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Black mischief: crime, protest and resistance in colonial Kenya*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

David M. Anderson
David M. Anderson
Affiliation:
School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London
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Abstract

This article examines the history of African resistance to colonial rule among the Nandi and Kipsigis peoples of Kenya's Western Highlands. Anti-colonial protest centred on the activities of a group of ritual leaders, the orkoiik of the Talai clan, who were believed to possess supernatural powers of prophecy and divination. Between the late 1890s and 1905, the orkoiyot Koitalel had come to prominence as a leader of resistance to conquest. After his defeat the British briefly attempted to harness his Talai clansmen to the system of colonial government, promoting them as chiefs. This move was based upon a misunderstanding of the status of the orkoiik, whose powers often stood in direct conflict with the authorityof the elders and who were greatly feared by many Nandi and Kipsigis. By the igsos the orkoiik were deeply implicated in much criminal activity, especially the theft of livestock from European settler farmers. On three occasions orkoiik attempted to organize armed risings.

The article concludes with a discussion of the place of the orkoiik in the historiography of Kenya. Although Koitalel and Barserion are commonly presented as heroes of a glorious resistance to colonialism, it is suggested that this interpretation fails to reflect the deep ambiguity of the status of the orkoiik, and the complexity of the struggles that took placewithin African societies under colonial rule.

Type
Articles
Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 36 , Issue 4 , December 1993 , pp. 851 - 877
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1993

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References

1 This account is based upon the trial papers. Criminal Case 123 (1934), Rex. v. Kibet arap Boregi and 6 others. P.R.O. CO 533/481/1. Eight persons were known to have been involved in the crime, but only seven were prosecuted. For a brief reference to the case, but only in the context of settler reaction, see Kennedy, Dane, Islands of white: settler society and culture in Kenya and Southern Rhodesia, 1890–1939 (Durham, NC, 1987), p. 133Google Scholar. This murder has taken its place in settler mythology, with perhaps predictable distortions. See the settler traditions collected by Gillett, Mary, Tribute to pioneers (privately published, Oxford, 1986)Google Scholar, [no pagination, entries listed alphabetically], where Alex Semini is stated to have been ‘murdered on his farm in 1954 during the Mau Mau rebellion’.

2 ‘Report of public meeting of Naivasha Farmers' Association’, 2 July 1934, KNA [Kenya National Archive] PC/RVP.6A/17/50.

3 Criminal Case 123 (1934), trial transcript, CO 533/481/1.

4 Governor Byrne to secretary of state, 3 May 1934, CO 533/441/1, summarizes the findings of the government inquiry into the activities of the orkoiik.

5 ‘The Laibons Removal Ordinance’ (no. 32 of 1934), was initially drafted and put before the Colonial Office in May 1934. The amended ordinance became law on 25 Sept. 1934., Laws of Kenya, 1948 (Nairobi, 1948), Cap. 46Google Scholar. Comments on the provisions of this legislation are to be found among the papers in CO 533/481/1. The term ‘gangster’ was employed by the prosecuting counsel in the Semini case, none other than Attorney-General William Harrigan, in his opening remarks to the court. Criminal Case 123 (1934), trial transcript, p. 4, CO 533/481/1.

6 Hobley, C. W., Eastern Uganda: an ethnological survey (Anthropological Institute, occasional papers no. 1: London, 1902)Google Scholar and Hollis, A. C., The Nandi: their language and folk-lore (Oxford, 1909)Google Scholar are the earliest works, but what have become the standard texts were published later. See Huntingford, G. W. B., Nandi work and culture (Colonial Research Studies no. 4, HMSO, London, 1950)Google Scholar; idem, The Nandi of Kenya: tribal control in a pastoral society (London, 1953); idem, Ethnographic survey of Africa: East Central Africa, part VIII, the southern Nilo-Hamites (London, 1953); Evans-Pritchard, E. E., ‘The political structure of the Nandi–speaking peoples of Kenya’, Africa, XIII (1940), 250–67CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Peristiany, J. G., The social institutions of the Kipsigis (London, 1939)Google Scholar; and Orchardson, I. Q., The Kipsigis (Nairobi, 1961, abridged version reprinted Nairobi, 1971)Google Scholar.

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8 Witchcraft accusations were commonly used by district commissioners as the basis for deportation orders to be issued against troublesome orkoiik. This involved the collection of sworn affidavits from local elders. See, for example, several cases from Elgeyo district reported in ‘Laibons, 1934–63’, KNA PC/NKU/3/1/10.

