The Culture of Colonialism: The Cultural Subjection of Ukaguru

5. Subversions and Diversions: 1957–58

196 F I V E Subversions and Diversions: 1957–58 This chapter is about discontent, about Kaguru striving to change their social world. In 1957–58 Indirect Rule and the Kaguru Native Authority were presented by those in power as manifestations of a social order redolent of Kaguru tradition, an order legitimized by its supposed ties to the past and to Kaguru ethnic identity. These constructions were, at best, half-truths. At worst, the system was oppressive and frustrating, resented by many Africans who lived under it. For many decades the Kaguru colonial world continued against little opposition. Yet the foundation supporting this seeming stability was the fact that Africans knew the British would use force if necessary to impose their will, whatever Kaguru thought. In 1957–58 this ugly fact was recognized by all fifty thousand Africans living in the chiefdom, though the only times Kaguru were openly confronted with British armed might were during the monthly forays of Tanganyika territorial police who came up to maintain order at the Chakwale cattle market. Otherwise, a Kaguru had to venture to the lowland estates during a labor riot or perhaps to Dar es Salaam to see armed police or soldiers guarding important public buildings. Yet, as John Iliffe observes: “Behind the whole structure, latent and rarely visible, was the underlying violence of colonial government” (1979:326). This is a chapter about discontent, but it is not about any violent protest directly against the British. Instead, these subversions involved violence by Africans against one another. Some Kaguru, long a peaceful people, sought to undermine the side of colonialism that most immediately annoyed them, the Native Authority. This discontent was reflected Subversions and Diversions · 197 in three social movements in Ukaguru. Two exclusively involved groups of Kaguru, Umwano and USA, who were preoccupied with Kaguru issues ; the third, TANU, the nationalist political party, involved a very few Kaguru and many outsiders inadvertently caught up in local Kaguru issues, which they did not clearly grasp. None of these three movements got very far during my initial stay in Ukaguru, but each promoted new views of ethnic identity and related strategies for social change. Of course, TANU eventually succeeded in throwing the British out and establishing a new, independent nation, but those events were far away from the Kaguru world of 1957–58. Umwano Umwano is a Chikaguru word for “war cry.” It was the alarm blown by war horns when Kaguru were attacked by their traditional enemies. By 1956–57 interethnic skirmishes between Kaguru and Baraguyu/Maasai in the Idibo subchiefdom became very frequent. These involved brawls at beer clubs (see Beidelman 1961b), cattle rustling, and damaging trespass onto Kaguru fields by Baraguyu herds trampling crops. There were even some killings of Kaguru, probably by Baraguyu, though these were never witnessed and no one was ever prosecuted. Kaguru appealed to the Kilosa district headquarters to keep order. The district commissioner, a former army officer, was reported to have made the inflammatory suggestion to Kaguru to “defend yourselves like men.” I could never verify whether this rumor was true. In any case, Kaguru at Idibo envisioned Umwano as a solution to this growing strife but also as a way to enhance their own influence. The organization called Umwano originated in the northern Idibo subchiefdom where Kaguru and Kamba had herds of livestock larger than elsewhere in Ukaguru. No comparable organization was formed in any areas further south, although these areas also experienced sporadic interethnic friction. This may have been because only in the northern portion of Ukaguru did both Kaguru and Baraguyu own fairly large numbers of cattle in competition for the same grazing areas and watering points.1 There too, Baraguyu and Kaguru livestock owners competed at sales in the same cattle market at Chakwale. There they also came into conflict when, drunk on alcohol bought with their new cash, they 198 · Colonial Life all frequented the same beer clubs, or quarreled over the sale of tobacco and metal goods. The Kaguru from Idibo’s dominant chiefly clan, the Ganasa, were the brains behind Umwano. Much support and probably some funds for Umwano came from the previous Idibo subchief and from the current subchief who had replaced him. The new subchief was very responsive to his predecessor’s advice, since it was to his predecessor that he owed his own nomination by the clan, a nomination confirmed by the Kilosa headquarters...