hear the British glorify the captors of Kimathi, detailing their betrayal and the blood-money that they will receive. Did these men now know that Kimathi was in the forest struggling for their freedom? As they captured him, did they treat him with dignity? Let's reflect on how the trajectories of these 'self-fulfilling' prophecies have affected our self-esteem ,our intuitions and our ability to operate independent of the west.

With the mindset inherited from our colonial oppressor still intact, will we ever become the masters of our destiny or will we seek like the guards in the videos to do right by our masters? Striving all the time to be more like him, to please him ever more?

Why do we look down on those who hold dear to their ancient culture and customs? Why do we laugh at those with broken or non-existent English? Have we so lost everything that is ours, that hating ourselves becomes and easier, gentler task?

Ngugi wa Thiong'o believes that when you erase a people's language, you erase their memory. And people without memories are rudderless, unconnected to their own histories and culture, mimics who have placed their memories in a "psychic tomb" in the mistaken belief that if they master their coloniser's language, they will own it.

Africans, says Ngugi, must master their own languages before they master foreign languages that neither reflect their histories nor their memories, just like all the continental Europeans, who first learn their own language, be it German or Greek, before learning other European languages.

This is what inspires. Prof  Mbũgwa to write in Gikuyu, believing that unless we take an honest view of ourselves, focusing on what happened to us historically, where we are coming from; we will remain forever wounded and our communal self-worth eroded.