Worries of the Heart: Widows, Family, and Community in Kenya - Softcover

Mutongi, Kenda

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0226554201 ISBN 13: 9780226554204

Publisher: University of Chicago Press, 2007

Synopsis

Growing up in the Maragoli community in Kenya, Kenda Mutongi encountered a perplexing contradiction. While the young teachers at her village school railed against colonialism, many of her elders, including her widowed mother, praised their former British masters. In this moving book, Mutongi explores how both the challenges and contradictions of colonial rule and the frustrations and failures of independence shaped the lives of Maragoli widows and their complex relations with each other, their families, and the larger community.
            Throughout the twentieth century and into the twenty-first, rates of widowhood have been remarkably high in Kenya. Yet despite their numbers, widows and their families exist at the margins of society, and their lives act as a barometer for the harsh realities of rural Kenya. Mutongi here argues that widows survive by publicly airing their social, economic, and political problems, their “worries of the heart.” Initially aimed at the men in their community, and then their colonial rulers, this strategy changed after independence as widows increasingly invoked the language of citizenship to demand their rights from the new leaders of Kenya—leaders whose failure to meet the needs of ordinary citizens has led to deep disenchantment and altered Kenyans’ view of their colonial past. An innovative blend of ethnography and historical research, Worries of the Heart is a poignant narrative rich with insights into postcolonial Africa.

About this title

About the Author

Kenda Mutongi is associate professor of history at Williams College.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

WORRIES OF THE HEART

Widows, Family, and Community in KenyaBy KENDA MUTONGI

THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS

Copyright © 2007 The University of Chicago
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-226-55420-4

Contents

Acknowledgments..................................................................ixAbbreviations....................................................................xiiiMaps of Kenya....................................................................xivIntroduction.....................................................................1Part I: Everyday Life1. Western Kenya, 1880-1902.....................................................152. Feeble Little Lads Looking for Food..........................................233. "What Harm Can an Old Dry Bone Do?"..........................................344. Lessons in Practical Christianity............................................455. Living "in Line".............................................................566. The Impact of Gold Mining....................................................697. Land Conflicts in the 1930s..................................................82Part II: Family Life8. Educating "Progressive" Sons.................................................979. The Burden of "Progressive" Sons.............................................10710. Cash, Cows, and Bridewealth..................................................11811. Domestic Education at the Girls Boarding School..............................12812. Moral Panic..................................................................13913. Wife Beating.................................................................149Part III: Postcolonial Promises14. Citizenship and Land Rights in Postcolonial Kenya............................16315. Rural Widows, City Widows, and the Fight for Inheritance.....................178Conclusion.......................................................................193Glossary.........................................................................199Notes............................................................................201Bibliography.....................................................................227Index............................................................................247

Chapter One

Western Kenya, 1880-1902

Roughly seven thousand square miles, western Kenya stretches northeast from Lake Victoria to Mount Elgon. The first Europeans to visit the area referred to its inhabitants as Bantu Kavirondo, a name they had heard from the "coast people." While "Bantu" refers to a group of languages spoken in many areas of eastern and southern Africa, no one seems to know what "Kavirondo" means-not even the coastal people who came up with the name. Yet Europeans continued to use the term through out much of the colonial period; indeed, this area of western Kenya was officially known as North Kavirondo District until 1961, when the name was changed to North Nyanza District. Nyanza, a more familiar term, means "lake," obviously referring to Lake Victoria. Today, the fifteen or so different Bantu-speaking groups in this region call themselves Luyia, meaning "those of the same tribe." The Maragoli are among these Luyia groups.

There are hardly any written sources on the area before colonial conquest in 1894, but impressionistic observations by a European traveler to the area in the 1880s describe thriving, self-sufficient communities with plenty of food to eat-at least according to Joseph Thomson, a Scottish geologist and the first European to visit the area. Sponsored by the Royal Geographical Society, Thomson made his debut trip traveling from the coast through Masailand and arriving in western Kenya in December 1883. Thomson's description of Luyialand is not as detailed as we would like (he visited western Kenya largely because the region happened to be on the way to his major destination, Lake Victoria); but it is, for the most part, sufficient to give us a general overview of the area before the arrival of British colonizers.

