The boy is gone: conversations with a Mau Mau general

A story with the power to change how people view the last years of colonialism in East Africa, 'The Boy Is Gone' portrays the struggle for Kenyan independence in the words of a freedom fighter whose life spanned the twentieth century's most dramatic transformations.

Born into an impoverished farm family in the Meru Highlands, Japhlet Thambu grew up wearing goatskins and lived to stand before his community dressed for business in a pressed suit, crisp tie, and freshly polished shoes.

For most of the last four decades, however, he dressed for work in the primary school classroom and on his lush tea farm.