9 Huntingford, , Nandi of Kenya, pp. 107–11Google Scholar; Orchardson, , The Kipsigis pp. 119–22Google Scholar.

10 Huntingford, ibid. For an account of mission work among Kalenjin which deals with early (pre-1914) perceptions of the orkoiik, see Hotchkiss, W. R., Then and now in Kenya Colony (New York, 1937)Google Scholar, and for an introductory discussion of mission conflict with the orkoiik Huntingford, , Nandi work and culture, pp. 116–18Google Scholar.

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14 Ng'eny, , ‘Nandi resistance’, pp. 97–102Google Scholar; Lang'at, S. C., ‘Some aspects of Kipsigis history before 1914’, in McIntosh, B. G. (ed.), Ngano: studies in the traditional and modern history of East Africa (Nairobi, 1969), pp. 87–92Google Scholar.

15 Ochieng's, William R., A history of Kenya (Nairobi, 1985), pp. 94–5Google Scholar. Matson, A. T., The Nandi campaign against the British, 1895–1906 (Nairobi, 1974), provides a brief account (pp. 1–16)Google Scholar, whilst his Nandi resistance to British rule, 1890–1906 (Nairobi, 1972)Google Scholar, is the first of what had been conceived as a multi–volumed and highly detailed study.

16 Col. Meinertzhagen, R., Kenya diary 1902–06 (Edinburgh, 1957), pp. 232–39Google Scholar, gives a protagonist's account of these events, with subsequent sections of the book discussing the controversy that led to three separate inquiries into Meinertzhagen's conduct. The oral history of Nandi provides many vivid accounts, which are consistent in asserting that the orkoiyot was unarmed and held in his hand a smallbundle of grasses, a symbol of peace.

17 Matson, , Nandi campaign, p. 12Google Scholar.

18 More than a dozen Nandi believed to be close associates of Koitalel were sentenced to five years rigorous imprisonment in September 1906; see ‘Nandi political prisoners, 1905–14’, KNA AG4/4995.

19 Dobbs, C. M., ‘Memorandum on the Lumbwa laibons’, 12 05 1930Google Scholar, CO 533/441/1. ‘Lumbwa’ was the incorrect colonial name given to the Kipsigis people and their land.

20 The phrase is drawn from Paul Spencer, ‘The diviner's oracle and the prophet's domain in Maasai’, Africa, LXI (1991), 360–70Google Scholar, and is also employed by Berntsen, , ‘Maasai and Inkidongi’, p. 1Google Scholar.

21 Huntingford, , The Nandi, pp. 38–52Google Scholar, offers a general discussion of the relations between elders and orkoiik.

22 The deportation of Kipchomber and two other orkoiik, arap Boisio and arap Kiboyot, was sanctioned by the secretary of state on 26 Dec. 1913, under the removal of natives ordinance (1909). They left the Kipsigis reserve on 20 Jan. 1914, Kipchomber being taken to Fort Hall; Bartonto Hemsted, 30 May 1928, KNA DC/NYI/2/8/1. Kipchomber died in exile on 18 July 1916, see District Commissioner [DC] Fort Hall to DC Nyeri, 19 July 1916, KNA PC/NZA.3/31/12.

23 Acting provincial commissioner [PC] Nyanza to chief secretary, 4 May 1935, quoting from the district political record book for 1914, KNA PC/NZA.3/15/116. On agitation for the return of the orkoiyot see Dobbs, , ‘Memorandum on the Lumbwa laibons’, 12 05 1930Google Scholar, CO 533/441/1, pp. 14–15.

24 Magut, ‘The rise and fall’, passim.

25 ‘Nandi political prisoners, 1905–14’, KNA AG4/4995.

26 Huntingford, , The Nandi, p. 25Google Scholar.

27 Ibid. p. 52; Huntingford, , ‘The genealogy’, p. 24Google Scholar.

28 Nandi District Annual Report, 1918–19.

29 Castle-Smith to Senior Commissioner [SC], Kisumu, , 22 10 1923, ‘Report on Nandi unrest’, p. 1Google Scholar, KNA PC/NZA. 3/31/11.

30 Castle-Smith to SC Kisumu, 5 Oct. 1923, KNA PC/NZA. 3/31/11.

31 Ellis, Diana, ‘The Nandi protest of 1923 in the context of African resistance to colonial rule in Kenya’, Journal of African History, XVII (1976), 562–6Google Scholar.

32 Huntingford, , The Nandi, pp. 41–2Google Scholar.

33 Ellis, ‘The Nandi protest’, remains the only detailed study of these events.

34 Huntingford, , Southern Nilo-Hamites, pp. 31–2Google Scholar.

35 For a detailed account of administrative actions concerning the saket-ap-eito see Smith, Castle to acting SC Kisumu, 22 10 1923, ‘Report upon Nandi unrest’Google Scholar, KNA PC/NZA.3/31/11.

