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Colonial Chiefs in Chiefless Societies
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 November 2008
Extract
The proliferating literature on the emergent states of Asia and Africa stresses as its theme their newness and lack of political experience. New nation states have arisen often where none existed before, and their leaders have been confronted with a host of problems which they had not faced previously. Nowhere are such states thought to be more novel and inexperienced than in Africa, where a scant half century ago peoples lived in tribal communities, their economic and political context being demarcated mainly by family and kin groups. Lucy Mair's appropriately titled book, The New Nations, puts the problem pithily: ‘The new African governments are recruited from new men…The relationship of the leader with his followers, of ministers with their colleagues, with bureaucrats, with the general public, are new relationships.’1
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References
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Page 343 note 1 There is a short but well-informed discussion of the system by Afigbo, A. E., ‘Revolution and Reaction in Eastern Nigeria: 5900–1929’, in Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria (Ibadan,) III, 3, 12 1966, pp. 539–57.Google Scholar See also Gailey, H. A., The Road to Aba (New York, 1970).Google Scholar
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Page 344 note 2 Political Record Books, Muranga District; K. N. A., Nairobi.
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Page 347 note 1 Lt. Governor to Secretariat, Southern Province, 3 April 1923; CSO 26/I 09253/V.I, N.N.A., Ibadan.
Page 347 note 2 Interview with Rev. Musa Gitau, 13 June 1970.
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Page 349 note 3 Political Record Book, Kiambu District; K.N.A., Nairobi.
Page 349 note 4 District Commissioner, Kiambu, to Provisional Commissioner, Nyeri, 22 May 1935; DC/KBU II/2, ibid.
Page 350 note 1 Some Hausa traders claimed that ‘the chief always had one or two graves ready in case he should need them. No person could count the number of people this chief has killed.’ Chibunze and Emebechi to Chief Secretary, 10 February 1931; CSO 26/I o9253/V.I, N.N.A., Ibadan.
Page 351 note 1 District Commissioner, Kiambu, to Provincial Commissioner, 3 March 1939; DC/KBU 11/2, K.N.A., Nairobi.
Page 351 note 2 There are many contemporary descriptions of corruption by chiefs. See, for example, the Final Report of the Economic Commission of the East Africa Protectorate (Nairobi, 1919), Part I, p. 229,Google Scholar for the evidence of Eland R. Watson, a coffee planter.
Page 351 note 3 Thuku, op. cit.
Page 352 note 1 Interviews in Kiambu District, 1970.
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Page 354 note 2 A zero-sum game in politics is one in which the interests of political competitors are viewed as diametrically opposed. Success for one group is at the expense of another and entails exclusion of the losers from the decision-making process and the rewards of office.
Page 355 note 1 A clear description of bitter rivalries for the office of chief and its use to undermine enemies was given to me by Rev. Musa Gitau, 13 June 1970.
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Page 355 note 3 Tugwell to Buxton, 7 June 1911; G224 Anti-Slavery Papers, Rhodes House Library, Oxford.
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Page 356 note 2 See Colonial Office Memorandum on Njiri wa Karanja, 10 February 1933, and Brumage to Provincial Commissioner, Nyeri, 18 August 1936; GO/553/431 and 466, Public Record Office, London.
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Page 357 note 2 J. M. Silvester, Annual Report for Machakos District, 1929; DC/MKS I/I/22, K.N.A., Nairobi.
Page 358 note 1 Interview with Josiah Manyaka Kivanguli, 20 June 1970.
Page 358 note 2 Quarterly Report for Ulu, Machakos, December 1909; DC/MKS I/I/4, K.N.A., Nairobi.
Page 358 note 3 S. H. Fazan, Annual Report for Machakos District, 1926; DC/MKS 1/1/15, ibid.
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