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Connexions between ‘Primary Resistance’ Movements and Modern Mass Nationalism In East and Central Africa. Part I

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2009

T. O. Ranger
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Extract

A recent authoritative review of developments in African historiography pointed to one 'kind of synthesis which has always seemed worthwhile undertaking’, the attempt to trace ‘an historic connexion between the last-ditch resisters, the earliest organisers of armed risings, the messianic prophets and preachers, the first strike-leaders, the promoters of the first cautious and respectful associations of the intelligentsia, and the modern political parties which (initially at least) have been the inheritors of European power’.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 9 , Issue 3 , July 1968 , pp. 437 - 453
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1968

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References

1 ‘African syntheses’, The Times Literary Supplement, 28 07 1966.Google Scholar

2 Robinson, R. E. and Gallagher, J., ‘The partition of Africa’, in The New Cambridge Modern History, xi (Cambridge, 1962), chap. 23, p. 640;Google ScholarColeman, J. S., Nigeria: Background to Nationalism (Berkeley, 1963), 172.Google Scholar

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8 Nyerere, J. K., Freedom and Unity (Dar es Salaam, 1966), 2–3.Google Scholar

9 These themes and others in this paper are treated at greater length in Ranger, T. O., ‘African reaction to the imposition of colonial rule in East and Central Africa’, in History and Politics of Modern Imperialism in Africa, ed. Gann, L. H. and Duignan, P. (Stanford, forthcoming). Although the two papers are distinct in theme, some parts of the argument are necessarily the same, and there is some repetition in this paper of passages also included in the Stanford chapter.Google Scholar

10 Halpern, J., South Africa's Hostages (London, 1965), chap. 3; I am also indebted to Mr A. E. Atmore for my understanding of the significance of the Gun War.Google Scholar

11 Ranger, T. O., Revolt in Southern Rhodesia, 1896–1897 (London, 1967), chaps. 7 and 10.Google Scholar

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20 Ranger, T. O., ‘Towards a historical study of traditional religion in East and Central Africa’, East African Academy Symposium paper, Kampala, 1966;Google ScholarLewis, I. M., ‘Spirit possession and deprivation cults’, Man, I, no. 3, 09. 1966.Google Scholar

21 Mary, Douglas, Purity and Danger (London, 1966), chap. 10.Google Scholar

22 Doutreloux, M. A., ‘Prophétisme et culture’, in African Systems of Thought, ed. Fortes, and Dieterlin, (London, 1965).Google Scholar

23 Ranger, T. O., ‘The role of the Ndebele and Shona religious authorities in the rebellions of 1896 and 1897’, in The Zambesian Past, ed. Stokes, E. T. and Brown, R. (Manchester, 1966)Google ScholarGann, L. H., A History of Southern Rhodesia (London, 1965).Google Scholar

24 Iliffe, J., ‘The organization of the Maji-Maji Rebellion’, J. Afr. Hist. VIII, no. 3 (1967).Google Scholar

25 Iliffe, op. cit.; Ranger, T. O, ‘Witchcraft eradication movements in Central and Southern Tanzania and their connection with the Maji-Maji rising’, Research Seminar Paper, Dar es Salaam, 09 1966.Google Scholar

26 Ngeny, S. Arap', ‘Nandi Resistance to the establishment of British administration, 1893–1965’, Research Seminar Paper, Dar es Salaam, 09 1965.Google Scholar

27 Report by Captain Phillips, J. E. T., A.D.C., Kigezi, 31 07 1919, National Archives, Dar es Salaam,Google Scholar Secretariat 0910. See also Bessell, M. J., ‘Nyabingi’, Uganda Journal, 6, no. 2 (10 1938);Google ScholarBaxter, P. W. T., ‘The Kiga, in East African Chiefs, ed. Richards, A. (London, 1959);Google ScholarEdel, M. M., The Chiga of Western Uganda (Oxford 1957), Since this article was written I have been able to read a detailed appraisal of the political implications of the Nyabingi cult by Mr F. S. Brazier of Makerere University College, ‘The Nyabingi cult: religion and political scale in Kigezi, 1900–1930’. Mr Brazier finds that in Kigezi Nyabingi was, indeed, ‘a cult of resistance’ and suggests that ‘it attained its near-monopoly status among the cults which had a Kiga following just because it answered best to the political needs of the time—a rallying point against the incursions of the Ruanda and Twa’, and later of the British and their Ganda agents. He notes that Nyabingi priests were involved in a series of incidents of resistance widely scattered in time and place. But he also remarks that at any single time the Nyabingi priesthood was not able to bring about widespread and co-ordinated resistance. The cult was an important focus of resistance and covered a wide area but was itself too individualistic and loosely structured to succeed in any very extensive enlargement of scale.Google Scholar

28 For specific examples of religious leaders urging wider unity see Ranger, ‘African reaction to the imposition of colonial rule’, loc. cit.

29 Iliffe, op. cit.

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