ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the processes of women's entry into full membership in the associations and examines the goals of the politicized women. According to Kikuyu women respondents, the combination of land alienation, forced recruitment of porters, and new levels of taxes became intolerable. The conflicts between the chief's organization and the Young Kikuyu Association were pivotal events in the evolution of Kikuyu nationalist politics. The use of women on the coffee estates and their labor in other enterprises, such as road building projects alongside men, were inflammatory actions instigated by the colonial government. This labor was compulsory, and it was the moderate chiefs who were immediately used to compel women to labor for Europeans. Most Kikuyu women identified the issue of female circumcision as an attempt by European missionaries to destroy the integrity of Kikuyu culture.
