In the forests of Mount Kenya and the Aberdares, between 1952 and 1960, Kikuyu fighters sang songs the colonial government never heard until it was too late. Some were ancient circumcision chants repurposed for war. Others were composed in the camps, verses added each time a new leader fell or a new camp was raided. The British banned certain melodies by name. Singing them became evidence of oath-taking. The music survived because it was memorized, not written, and because the people who sang it refused to forget.