Midnight Begins a New Era

When an exploitive minority government declares war on its ethnic majority the push-back brings about unintended consequences as individuals caught in the maelstrom strive to survive the upheaval. Much has been written about the Mau Mau uprising in Kenya during the latter half of the twentieth century but little is told of the individuals who lived through this precipitous period or the monumental changes they experienced immediately after the country became independent. This is their story.The colonial government has just arrested people it considers leading agitators for independence, an act that unleashes sudden and brutal changes resulting in dislocation of families of both the colonizers and the colonized. This is the story of four individuals as each copes with perpetual uncertainty and danger during these tumultuous times. Onesmus Mwaluko is the rural intermediate schoolteacher who is swept up as a purported follower of the much-feared Mau Mau. Julius Mwangangi, the teacher's student, finds himself without anyone to teach him until a chance encounter with a missionary optician who visits Kyamuvuko village.Adrian Markham is the son of a white settler-farmer in the white highlands of Kenya. His is a tale of a determined farmer trying to hold onto the business he inherited from his father. Darren Percival is also a second-generation white settler who chooses to go into teaching with the ideal that he would right some of the wrongs wrought on the native population by the colonial government.Their resiliency under unimaginable conditions is as remarkable as it is heart wrenching.