An insurrection movement mainly composed of members of the Kikuyu tribe who fought against British rule in Kenya between 1952 and 1956 following forcible resettlement of black "squatters" on white-owned land. The Mau Mau became notorious for gruesome savagery, particularly in enforcing the local version of omertà on other Kikuyu, which was naturally well publicised in the British press. The counter-insurgency operations during what was known as the Kenyan Emergency conducted by both local police and British troops - this was one of the last theatres of war in which conscripted national servicemen fought - were also brutal, if not equally so. The Mau Mau uprising was defeated (one of the few post-war instances of a European power winning a colonial war) but even though only 32 white civilians died during the period in question it put the frighteners on the inhabitants of Happy Valley and led to an acceleration in the pace of reform and decolonialization; Kenya gained its independence under the relatively benign rule of Jomo Kenyatta in 1963.
World-musicish band from Turin, formed in 1991 by Luca Morino (guitar/vocals), Fabio Barovero (accordion/vocals) and Bienvenu Taté Nsongan (percussion/vocals), who remain as the core of a fairly variable geometry six- to eight-piece group and even an occasional marching band and choir lineup, the Banda Maulera. There was something of a dialect revival on at the time in the Italian alternative scene, with Neapolitan rap and Venetian reggae bands springing up, and the Mau Mau initially chose to sing in Piedmontese rather than standard Italian, although later albums mix the two. Aligned with the local bits of the anti-globalisation movement.
Discography
Releases prior to 2000 are on EMI/Vox Pop, later ones on Mescal. I'd personally recommend the extremely danceable-to Sauta Rabel as the one most worth tracking down. The band's own website is at http://www.maumau.it