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Tradition, Tribe, and State in Kenya: The Mijikenda Union, 1945–1980

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 April 2013

Justin Willis  and
George Gona
Justin Willis*
Affiliation:
History, Durham University
George Gona
Affiliation:
History, University of Nairobi
*
[email protected]
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Abstract

The apparent mobilizing power of ethnic sentiment in recent African history has been the subject of vigorous debate. Studies that emphasize the centrality of colonialism and the instrumental use of ethnicity have been criticized by a scholarship arguing that the affective power of ethnicity is culturally rooted through longstanding experience and practice, and that both manipulation and invention are constrained by this. This paper contributes to that debate through a discussion of the history of the Mijikenda, one of the “super-tribes” of modern Kenyan politics. It suggests that there were indeed “limits to invention,” but that there was nonetheless substantial entrepreneurship and creativity in the politics of Mijikenda identity. This drew heavily on the productive, discursive tension between tradition and modernity that lay at the heart of colonialism and was drawn into vigorous debates over legitimacy and representation in the “critical juncture” of the final years of colonial rule.

Type
Research Article
Information
Comparative Studies in Society and History , Volume 55 , Issue 2 , April 2013 , pp. 448 - 473
Copyright
Copyright © Society for the Comparative Study of Society and History 2013

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44 “Miji Kenda Union: position as at 7 Jan. 1949,” KNA CC 1/49.

45 Local Native Council minutes, 6 Dec. 1946, and 15–16 Apr. 1947, KNA CG 2/29; DC Kilifi to PC 15 Sept. 1947, KNA CA 20/22.

46 Kilifi monthly intelligence reports, May 1946, Nov. 1946, Apr. 1947, KNA CA 16/71; Kilifi District Annual Report, 1947, section x, KNA PC Coast 2/1/77. There is a rueful recollection of this in the Kilifi handing-over report of 8 June 1952, KNA CA 16/41.

47 Wild, District Officer Malindi, Safari Report, 21 Mar. 1947, KNA DC MAL 2/1/3; Kwale monthly intelligence report, Aug. 1948, KNA CA 16/66. Sixty years later, one man still believed that the Mijikenda Union “had agreed with government, each taxpayer should pay 1/” (authors' interview with Katana Juba, 5 Jan. 2011).

48 Carotenuto, “Riwruok na teko,” 58–59, records official enthusiasm for the Luo Union.

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73 Julius Mwatsama to Registrar of Societies, 17 July 1957, KNA CB 1/14.

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77 There is a reference to Ngala's use of the term in a 1959 petition in Magor, Office of the Chief Secretary, Nairobi to Buist, Colonial Office, 14 June 1960, NA CO 822/2142. The petition itself is not extant.

78 Aseka, Ronald Ngala, 6–7; also Justin Willis' interview with Harry Ngonyo and Joshua Malingi, 13 Jan. 2011. It is presumably memory of Ngala's role in this revival that has misled some scholars to suggest that he created the Mijikenda Union in 1945: see for example McIntosh, “Elders and ‘Frauds,’” 42.

79 Kilifi monthly intelligence report, Sept. 1958, KNA CA 16/73.

80 Kilifi monthly intelligence report, Jan. 1958, Apr. 1958, KNA CA 16/73.

81 Authors' interview with Safari Yeri, 24 June 2010.

82 Birya Masha was elected to the Council in 1956, and remained on it in 1961: African District Council minutes, 1960–61, KNA JA 1/336A.

83 Authors' interview with Katana Juba, 5 Jan. 2011; see also Justin Willis' interview with Roy Chigube Tsuma, 30 June 2010.

84 Kilifi monthly intelligence reports, Aug. and Oct. 1958, Nov. 1958, KNA CA 16/73; and Aug. 1962, KNA CB 18/21; Justin Willis' interview with Mary Jumwa and Jumwa Kazungu, 12 Jan. 2011; and with Harry Ngonyo and Joshua Malingi, 15, 13 Jan. 2011.

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87 “Sultan Gives Assurances on Coastal Strip,” Mombasa Times, 20 Oct. 1961.

88 Telegram from Ngala to Secretary of State for the Colonies, 22 Sept. 1961, NA CO 822/2151 (first quote); Memorandum by the President of KADU, 26 Oct. 1961, NA CO 894/10 (second quote); see also for example “Memorandum to the Coastal Strip Commissioner by Kaya Councillors of Wamijikenda,” 6 Oct. 1961, NA CO 894/14.