Thomson tells us of his encounter with the Luyia by first describing their villages: "On the 28th of November, 1883, I entered the village of Kabaras, picturesquely situated on the face of a boulder-clad hill, and surrounded by smiling fields." The surrounding land, he says, is a "fertile, rolling country watered by a perfect network of rivulets." Farther north toward Nzoia River, Thomson notes that "the country became more diversified and pleasing, rolling in gentle undulations and dotted over with flowering shrubs." Careful to make the landscape seem familiar to his readers in Europe, he remarks on the numerous colossal boulders scattered over much of the area and compares them to the glacial erratics that dot the fields of Scotland-although the ones in Scotland were "not so numerous." Approaching Lake Victoria from the southwestern part of western Kenya, Thomson climbed the nearby hills, seven thousand feet above sea level, and, looking down from his promontory upon the broad body of water, saw a "glistening bay of the Great Lake surrounded by low shores and shut into the south by several islands.... The view, with arid-looking euphorbia-clad slopes shading gently down to the muddy beach ... was pleasing."

The inhabitants of this pleasant prospect were apparently "friendly" and "peaceful," even though he describes their appearance in the most disagreeable terms: their "heads are of a distinctly lower type, eyes dull and muddy, jaws somewhat prognathous, mouth unpleasantly large, and lips thick, projecting and averted-they are in fact true negroes." When the men in Thomson's caravan entered any of the villages, the local people amicably shouted, "Yambo" (How do you do?), and they soon proved themselves to be "peaceable and genial hosts." His impressions of the Luyia people, however, should be read in the context of his overall trip through East Africa. Before arriving in western Kenya, Thomson had just passed through Masailand, a land that, according to the existing European lore, was inhabited by the "most blood thirsty people in the world." This being the case, it is not surprising that he considered the dull-looking "true negroes" gracious and good-natured.

Thomson's portrayal of the Luyia may, at first glance, remind one of the now all-too-familiar notion of the "noble savage," the blissful African subsisting in ignorant heathendom. This impression may not be entirely wrong, since Thomson, like the other explorers of his time, was prone to exaggeration. According to one of his biographers, for instance, Thomson was an ambitious young man who was always in a hurry and always eager to embark on his next adventure, and so it is very probable that he wrote up most of his results hastily, adding sensational details that were likely to appeal to his readers back home in Europe. Yet it would be wrong to dismiss his observations entirely; other evidence shows that western Kenya was in fact relatively peaceful in the 1880s, at least when compared with the many East African communities that had been destroyed by the Arab and Swahili slave trade. Throughout the slave trade years of the mid- to late nineteenth century, the Luyia remained a stable agricultural people, despite the occasional feud over cattle or land.

Apparently, Thomson could not help but be surprised by "the generally contented and well-to-do air of the inhabitants." Though he duly notes the area's dense population-"almost every foot of the ground was under cultivation"-he still appeared rather obtusely amazed that "the people seem to have some idea of the value of rotation of crops for they allow land to lie fallow occasionally, such parts being used as pasture." Often, Thompson and his caravan passed by "a perfect lane of people, all carrying baskets of food, which they were dying to dispose of for beads. They were honey, milk, eggs, fowls, beans &c., &c." He was impressed-so impressed, in fact, that he deemed his hasty transit through Luyialand "almost like a triumphal progress."

This supposedly innocent land of "honey and milk" was to change in 1894, when the British established a formal administrative center there, in a place called Mumias, the most important trading post on the main route to Uganda. Charles Hobley was appointed to take charge of the center, a position into which he was hurriedly ushered in order to settle a major feud that had arisen between the local people and government officials. This was Hobley's first crack at colonial administration, and he proved marvelously suitable for the job.