36 Ibid. p. 2; J.J. Drought to SC Kisumu, 4 Oct. 1923; and Smith, Castle to SC Kisumu, confidential, 13 10 1923Google Scholar, all in KNA PC/NZA.3/31/11.

37 Capt. Hawkins, Slade to Smith, Castle, 22 10 1923., ‘Nandi unrest’Google Scholar; ‘Statements regarding unrest’, 15 Sept. 1923, and ‘Evidence of Kipto arap Kimais’ (East African Police), enclosures 3 and 10 in Castle Smith to SC Kisumu, 22 Oct. 1923, all in KNA PC/NZA. 3/31/11.

38 Barserion was arrested on 16 October. Castle Smith to SC Kisumu, 17 Oct. 1923., KNA PC/NZA. 3/31/11. He was deported to Meru early in 1924.

39 The following section is based on Anderson, David M., ‘Stock theft and moral economy in colonial Kenya’, Africa, LVI (1986), 399–416CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

40 The collective punishments ordinance (1909) and the stock and produce theft ordinance (1913) both allowed magistrates the power to apply fines to communities for the offences of the individual, and both further allowed punishment in respect of non-cooperation or the withholding of information on the part of any community. As a control against abuse, these punishments had to be referred to the governor for approval. See Anderson, , ‘Stock theft’, pp. 404–6Google Scholar.

41 Orchardson, , The Kipsigis, p. 12Google Scholar. Dobbs, , ‘Memorandum on the Lumbw a laibons’, 12 05 1930, CO 533/441/1. p. 21Google Scholar.

42 Beresford-Stooke to PC Nyanza, 15 Oct. 1929, KNA PC/NZA. 3/32/39. The police were warning of trouble in Kipsigis reserve from early in 1928; head of criminal investigation department to chief native commissioner, 22 Feb. 1928, KNA PC/NZA. 3/32/39. It was believed that the orkoiyot ara p Boisio, who had been deported to Nyeri in 1914 along with Kipchomber, was behind thesedisturbances; Filluel to PC Nyanza, 24 April 1928, KNA PC/NZA. 3/32/39. For fuller details of his activities see ‘Arap Boisio’, KNA DC/NYI/2/8/1.

43 The inquiry into these events was conducted by DC Beresford-Stooke, assisted by the district officer [DO], Brumage, both under the direction of senior commissioner C. M. Dobbs. Dobbs to Brumage, 22 Sept. 1929; Brumage employed six Kipsigis ‘agents’ to collect information on the orkoiik, Brumage, ‘Report for week ending 16 November 1929’; and Beresford-Stooke to Dobbs, 25 Sept. 1929, all in KNA PC/NZA. 3/32/39. On proposals to remove the orkoiik in 1930, supported by the Nandi local native council, see PC Nzoia to chief secretary, 23 June 1930, KNA DC/KAPT/1/9/24.

44 On the levy force, see commissioner of police to DC Kericho, 19 Oct. 1929, and related papers in KN A PC/NZA.3/32/39. The events of 1928–9 were closely linked to an increase in stock thefts along the Maasai border with Kipsigis. Dobbs strongly advocated the removal of the orkoiik; Dobbs to PC Nzoia, 22 June 1930, KNA DC/KAPT/1/9/24.

45 Relevant correspondence on these events is to be found in ‘Law and order: Lumbwa laibons, 1930–34’, KNA PC/NZA. 3/15/115.

46 Montgomery to colonial secretary, 8 Feb. 1934, KNA PC/NZA. 3/15/115.

47 Brumage to PC Nyanza, 19 April 1934, KNA AG3/29.

48 Crucial evidence was provided by Kibinot arap Rongoe, an orkoiyot whose family were involved in a protracted dispute with the family of Kipchomber. His role as an informant, and his conflicts with other orkoiik, continued at Gwassi; PC Nyanza to colonial secretary, 12 July 1944, KNA MAA/9/974; PC Nyanza to DC Kisii, 11 Jan. 1949., KNA PC/NZA. 3/15/99.

49 Brumage to PC Nyanza, 5 Feb. 1934., KNA PC/NZA. 3/15/115, p. 8.

50 See KNA PC/NZA.3/15/117 for a detailed map outlining the ‘fiefdoms’ controlled by each orkoiyot.

51 Brumage to PC Nyanza, 5 Feb. 1934, KNA PC/NZA. 3/15/115.

52 Ibid. pp. 9–11; also, Brumage to PC Nyanza, 19 April 1934, KNA AG3/29.

53 Brumage to PC Nyanza, 5 Feb. 1934., KNA PC/NZA. 3/15/115, pp. 4–71; Byrne to Cunliffe-Lister, 3 May 1934, CO 533/441/1, summarizing convictions of orkoiik and sending a first draft of the ‘Laibons removal ordinance’.

