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Gerontocratic Government: Age-Sets in Pre-Colonial Giriama

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 January 2012

Cynthia Brantley
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Extract

In the protection of their kaya home deep in the forest of the Mombasa hinterland, the Giriama of Kenya developed a non-centralized government based on a council of elders (kambi), and derived from age-sets. They were supported by a special secret society within the kambi whose oath and select membership were used to maintain order and determine guilt in difficult situations. In the period from approximately 1700 until sometime in the nineteenth century, the Giriama developed this form of government by drawing upon their previous experience of life in Singwaya and subsequent southward migration, upon their identification or assimilation of members into six original clans, and upon their unique environment of the kaya neighborhood to become successful cultivators, keeping cattle when circumstances allowed and emerging as the prominent traders of the Mombasa hinterland.

Résumé

GOUVERNEMENT GÉRONTOCRATIQUE: GROUPEMENTS PAR ȂGE CHEZ LES GIRIAMA AU COURS DE LA PÉRIODE PRÉ-COLONIALE

A la suite d'une migration où ils quittèrent le Singwaya avec les autres Mijikenda auxquels ils étaient apparentés, les Giriama vécurent pendant plus de deux siècles dans une clairière fortifiée désignée par le terme de kaya, dissimulée dans l'épaisse forêt de l'arrière-pays Mombasa. Faisant usage de nombreux renseignements oraux, le présent article décrit le système de gouvernement qui était en vigueur chez les Giriama au cours de leur résidence dans le kaya: on y souligne l'héritage considérable de la pèriode Singwaya et certains aspects communs à d'autres Mijikenda: on précise également l'importance de l'effondrement de ce système au cours d'une période de dispersion se situant au dix-neuvième siècle avant l'installation du colonialisme anglais.

Type
Research Article
Information
Africa , Volume 48 , Issue 3 , July 1978 , pp. 248 - 264
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 1978

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