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African peoples fought back against overbearing colonial demands during the First World War. With few exceptions, Africans had played almost no role in the decisions and acts that started the war, in defining war aims, or in determining how it would be prosecuted. Yet European colonial powers expected African participation in the war effort. They also expected Africans to demonstrate absolute loyalty to imperial causes. The colonizers' wartime priorities and the large-scale abuses they unleashed exposed the colonial state's exploitative capacities on a new scale. Many African politics fought to challenge or overturn the colonial order.

There is little written about the resistance to the establishment of the British colonial rule in Gusii. The scant knowledge available on this historical phenomenon in Kenya is inaccurate and intentionally distorted in favor of the colonial master. The truth, contrary to the incorrect histories presented by the British, is that the King's African Rival soldiers suffered a humiliating defeat in their initial encounter with Gusii warriors. It was a landmark historical event. Otenyo Nyamaterere is incorrectly portrayed as a frustrated and deranged lone-ranger who was high on narcotics when he attacked with a spear and injured the first District Commissioner of Kisii, Geoffrey Northcote. In a fierce rebuttal to this falsehood existing in colonial narratives, this book attempts to correct this erroneous portrayal of a lead warrior who valiantly came out in defense of the community and its lands.