54 On the detailed drafting of the ordinance, see Montgomery to chief secretary, 19 July 1934, KNAPC/NKU/3/1/10.

55 For discussion of the legislation in the colonial office, see CO 533/481/1.

56 For the Semini case see criminal case 123 (1934), Rex v. Kibet arap Boregi and 6 others, CO 533/481/15. ‘The laibons removal ordinance’ (no. 32 of 1934), Laws of Kenya, 1948 (Nairobi, 1948), Cap. 46Google Scholar; see CO 533/481/1.

57 On the selection of Gwassi see DC South Kavirondo to PC Nyanza, 27 Mar. 1934, and subsequent papers, KNA PC/NZA. 3/15/115, and on the beginnings of the move itself, DC Kericho to Acting PC Nyanza, 22 Oct. 1934., KNA PC/NZA. 3/15/116. The first move of eleven families (120 people in all, with their livestock) was completed on 10 Nov. 1934. By June 1937 the last family had been moved, and 113 orkoiik with 647 dependants were resident in Gwassi; PC Nyanza to chief secretary, 30 June 1937, KNA PC/NZA. 3/15/117.

58 For example, Kiboin arap Sitonik and Muneria arap Tonui, two of the ‘Big Eight’ whowere exiled to Gwassi following prison sentences served in the 1930s, managed to maintain ‘constant contact with the Kipsigis’ from Gwassi, and as a result were moved to MfanganoIsland in Lake Victoria during 1944; PC Nyanza to colonial secretary, 31 Aug. 1944, and related papers, KNA MAA/9/974.

59 Dr, Howell to Kericho, DC, ‘A mysterious disease among the natives of south Lumbw a district’, 17 04 1935Google Scholar, KNA PC/NZA. 3/15/116. Like the similar events of 1914, Europeans believed this to be associated with an outbreak ofcerebrospinal meningitis, although this was never established.

60 See ‘Laibons and deportees, 1927–35’, KNADC/NDI/4/i, for monthly intelligencereports from the criminal intelligence department on the activities of orkoiik in Nandi, and on Barserion's activities in exile.

61 Barserion returned to Nandi in May 1930, after requests from the elders; DC Nandi to PC Nzoia, 28 Dec. 1929., KNA DC/KAPT/1/9/23.

62 ‘Law and order: Barserion arap Kimanye, 1932–39’, KNA PC/RVP/6A/17/27, for accusations against the orkoiyot made by Nandi elders in 1932 and 1938. Also, Hislop to PC Rift Valley, 12 Jan. 1935., KNA DC/NDI/4/1.

63 On the squatter system in general, the best account remains van Zwanenberg, Roger, Colonial capitalism and labour in Kenya 1919–1939 (Nairobi, 1975), ch. 8Google Scholar. On the importance of the settler pressures in the Western Highlands to remove squatter labour, see Anderson, David M. and Throup, David, ‘Africans and agricultural production in colonial Kenya: the myth of the war as a watershed’, Journal of African History, XXVI (1985), 327–46CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and Youe, Christopher P., ‘Settler capital and the assault on the squatter peasantry in Kenya's Uasin Gishu District, 1942–1963’, African Affairs, LXXXVII (1988), 393–418CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

64 On the planning, implementation and political repercussions of the scheme to repatriate Nandi squatters to the reserve, see papers in ‘Return of Nandi stock from Uasin Gishu, 1944–59’, KNA DC/NDI/5/2, and ‘Nandi: return of squatter stock, 1954–57’, KNA DC/NDI/5/3.

65 DC Kericho to DC Nandi, 15 Jan. 1955., KNA DC/NDI/5/3, fordetails of special branch reports. The administration were concerned enough by the re-emergence of Barserion and by the disaffection of those sections among the Nandi who supported himto secure approval from the secretary of state (Lennox-Boyd) for the extensions of the laibons removal ordinance to apply to Nandi; see Baring, to Lennox-Boyd, , 29 07 1955, and ‘Memo, on laibons in Nandi’Google Scholar, from Ministry of African Affairs, 21 April 1955, both in KNA MAA/9/974.

66 Acting PC Rift Valley to D C Nandi, 27 April; 1957, KNA DC/NDI/5/3; D C Thomson's Falls to P C Rift Valley, 2 May 1957, reporting Nandi activities on Laikipia.

