Niels Boender

One for the diary! If you're in Nairobi, do come along to
the British Institute in East Africa to listen to me present some findings on the history of social security in the region. Alternatively, you can join online. 4 pm EAT on the 18th of September

Register here: biea.ac.uk/events/the-o...

One for the diary! If you're in Nairobi, do come along to
the British Institute in East Africa to listen to me present some findings on the history of social security in the region. Alternatively, you can join online. 4 pm EAT on the 18th of September

Register here: biea.ac.uk/events/the-o...

Crowd-sourcing opportunity! At GLOSOC, we are putting together a virtual exhibition on Work and the Global History of Social Rights since the nineteenth century. The exhibition is targeted at school students and adults, and we need your help and suggestions for items to include!

Very happy to see my latest article published with
@thejah.bsky.social - the second in what will be a trilogy of articles on the legacy of Mau Mau and local politics in Central Kenya. In this article, I take a look at the African Independent Pentecostal Church, the religious arm...

Neo–Mau Mau and Ex-Loyalists: The Politics of Chieftaincy in Central Kenya, 1960–69 Abstract. Anti-colonial conflict and the process of decolonization produced fractions within communities that manifested in local debates about ideology, colonial legacies, and the spatialization of postcolonial power. This process appears particularly clearly in the aftermath of the Mau Mau uprising in Central Kenya, where rivalry between colonial loyalists and former anti-colonial insurgents persisted despite the postcolonial elite's homilies of reconciliation. This article focuses on the position of the “chief,” a local agent of the central state whose occupants had been at the vanguard of the colonial State of Emergency. In demanding that chiefs be elected after independence, radical nationalists and ex-fighters in the branches of the Kenya African National Union party sought to reshape for whom and how political power was to be exercised. Across the region, controversies erupted as some colonial chiefs stayed in place, outspoken radicals replaced others, and elsewhere, former Mau Mau became loyal servants of centralized power. This local lens reveals these fractures within local communities along the lines of class and power, rewriting a narrative of Kenyan postcolonial statehood that has so often emphasized ethnicity and the overweening power of the bureaucratic apparatus. Decolonization hereby appears as a continuously negotiated and incomplete process.

Do also have a look at my article published last month, in Comparative Studies in South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East on ex-Mau Mau and ex-loyalist chiefs - also focusing on Nyeri in the 1960s. read.dukeupress.edu/cssaame/arti...

and an inheritor of the tradition of the Kikuyu Independent Schools Association. I explore attempts to resurrect the movement in the aftermath of Kenya's independence, in the context of efforts among political elites to reconcile post-Mau Mau grievances. Give it a read!

Very happy to see my latest article published with
@thejah.bsky.social - the second in what will be a trilogy of articles on the legacy of Mau Mau and local politics in Central Kenya. In this article, I take a look at the African Independent Pentecostal Church, the religious arm...

Thrilled to say that my most recent article has been released. It appears in Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East, on the politics of chieftaincy in decolonising Central Kenya, where many ex-Mau Mau found their way into local politics. read.dukeupress.edu/cssaame/arti...

It was a great pleasure to be part of this Special Edition on Decolonisation's Discontents, conceived at an excellent workshop in Boston in 2023. Do give @emleake.bsky.social's introduction and all the other contributions a read as well!

Thrilled to say that my most recent article has been released. It appears in Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East, on the politics of chieftaincy in decolonising Central Kenya, where many ex-Mau Mau found their way into local politics. read.dukeupress.edu/cssaame/arti...

Happy Labour Day! To mark the occasion, our project member @roryhanna.bsky.social has authored a blog on the 1955 protests by the labour movement in West Germany demanding a five-day week - with some very pertinent contemporary resonances!

medium.com/p/bc26223cafcf

We are very happy to announce our exciting program for our first project workshop, 5-6 June, on "Writing Global Histories of Socio-Economic Rights"

See www.glosoc.org/events/ for a text version of the programme and for details to register for online and in-person attendance.

Fascinating insights this morning from on postcolonial freedom fighters in 1960s Kenya, as part of the Global Geographies of Veteran History panel by @nielsboender.bsky.social

Ranging from FWW Canada, to Kashmiri half-widows, to child -soldiers in the DRC this is a global and trans-historical exploration of the questions of return - embracing contributions from across the humanities disciplines. Now available in hardback and Ebook!

Thrilled to finally announce the release of our edited collection - Homecoming Veterans in Literature and Culture. I am incredibly grateful to the brilliant contributors who have established 'Homecoming' as an analytical lense for understanding veterans' return

www.routledge.com/Homecoming-V...

SHoW's heading to Potsdam!

📢 Call for Papers – SHoW 2025
🗓 27–28 November 2025
📍University of Potsdam
📝 Abstracts due: 30 June

How do societies understand, justify, and remember war and violence? And how do cultures resist, represent, or misrepresent it?

All details can be found below! ⬇️

Give this blog a read - where I explore an interesting bit of correspondence between Julius Nyerere and the pro-Western International Confederation on Free Trade Unions on the future of trade unions in Africa.

African Studies Seminar: Researching Reconciliation and Repression in 1960s Kenya Niels Boender

If you're anywhere near Oxford this Thursday come along at 15:30 for my talk in the African Studies Seminar on reconciliation and repression in 1960s Kenya!

www.africanstudies.ox.ac.uk/event/resear...

Call for Papers for our first event! Join us at our hybrid workshop - Writing Global Histories of Socio-Economic Rights at the University of Sheffield, 5-6 June 2025. Please send us a keyword, abstract, and bio at glosoc@sheffield.ac.uk. The deadline is 15 February. See more details below!

UK hands over colonial files to Kenya, including documents on Mau Mau The British government has handed over to Kenya a large volume of digitised archives relating to British colonial rule in the country.

www.citizen.digital/news/uk-hand...

About time! 🎉

We've published our first two blogs for our GLOSOC project. Find out about the diversity of approaches to social rights across both time and space in Europe and Africa. From Bismarck's Germany to the era of Structural Adjustment, we sketch the broad outlines of our project.

medium.com/@glosoc

Had a really wonderful time at the @sochistorywar.bsky.social conference in Nicosia last week. Authentically a wonderful group of people - and in an incredibly fascinating (and relevant) location. Next year in Potsdam!

We are live! Our AHRC research project Global Socio-Economic Rights, Local Contexts Work in East Africa and Western Europe, 1880 to the Present, has now fully started! We will be using this page to share some of our exciting work over the coming years. Check out the website here: glosoc.org