ABSTRACT
[Introductory note: This essay was broadcast on the Third Programme of the B.B.C. and published in The Listener on 29 April 1954. I came to write it in the following way. The Editor of the Manchester Guardian asked me to review African Worlds, edited by C. D. Forde, and S. F. Nadel's Nupe Religion, in 300 words. I asked him if I could have a little more space, since both these books indicated that the reputed Mau Mau oaths, with their high obscenity, were not a return to African pagan religion, as was commonly alleged, but were quite a different kind of phenomenon. He thereupon invited me to write a 1,200 word leader page article on Mau Mau, and to review the books separately. My article produced a strong rejoiner from Sir Philip Mitchell, former Governor of Kenya, and a reply by myself, and by Professor Asa Briggs, as well as other letters. The B.B.C. then asked me to deliver a talk on the subject on the Third Programme.
