STATE OF EMERGENCY [Signed]

Signed copy
Hardcover, 30 x 24 cm, 448 pages
Swahili and English
Self-published by Max Pinckers, 2024
Text contributions by Hans Theys, Rose Miyonga, Suhayl Omar, Wangui Kimari and Julius Kimari
Design by Rudy Latoir, Hans Theys and Max Pinckers
Printed by Cultura (Graphius), Belgium
ISBN 9789082465563

State of Emergency - Harakati za Mau Mau kwa Haki, Usawa na Ardhi Yetu is an ongoing documentary project in collaboration with Mau Mau war veterans and Kenyans who survived colonial atrocities. In the form of in-person reenactments, or 'demonstrations', together they (re)visualise the fight for independence from British colonial rule in the 1950s, manifesting their past experiences in the present with a future audience in mind. With most of the colonial archives deliberately destroyed, hidden or manipulated, this project attempts to shine a light on this history’s blind spots by creating new ‘imagined records’ that fill in the missing gaps of historical archives. State of Emergency interweaves fragmentary colonial archives, photographs of architectural and symbolic remnants from the past, mass grave sites, demonstrations and the testimonies of people who experienced and survived the war themselves.