89 Speech reported in “KADU Drops Ban on Inquiry Commissioner,” Daily Nation, 9 Oct. 1961.

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91 Statement by Masha Kalamu, 19 Oct. 1961, NA CO 894/8.

92 “Sultan Gives Assurances on Coastal Strip,” Mombasa Times, 20 Oct. 1961. Popular memory of these events remained vivid in 2010–2011: Justin Willis' interview with Roy Chigube Tsuma, 30 June 2010; Justin Willis' interview with Ali Chizondo and others, 1 July 2010.

93 Kyle, Politics of the Independence, 143–49.

94 Gertzel, Politics of Independent Kenya, 33–34.

95 In the period November 1963 to February 1964, KADU held fourteen public meetings in Kilifi District; the Mijikenda Union held nineteen: Kilifi monthly intelligence report, Nov. 1963 to Feb. 1964, KNA CB 18/21.

96 “Miji-Kenda Union Meeting,” Mombasa Times, 22 Dec. 1962.

97 Seoni Ezekiel et al., 16 Aug. 1962, NA CO 897/1; Justin Willis' interview with Harry Ngonyo and Joshua Malingi, 13 Jan. 2011.

98 “Report on the Kenya Population Census,” D. G. Christie Miller, 31 Aug. 1962, p. 3 and appendix 1, NA CO 822/3177.

99 Kilifi monthly intelligence reports, May and Sept. 1962, Nov. 1963, KNA CB 18/21.

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102 Kilifi monthly report, Mar. 1965, KNA CB 18/21.

103 Kilifi monthly report, Jan. 1965, KNA CB 18/21; Ganze Division handing-over report, Feb. 1967, KNA CA 16/65; Kilifi monthly report, Apr. 1976, KNA CA 16/150.

104 Kilifi monthly reports, Mar. and Apr. 1971, and May 1975, KNA CA 16/150.

105 Kilifi monthly Report, Apr. 1976, KNA CA 16/150.

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110 Authors' interview with Lawrence Bennett, 25 June 2010.

111 Kilifi monthly report, Nov. 1964, KNA CB 18/21; authors' interview with Safari Yeri, 24 June 2010.

112 Figo Dzogofya to Matano, 29 Nov. 1964, KNA CC 1/28.

113 Birya Masha, Chairman, Mijikenda Union to PC Coast, 20 Feb. 1968, KNA CB 11/47.

114 Kenga Choga to PC Coast, 5 Apr. 1968, KNA CB 11/47; “Minutes za mkutano wa kaya,” 12 Sept. 1965; Buru Kunguni to Secretary, Mijikenda Union, 27 Sept. 1966, KNA CC 1/28.

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117 Okech, DC Kilifi to PC, 14 May 1968, KNA CB 11/47.

118 Kwale monthly reports, Feb. 1965 and Mar. 1965, KNA CC 23/9.

119 Kilifi monthly report, June/July 1966, KNA CB 18/21; Parkin, Sacred Void, 26–28. See also Ciekawy, Diane, “Witchcraft and Statecraft: Five Technologies of Power in Colonial and Postcolonial Coastal Kenya,” African Studies Review 41, 3 (1998): 119–41CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

120 Birya Masha, Chairman, Mijikenda Union to Ngala, 15 Oct. 1967, KNA CB 11/47; Birya Masha to DC Kilifi, 1 Feb 1968, and 25 Mar. 1968; also “Minutes ya Makaya Tisa Mijikenda Union,” 3 Apr. 1968, KNA CB 11/47.

121 Authors' interview with Safari wa Yeri, 10 Jan. 2011.

122 Authors' interview with Katana Juba, 5 Jan. 2011.

123 Birya Masha to R. G. Ngala, 6 Sept. 1967, and 18 Mar. 1968, KNA CB 11/47.

124 Matano to PC Coast, 8 June 1966, KNA CC 1/28.

125 For the popular assumption that Ngala was murdered, see Justin Willis' interview with Kazungu Ngala, 12 Jan. 2011 and with Mary Jumwa and Jumwa Kazungu, 12 Jan. 2011. For Matano's reelection, see Hall, British High Commission, Nairobi to Wood, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, 17 Jan. 1973, NA FCO 31/1498.

126 Berman, Bruce, Eyoh, Dickson, and Kymlicka, Will, “Ethnicity and the Politics of Democratic Nation-Building in Africa,” in Berman, B., Eyoh, D., and Kymlicka, W., eds., Ethnicity and Democracy in Africa (Oxford: James Currey, 2004), 1–21, here 5Google Scholar.