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Maasai Age-Sets and Prophetic Leadership: 1850–1910*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 December 2011

John L. Berntsen
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Extract

In their initial interaction with the Colonial powers, several East African peoples such as the Maasai, the Turkana, the Sebei, the Karamojong, and the Nandi—all organized through some type of age-based institution—united around prophetic leaders, diviners, or ritual experts who mobilized men from several territorial sections to confront the intruders. This ad hoc military unity was necessarily short-lived, usually ending with the defeat of the people by the colonial power and see the imprisonment or death of the prophetic leader involved. (See Fosbrooke 1948: 12-19; Merker 1910: 67-105; Jacobs 1965: 20-108; Dyson-Hudson 1966: 15-16; Gulliver 1950: 229, 240; Meinertzhagen 1956: 222 ff; Weatherby 1962: 200-12; 1967: 133-44; Lamphear 1976: 225-43.) While ethnological studies of various age-organizations often mention that diviners or prophets provided professional services for the members of an age-group at their ceremonies, no one has examined the process by which a prophetic leader or diviner established his legitimacy during periods of peace so that he might lead the people during times of crisis. An examination of the prophetic institution among the Maasai and the relationship between the prophets and the members of the age-sets may provide some insight into the process, especially the manner in which prophets emerged as leaders of the people during two major crises in the history of the Purko-Kisongo Maasai: the Ilaikipiak war and the rinderpest pan-zootic.

Résumé

GROUPES D'ÂGE ET PROPHÈTES EN CHARGE CHEZ LES MAASAI

De nombreuses sources anthropologiques et historiques rapportent l'importance de la fonction de chef assumée par les prophètes en temps de crise parmi les sociétés estafricaines opérant sur la base des groupes d'âge. Cependant, on ne trouve nulle explication des moyens mis en oeuvre par ces prophètes pour établir leur légitimité ou pour être investis de l‘autorité de chef. Les traditions des Maasai Purko-Kisongo, peuplade pastorale, confirment le rôle important joué par leur groupe familial de prophètes, les Inkidongi. Ces derniers remplirent en effet les fonctions de chefs au cours de la guerre avec les Ilaikipiak et de la peste bovine qui avait frappé tout le bétail vers les années 1890. Au cours des ceremonies des groupes d'âge, les prophètes Inkidongi fournirent des amulettes ainsi que des remèdes d'ordre rituel visant à protéger l'ensemble de la société Purko-Kisongo en même temps que certains individus désireux d'obtenir une protection rituelle pour leur famille ou pour leur bétail. En retour de ces services, certains prophètes purent contracter des alliances avec des individus importants appartenant à divers groupes d'âge dans plusieurs territoires. Tous les groupes Purko-Kisongo étaient potentiellement unis grâce à leur alliance respective à un seul et unique prophète principal. Ainsi, lorsque les Ilaikipiak attaquèrent les Maasai Purko au cours des années 1870, les anciens Purko ainsi que les soldats sollicitèrent l'aide de Mbatiany, prophete principal qui fit alors appel aux soldats d'autres groupes pour venir en aide aux Purko.

Type
Research Article
Information
Africa , Volume 49 , Issue 2 , April 1979 , pp. 134 - 146
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 1979

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