Justice Theme Analysis

You think the mzungu is a fool. H’m. As we are talking now Gatotia, Gaceru, Gati, Mwendanda and Wambararia, Kimathi’s own brother, are wearing hoods, pointing out the terrorists and their supporters one by one. I myself fear something quite different. Angry mothers who have lost their husbands and children might want to tear that beastly Kimathi to pieces!

You want to change masters! A black master for a white master! Have you no other horizon? Except to be a slave! If you didn’t have better things to do, why, I would properly thrash you.

To a criminal judge, in a criminal court, set up by criminal law: the law of oppression. I have no words.

Two laws. Two justices. One law and one justice protects the man of property, the man of wealth, the foreign exploiter. Another law, another justice, silences the poor, the hungry, our people.

JUDGE: There’s no liberty without law and order.

KIMATHI: There’s no order and law without liberty.
Chain my legs,
Chain my hands,
Chain my soul,
And you cry, law and justice?
And the law of the people bids me:
Unchain my hands
Unchain my legs
Unchain my soul!

SETTLER: […]
You think it was easy?
And when I thought I would
sit down and enjoy the fruits of my labor
You struck.
I had perfect relationships with my boys
They were happy on my farm
I gave them posho, built them a school,
a dispensary…gave them everything
they needed
They loved me
Yes, at Olkalau they talked of my farm with awe: loyal, meek, submissive.
Then that devil, Field Marshal, came
Milk clerk, oath clerk, murderer!
Poisoned simple minds
led astray their God-fearing souls
with his black mumbo jumbo
My wife, my daughter, my property.
Now, now, you’ll die.

HENDERSON: The trouble with you, Dedan, is that you are too suspicious. Look, I come peacefully. I’m not armed.

KIMATHI: [severely]: No, not with a firearm. Only with words. Speeches. Sweet promises. Save your breath.

KIMATHI: [angry, grabs him by the neck]:
Life. My Life. Give up my life for your life.
Who are you, imperialist cannibal, to guarantee my life?
My life is our People.
Struggling
Fighting
Not like you to maintain
Slavery
Oppression
Exploitation
But
To end slavery, exploitation,
Modern cannibalism. Out. Rat.
Go back to your masters
and tell them:
Kimathi will never sell Kenya
to the British or to any other
Breed of man-eaters, now or in the years to come.

BUSINESS EXECUTIVE: It is not, eeh, exactly like that. But there have been two important announcements. They have said: No more racialism. No more colour bar. In public places. In administration. In business. In the allocation of loans. In the grabbing, well, in the acquisition of land. Partnership in progress, that’s the new motto. Is this not what we have been fighting for? Any black man who now works hard and has capital can make it to the top. We can become social directors of foreign companies. We can now buy land in the White Highlands. White Highlands no more. It’s now: willing Seller, willing Buyer.

POLITICIAN: War in the Forest. Words will do now. They have already given us seats in the Legislative Council. Great victory.

KIMATHI: Words. Words. Words. Game of diplomats!

KIMATHI: […] Listen and listen well. I will fight to the bitter end. Protect our soil. Protect our people. This is what I, Kimathi wa Wachiuri, swore at initiation.

HENDERSON: It will have to be from the hangman’s rope, Mr. Field Marshal.

KIMATHI: Already sentenced, am I? How is that for even handed British justice!
[laughs loudly, scornfully.]

It’s always the same story. Poor men sent to die so that parasites might live in paradise with ill-gotten wealth. Know that we are not fighting against the British people. We are fighting against British colonialism and imperialist robbers of our land, our factories, our wealth. Will you denounce British imperialism?

WOMAN: […]
When will you learn?
We shall continue to suffer
Until that day
We can recognize our own
Our true kinsmen
When we can correctly
Identify our enemies
What is this superstition about
Kindred blood even when it
turns sour and treacherous
to our long cherished cause?
My clansman, my kinsman,
My brother, my sister
If these are of my house
Let them honour
the oath of unity
Let them uphold
the struggle of liberation
from slavery, exploitation.
So whatever decisions we make
It must be wise in itself
It must advance our struggle
And not be made on the basis
of kindred blood.

KIMATHI: Time is money. Money is justice.
Justice is money. Moneyed justice.
Thirty pieces of silver.
Judases. Traitors.

KIMATHI: [addressing the people]:
So, go!
Organize in your homes
Organize in the mountains
Know that your only
Kindred blood is he
who is in the struggle
Denounce those who weaken
Our struggle
by creating ethnic divisions
Uproot from you those
Who are selling out to imperialism
Kenyan masses shall be free!