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Bethwell Alan Ogot, Historical Dictionary of Kenya, African Historical Dictionaries No. 29. Metuchen, NJ and London: Scarecrow Press, 1981, 279 pp., ISBN 0 8108 1419 6.

The emphasis of Bethwell Alan Ogot's Historical Dictionary of Kenya is on political personalities and on the post-independence period. Students of nationalism will find the biographical notes on the leading political activists from the 1940s and 1950s especially valuable, and the references to many prominent politicians in government since independence are also very useful. Kikuyu, Luo and Kamba 'nationalist' leaders from the colonial era are well represented, although those from other ethnic groups receive rather less attention. If political biography is the strength of this compilation, then it has to be said that the coverage of several important, and perhaps controversial, historical events is weak. It is not the purpose of a historical dictionary to pose or to answer historical questions, but the problems involved in the transfer of lands at independence under the Million Acre Scheme surely deserve fuller explanation, and the female circumcision crisis should be included either as a distinct entry or under the description of the Church of Scotland Mission (whose actions precipitated events), while the infamous Lari massacre during the emergency of the 1950s also merits a paragraph or two. To accompany the main body of the dictionary, Professor Ogot has provided us with more than fifty pages of bibliography on Kenya (covering publications up to 1980) and appendices listing the commissioners and governors of colonial Kenya and the Kenya Cabinet of June 1980. A fuller introduction and a rather less 'select' chronological chart would have helped readers to grasp something of the shape and dynamic of Kenya's history. This dictionary will certainly be an important acquisition for any reference library, although the tendency towards an emphasis on more contemporary events and personalities may require a revised and enlarged second edition before too long.