Born in northern England in 1867, Hobley was trained as an engineer at Mason Science College in Birmingham. After graduation, however, he soon realized that the "prospects for a young man in England were far from promising," and so he decided to seek better opportunities abroad. In 1890 he left for East Africa to work as a geologist for the Imperial British East African Company (IBEAC), which had the royal mandate to occupy the region that extended from present-day Kenya to Uganda. But on arriving in East Africa, he found that the opportunities for making money were not as promising as he had imagined. The IBEAC was experiencing great financial difficulties and was on the brink of bankruptcy. Indeed, it was precisely because of its financial problems that the company needed a geologist to survey the interior of East Africa for minerals. But no sooner had Hobley begun trekking into the interior than the IBEAC went bankrupt. Eventually, the Colonial Office took over the company's responsibilities, and Hobley found himself a servant of the British Foreign Office, delegated to administer western Kenya from the trading post of Mumias.

The Colonial Office was interested in Mumias largely because it was located strategically near the Ugandan border, a location that ensured Britain's access to Uganda. Aside from this, Mumias, indeed much of western Kenya, was not considered likely to offer much in the way of financial benefit. Unlike the central and eastern parts of the country, western Kenya, at least until the late 1920s, was neither coveted for its mineral resources nor much settled by whites (it was considered too remote and too far from the coast for profitable settler farming). And in October 1894, when Hobley was called to Mumias to settle a feud, the town itself was a relatively quiet village with a handful of coastal traders. With colonial occupation, however, the town grew steadily, and by the end of 1895 it was hosting several coastal traders, a number of porters from all over Kenya, and more than a handful of Sudanese soldiers employed by the government to guard the town. Almost all of the foreigners carried guns.

In fact, the feud that Hobley had been summoned to resolve involved guns. The porters had started selling, in exchange for food, the government rifles they had carried to protect themselves along the road. The Kitosh people (a Luyia group), located to the north of Mumias, were the main buyers of the munitions. But the government officials straightaway smelled trouble, and one, a Mr. Spire, then a presiding officer, feared being surrounded by armed locals and promptly asked the Kitosh to return the rifles. Predictably, they refused. He responded, in September 1895, by sending Sudanese soldiers to secure the weapons, by force if necessary. Although the Sudanese soldiers "fought gallantly," according to Hobley, the Kitosh impaled them with spears, "one by one ... eventually annihilat[ing] all twenty five of them."

Hobley, who happened to be in Uganda, was called to settle this dispute and to ask for "reparations" from the Kitosh. But the Kitosh were not forthcoming. Enraged, Hobley sent five thousand "native auxillaries," recruited from local groups, to resolve the issue; when they met with resistance, they simply "shelled and burnt hundreds of Kitosh" as if they were not more than "a nice kettle of fish to fry." "The fact that we had ninety killed and wounded," Hobley reported contentedly, "was a measure of the severity of the contest." In addition, Hobley and his soldiers took some three hundred prisoners, principally women and children, who, according to Hobley, were temporarily detained as "the best means of inducing speedy overtures of peace." They also captured about 1,700 cattle and some sheep and goats. This was the first major encounter between the Luyia and the British in western Kenya. It was hardly a promising precedent.

Violent expeditions like this were in fact common in other parts of Kenya during the early years of colonial conquest. Perhaps some of the best known of these expeditions were those carried out against the Kikuyu and Kamba in eastern and central Kenya. Yet Hobley, in spite of his violent actions, was generally considered a gentler administrator than administrators in other parts of Kenya. Indeed, historians have tended to portray Hobley as one of the few administrators genuinely interested in the "good of the African peoples amongst whom he served"; he was, for example, one of the few white administrators who spoke against white settlement in Kenya. His supposedly real interest in the societies and cultures of Kenyan people can be glimpsed in the pages of his several anthropological books and scholarly articles.

