"That is the path to disaster," says a strong voice, and all eyes turn to the mouth of the cave, where Jomo Kenyatta is standing, surrounded by a small force of painted Kikuyu.
"Burning Spear!" exclaims Kimathi, surprised. "I did not know you were free!"
"It is not something the British wish to publicize," says Kenyatta as he walks forward. "But it was essential that I escape and join you, because this battle cannot be won by the methods you described."
"Then we will make them pay in blood for every Kikuyu they kill!" says Kimathi passionately.
"There are far more British than Kikuyu," says Kenyatta. "Is that really what you want-to trade a Kikuyu life for a British life until one side or the other runs out of lives, for I can tell you which side will run out of lives first."
"What have they done to you?" demands Kimathi. "You were the first to advocate independence!"
"And I still do."
"Then we must drive the British from our land!"
"I agree."
Kimathi frowns. "What are you saying?"
"The day of our hoped-for independence began in sunshine and fair weather-but we have already reached the twilight, and this Mau Mau war, these atrocities, have done nothing but guarantee that the British will not leave. Soon it will be dark, and the rays of hope will vanish as surely as the rays of sunshine."
"How would you get them to leave?" asks General China. "Ask them politely?"
Kenyatta shakes his head. "They will not go because I ask them. They will not go because you ask them. But when the right people ask them, they will go." He holds a book up above his head. "Does anyone know what this is?"
"A book," replies a warrior.
"Ah, but what book?"
"A British bible?" guesses the warrior.
"It is a novel called Something of Value, written by an American named Robert Ruark. Even as we stand here, it is the best-selling book in the English-speaking world."
"What is that to us?" demands Kimathi, aggressively hiding the fact that he cannot read.
"It is about the Mau Mau. It depicts us as savages, not fit to rule ourselves. In this book we do nothing but maim and torture and mutilate."
"Good!" says Kimathi. "That should frighten them."
Kenyatta sighs deeply and shakes his head. "I have lived in England. They will never abandon their colonists to face such savagery as this book has convinced them that we will commit. You keep expecting the Americans, who fought the British to gain independence, to help us-but I tell you that no American will help the Kikuyu that are depicted in this book."
"Then what would you have us do?" says Kimathi. "I swore a blood oath: I will never call a white man Bwana again. I will never rest while the penalty for killing a white man is death and the penalty for killing a Kikuyu is a twenty-five-pound fine. I will never pay a hut tax to the British, who force us to work on their farms-their farms on our homeland!" He pulls himself up to his full height and thrusts his jaw forward. "Never!" he roars.
"Never!" yell a number of the assembled Kikuyu.
"I agree," says Kenyatta. "I have been fined and beaten and jailed for my beliefs. They have not changed. But because I know how the world works, and you have lived all your lives in Kikuyuland, which in turn is only a very small portion of Kenya, you lack the experience to deal with the British."
"All your experience got you was a jail sentence!" says General Burma.
"Use your brain," says Kenyatta, suddenly annoyed that no one can intuit what he is trying to say, that he must carefully explain it step by step as if to a roomful of children. "Why do you think that I was the only one they jailed before Mau Mau? All your other leaders were fined, but only I have been kept away from you." He pauses. "It is because only I know how to drive the British from our land."
"We will not bow and beg," says Kimathi stubbornly.
"No one is asking you to."
"Then what?"
"You must trust me," says Kenyatta. "I know how our enemy thinks, how he reacts. I can still lead you to independence, but time is running out and you must do exactly what I say."
"I am the leader of Mau Mau!" says Kimathi. "We will do it my way!"
"I put it to you," says Kenyatta to the Kikuyu. "You have done it Deedan Kimathi's way for three long years and where has it gotten you? Twenty thousand Kikuyu, those loyal to us and those loyal to the British, are dead, and less than one hundred British have died. Once we owned the White Highlands, and our tribal lands extended to Nairobi in the south and the Rift Valley to the west. Now we hide in caves atop the Aberdares and the holy mountain, and that is all we have left. Will you continue to follow Deedan Kimathi, or will you follow me?"
As one, the Kikuyu jump to their feet and pledge their loyalty to the Burning Spear.
Kimathi turns to Kenyatta. "You have won," he says bitterly. "The army is yours."
Kenyatta shakes his head. "We are in the midst of a war, and the army needs a leader. It is yours."
Kimathi frowns. "Then I don't understand…"
"The army," says Kenyatta with a smile, "will respond to the commands of one general-you. And you will respond to the commands of one general-me."
"I hope you know what you are doing."
"I know exactly what I am doing," says Kenyatta. He raises his voice for all to hear. "I am not just the Spear, I am the Burning Spear-and what does a burning spear do?"
"It stabs!" cry a number of warriors.
"And what else?"
There is a puzzled silence.
Kenyatta smiles a confident smile. "It illuminates."
Kenyatta has set up his headquarters in the densest part of the forest on Kirinyaga, at an altitude of about nine thousand feet. He knows he would be safer in Mombasa, or even on the Loita Plains in Maasailand, but he thinks it is important that his warriors be able to see that he is here with them, and he understands the importance of symbolism, which is why he is on the holy mountain rather than in the nearby Aberdares, which cover far more territory.
He is sitting on a wooden stool-he finds he no longer has the energy he had before his incarceration, and can no longer stand for hours on end-and one of his generals, this one a General Tibet (Kenyatta is sure the man has no idea where Tibet is located), is reporting the latest disaster: a squadron of British commandoes has ambushed twenty Mau Mau warriors and killed every last one of them. It occurred near the Gura Falls, about thirteen thousand feet up in the Aberdares.
Kenyatta sighs deeply. "It begins," he says.
"I do not understand, Burning Spear," says General Tibet.