Oath administrators were responsible for introducing the movement and reading vows to be repeated by those swearing their allegiance to the resistance.

The Mau Mau used torches in banana trees to signal their presence. 

Mau Mau fighters who chose to surrender would face a tribunal of judges. Some of them were housed in this now abandoned building in Nyeri, adjacent to the court house where Dedon Kimathi, a key leader of the resistance, was sentenced to death.

Remnants of the Mau Mau are often hard to find. Many artifacts and records have been destroyed, or are hidden, like this vinyl in a house in Nyeri.

Detainees were marked with symbols on their files: X - Confessed & Cooperative

The Mau Mau considered those who continued to work for white settlers to be traitors. Refusing to join the resistance was punishable by death.

According to survivor testimonies, one way the British military tortured Mau Mau suspects and prisoners was by forcing them to dig their own ditches, fill them with water, and lay in them for long periods of time.

Mau Mau fighters who chose to surrender identified themselves by carrying green branches in front of their faces.