In fact, we are told, this kinder and gentler administrator had hoped not to use violence against the people of western Kenya. Hobley had planned to work through local chiefs to peacefully "lure their influence" and support and to make them submit to British rule through "negotiation, discussion, and fruitful cooperation." He had, in other words, hoped for diplomacy. But, clearly, diplomacy had its limits. Some groups in western Kenya, groups like the Kitosh, for example, felt genuinely threatened by the presence of armed outsiders in their midst and were not always willing to sit back and seek compromise. They felt they had to defend themselves. Other practical reasons also made such diplomatic solutions virtually impossible. Each tribe, as Hobley noted, had "numerous chiefs, and the large number made it difficult to reach a consensus." Consequently, the lofty ideas about "negotiation" were quickly abandoned, and Hobley increasingly turned to violence. Perhaps it was inevitable-even he, the supposedly understanding administrator, believed, "deep inside his heart," that "to have peace [in Africa] you must first teach obedience, and the only tutor who impresses the lesson properly is the sword." Complete submission to British rule is what Hobley, like other colonial administrators, expected from the Africans.

The sword-or, rather, the rifle-gradually became his favored instrument, and the amount of violence in western Kenya increased. The suspicions generated by foreigners, as well as the rise in the number of guns in the area, meant that people felt more vulnerable to the wrath of their neighbors. Ethnic warfare also increased as ethnic groups raided each other for cattle, food, and guns. Claiming that "all real progress was impossible" until the interethnic raiding and fighting had ceased, Hobley ended up dispatching more and more warriors (or "native auxiliaries," as they were euphemistically called, most of whom were from chiefdoms of Hobley's local African allies) to intervene in the feuds.

One such expedition was carried out against the Nyangori, who lived directly to the northeast of the Maragoli region. In 1901, Hobley deployed soldiers to suppress "cattle stealing and tribal feuds" among the Nyangori, and numerous Nyangori men perished as a result of Hobley's intervention. Reflecting on his punitive tactics, he wrote that it was necessary "to repress at all cost the pernicious system of inter-tribal raiding which has for so many centuries been the curse of this district." He argued that the use of violence was necessary to impress upon the local people who supported him that he was an implacable force. He wanted, that is, for the "tribes to feel in a vivid manner the protection we guarantee to afford to the adherents of law and order." He was clearly ready to adopt any method that might help him divide and conquer.

A few months before, in May 1900, Hobley had demonstrated his willingness to use force by attacking the Nandi, an ethnic group that lived in the northwestern part of Maragoli. Apparently, the Nandi had assaulted a trade convoy consisting of "twenty ox-carts, a small escort of police, and two passengers, one a Greek trader, and the other a government clerk of Eurasian origin." Hobley reported that the Nandi had looted all the goods, destroyed the carts, and murdered the two passengers. In response, Hobley deployed a Kitosh-like punitive expedition against the Nandi. They put up a strong resistance, but Hobley and his local warriors were able to subdue them, inflicting "considerable damage" in the process. The Nandi did not relent, however, and continued to ambush foreign traders. Once again Hobley responded violently. "Tribes must be made to understand," wrote the incensed Hobley, "that small parties are allowed to travel about without molestation and that in the event of their being interfered with, the arm of government is far reaching."

The government's far-reaching arm could not be underestimated. By the end of 1904, Hobley, with the help of soldiers recruited from local people, had almost subdued the whole region-though even he could not eliminate all resistance. To do that, he needed something else, something that would extend the government's influence over the locals. He decided that he needed a bureaucracy. So to consolidate his victory, to impress upon the Luyia his unbending authority, he forced them to pay taxes in traditional forms of currency such as glass, cowries, beads, clothes, and labor. He wrote happily about how the payment of taxes was "an outward and visible sign that the particular section had definitely accepted Government control." In theory, colonial occupation of western Kenya, that is, the tactical day-by-day accumulation of power by the British, had been implemented, at least in part, by making the Luyia more accustomed to death and taxes.

(Continues...)

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Edition details

• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Publication date: 2007
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0226554201
• ISBN 13: 9780226554204
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 240