An Uncertain Age. Paul Ocobock
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.
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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