In Search of the Truth

Abstract

It is impossible to prove whether there were any, and if so how many, human casualties of the second move, besides the deaths from old age and other natural causes that might be expected during any large-scale migration. Yet there is an enduring conviction in the Maasai community that hundreds if not thousands of people died from starvation, disease, exposure or gunshot wounds — a claim which suits the current mood for reparations. This is refuted in oral testimony from elders who took part in the move as children. Also, there are apparently no written reports of casualty figures or descriptions of Maasai being deliberately shot dead by British forces or African askaris under their control. This chapter will begin by comparing different accounts of what happened, then and now, before returning to the story of Leys’s investigations and the resumption of the second move. It will end by speculating about the identities and motivation of other pro-Maasai whistle-blowers who may have supplied Leys with information.

For heaven’s sake don’t think me a hero. I am only a cranky anachronism — a democrat in a country where every social, political and economic circumstance makes for slaver y … . Norman Leys^l