The first part of this article studies the way scientists mobilise "others" (like documents, people, "the" truth,...) to construct their Mau Mau. More specifically I focus on the regularly used claim of "outsider" and I question if scientists can not reflex (namely include themselves; not reflect) more on colonialism and postcolonialism or the historical and actual power relations which form the
... [Show full abstract] base of the so-called black-white contrast. In the second part I talk about strategies of authors/witnesses to take position in the so-called Mau Mau memoirs. I investigate the image of literacy as a guarantee for "truth and representation"; an image especially used by the first generation of Mau Mau writers. By confronting this image with younger memoirs, however, one has to conclude that there was internal discussion: saying "we are one and the others are outcasts or komerera" and using internal explicit violence is an expression of a search for a power balance or superior power, then and now. Finally, in my conclusion I defend the idea that both groups (scientists and ex-Mau Mau) have more in common than has been thought (or hoped).
