At this year’s Mashujaa Day celebrations, President Uhuru Kenyatta cast as heroes those who resisted brutal colonial occupation and others who fought for Independence. He also mentioned Wangari Maathai and Professor Ali Mazrui as heroes. He conveniently forgot to say that the latter two did not just achieve international stature, they had also fought hard against the Kanu regime.

Uhuru’s narrative was a rehearsal of the official view of African history crafted by nationalism. According to this rendition, the pre-colonial era was a democratic paradise where various African communities lived harmoniously with each other, a state of affairs that was disrupted by an oppressive colonial occupation. After the defeat of colonialism, the story goes, Africa reclaimed its democratic traditions.

This idealistic retelling of African history is now official, documented in school history books and rehearsed during the marking of national days. The truth, however, is a lot more inconvenient for both our cultural nationalists and those who hold power, for the common denominator in all three historical eras — pre-colonial, colonial and post-colonial — is brutal tyranny.

Let’s take torture, for instance. Many books have documented the various methods of torture used in pre-colonial traditional societies to extract information from people suspected of wrongdoing.

Likewise, many books, including most prominently Caroline Elkins’ Imperial Reckoning: The Untold Story of Britain’s Gulag in Kenya – have documented the widespread employment of torture during the colonial era. Similarly, books by and recollections of political prisoners during the Independence era show that torture of non-conformists had become part of the official governing practice, with states such as Kenya constructing made-for-purpose torture chambers.

Protest during all three eras meant death, imprisonment or exile. In pre-colonial Africa, there were no avenues for articulating alternative views from those held by the ruling gerontocracy. Those foolhardy enough to express dissatisfaction had to flee with their followers to set up “new” communities. Books on the rule of the Kabakas in Uganda, including by African scholars, depict the Kabaka as a brutal autocrat, who would not hesitate to put to death anyone suspected of dissent.

In the colonial era, dissenters were exiled to far off lands, imprisoned or assassinated, a fate that would befall many who opposed those who took power after Independence.

Ali Mazrui lived all his adult life in exile, writing and speaking out against this clique. Wangari Mathai spent her years as a persecuted person, constantly beaten and thrown into prison. Others like George Anyona would spend years in detention, while the likes of JM Kariuki and Pio Gama Pinto were assassinated.

In all three eras, massacres seemed to be part of the modus operandi of governance. Wars such as those carried out by Shaka, the Zulu king, against clans and other tribes resulted in mass killings and other atrocities that would today be termed as crimes against humanity.

During so-called pacification or punitive expeditions, colonial forces would carry out massacres of dozens, even hundreds of people. But post-Independence governments proved to be more than eager to follow their colonial predecessors.

In Kenya, thousands of unarmed Kenyan Somalis were eliminated in what is called the Wagalla Massacre. In Rwanda, the government even planned a genocide in which a million people were murdered in three months. In Zimbabwe, Mugabe’s elite forces visited a mini-holocaust on Matabeleland.

Today, we decry the use of tribalism by the colonial administration, but the colonials were only exploiting existing tribal identify, as African societies existed as independent communities in the pre-colonial time. The people who came to power at Independence soon discovered that clever manipulation of tribal identity would help sustain and protect their power and wealth.

In Kenya today, every politician’s ambition is to become a tribal kingpin, both as a means to gain more power and to achieve immunity from wrongdoings, including involvement in corruption.

We could go on and compare the judicial systems in all the three eras, or compare how women were treated, or issues of corruption, etc, and we would find that unfairness, greed, selfishness were shared values and practices.

Therefore, as we begin to debate who is a hero, we must also acknowledge our true history. A skewed history gives wrong heroes and wrong values.