67 Acting PC Rift Valley to secretary for African affairs, 1 May 1957, KNA DC/NDI/6/1.

68 Barserion's intentions and plans are described fully, from intelligence reports, in DCLaikipia to PC Rift Valley, 25 April 1957, KNA DC/NDI/6/1.

69 ‘Armed uprising by Nandi squatters averted’, East African Standard (14 05 1957)Google Scholar. Nandi chiefs were quick to condemn Barserion and his supporters; see ‘Report on visit of Governor to Nandi, 5 July 1957’, KNA DC/NDI/IO/2.

70 PC Rift Valley to DC Nandi, 29 July 1957, KNA DC/KAPT/1/9/25. Two of Barserion's sons were also later deported to Mfangano Island, see ‘Deportation Orders, 17 Sep. 1959’, KNA PC/NZA/1/15/27.

71 The decision to allow younger orkoiik to return to Kipsigis was taken in 1947, see minuteby chief native commissioner, 14 Feb. 1953, KNA MAA/9/974. The policy regarding the establishment of a school for orkoiik children (devised in 1947) had originally involved their segregation. This policy was changed to one of integration in 1953; acting chief native commissioner to PC Rift Valley, 21 March 1953, KNA MAA/9/974. The decision to allow all surviving orkoiik to return was announced to a baraza (public meeting) in the Kipsigis reserve on 14 February 1961, the day on which their greatest opponent and staunch ally of the government, chief arap Tengecha, formally retired from office; PC Nyanza to colonial secretary, 2 Feb. 1961., KNA PC/NZA/1/15/27.

72 Furedi, Frank, The Mau Mau war in perspective (London, 1989)Google Scholar; Rosberg, Carl G. and Nottingham, John, The myth of Mau Mau (New York, 1966), chapter 8Google Scholar. For a very sophisticated reassessment, Lonsdale, J. M., ‘Mau Mausof themind: making Mau Mau and remaking Kenya’, Journal of African History, XXXI (1990), 393–422CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

73 Corfield, F. D., Historical survey of the origins and growth of Mau Mau, Cmd. 1030 (London, 1960), pp. 211–17Google Scholar.

74 Lonsdale, ‘Mau Maus of the mind’, passim; John Spencer, KAU: The Kenya African Union, especially chapters 5–7; Throup, D. W., Economic and social origins of Mau Mau 1945–53 (London, Nairobi and Athens, Ohio, 1987)Google Scholar.

75 The most obvious example remains Kenyatta, Jomo, Suffering without bitterness: the founding of the Kenya nation (Nairobi, 1968)Google Scholar. For the most recent example of the way in which textbooks for Kenyan students avoid any controversy in this respect see Sifuna, D. N., ‘Nationalism and decolonisation’, in Ochieng, W. R.' (ed.), Themes in Kenyan history (Nairobi, 1989), especially pp. 195–9Google Scholar.

76 Kinyatti, Maina wa (ed.), Thunderfrom the mountains: Mau Mau patriotic songs (London, 1980)Google Scholar; idem, ‘Mau Mau: the peak of African political organization and struggle for liberationin colonial Kenya’, Ufahamu, XII (1983), 90–123; Furedi, Mau Mau war, introduction; Lonsdale, ‘Mau Maus of the mind’, passim.

77 Thiong'o, Ngugi wa, Petals of blood (London, 1977)Google Scholar.

78 Ochieng', , History of Kenya, pp. 94–5Google Scholar; Odhiambo, E. S. Atieno, ‘“Mind limps after reality”: a diagnostic essay on the treatment of historical themes in Kenyan writings since independence’, paper delivered at the annual conference of the Historical Association of Kenya, Nairobi (1976)Google Scholar.

79 Thiong'o, Ngugi wa, Homecoming: essays on African and Caribbean literature, culture and politics (London, 1972), p. 49Google Scholar, and Detained: a writer's prison diary (London, 1981), pp. 48–9Google Scholar. Sicherman, Carol, Ngugi wa Thiong'o: the making of a rebel. A source book in Kenyan literature and resistance (London, 1990)Google Scholar deals with these themes in detail.

80 Henry Mwanzi, ‘Koitalel arap Samoei’, passim.

81 For a splendid example see Matson, A. T., ‘Elijah Cheruiyot arap Chepkwony: a great Nandi chief’, in Kipkorir, B. E. (ed.), Biographical essays on imperialism and collaboration in colonial Kenya (Nairobi, 1980), pp. 209–43Google Scholar.

82 Ngugi, , Petals of blood, p. 214Google Scholar.