An Uncertain Age
NEW AFRICAN HISTORIES
SERIES EDITORS: JEAN ALLMAN, ALLEN ISAACMAN, AND DEREK R. PETERSON
Books in this series are published with support from the Ohio University Center for International Studies.
David William Cohen and E. S. Atieno Odhiambo, The Risks of Knowledge
Belinda Bozzoli, Theatres of Struggle and the End of Apartheid
Gary Kynoch, We Are Fighting the World
Stephanie Newell, The Forger’s Tale
Jacob A. Tropp, Natures of Colonial Change
Jan Bender Shetler, Imagining Serengeti
Cheikh Anta Babou, Fighting the Greater Jihad
Marc Epprecht, Heterosexual Africa?
Marissa J. Moorman, Intonations
Karen E. Flint, Healing Traditions
Derek R. Peterson and Giacomo Macola, editors, Recasting the Past
Moses E. Ochonu, Colonial Meltdown
Emily S. Burrill, Richard L. Roberts, and Elizabeth Thornberry, editors, Domestic Violence and the Law in Colonial and Postcolonial Africa
Daniel R. Magaziner, The Law and the Prophets
Emily Lynn Osborn, Our New Husbands Are Here
Robert Trent Vinson, The Americans Are Coming!
James R. Brennan, Taifa
Benjamin N. Lawrance and Richard L. Roberts, editors, Trafficking in Slavery’s Wake
David M. Gordon, Invisible Agents
Allen F. Isaacman and Barbara S. Isaacman, Dams, Displacement, and the Delusion of Development
Stephanie Newell, The Power to Name
Gibril R. Cole, The Krio of West Africa
Matthew M. Heaton, Black Skin, White Coats
Meredith Terretta, Nation of Outlaws, State of Violence
Paolo Israel, In Step with the Times
Michelle R. Moyd, Violent Intermediaries
Abosede A. George, Making Modern Girls
Alicia C. Decker, In Idi Amin’s Shadow
Rachel Jean-Baptiste, Conjugal Rights
Shobana Shankar, Who Shall Enter Paradise?
Emily S. Burrill, States of Marriage
Todd Cleveland, Diamonds in the Rough
Carina E. Ray, Crossing the Color Line
Sarah Van Beurden, Authentically African
Giacomo Macola, The Gun in Central Africa
Lynn Schler, Nation on Board
Julie MacArthur, Cartography and the Political Imagination
Abou B. Bamba, African Miracle, African Mirage
Daniel Magaziner, The Art of Life in South Africa
Paul Ocobock, An Uncertain Age
An Uncertain Age
The Politics of Manhood in Kenya
Paul Ocobock
OHIO UNIVERSITY PRESS
ATHENS
Ohio University Press, Athens, Ohio 45701
© 2017 by Ohio University Press
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Ocobock, Paul, 1980– author.
Title: An uncertain age : the politics of manhood in Kenya / Paul Ocobock.
Other titles: New African histories series.
Description: Athens : Ohio University Press, 2017. | Series: New African histories | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017001261| ISBN 9780821422632 (hc : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780821422649 (pb : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780821445983 (pdf)
Subjects: LCSH: Coming of age—Kenya—History—20th century. | Masculinity—Political aspects—Kenya—History—20th century. | Young men—Kenya—Social conditions—20th century. | Conflict of generations—Kenya—History—20th century. | Kenya—Social conditions—20th century. | Kenya—Colonial influence. | Kenya—Politics and government—To 1963.
Classification: LCC DT433.575 .O26 2017 | DDC 967.6203—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017001261
Contents
Chapter 1. An “Arbitrary Line”: Male Initiation and Colonial Authority
Chapter 2. “I Wanted to Make Something of Myself”: Migration, Wage Labor, and Earning an Age
Chapter 3. “I Saw a Paradise”: Growing Up on the Streets of a Colonial City
Chapter 4. “The Old Way . . . the Only Way”: Corporal Punishment and a Community of Disciplinarians
Chapter 5. “Jaili Watoto,” the Children’s Jail: Reforming the Young Male Offender
Chapter 7. “We’re the Wamumu Boys”: Defeating Mau Mau; Creating Youth at the End of Empire