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STASIS AND SLUMS: THE CHANGING TEMPORAL, SPATIAL, AND GENDERED MEANING OF ‘HOME’ IN NORTHEASTERN KENYA*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 October 2017

SEAN BLOCH
SEAN BLOCH*
Affiliation:
University of Wisconsin-Madison
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Abstract

The conflict referred to variously as the ‘Shifta War’ or ‘gaf Daba’ took place in northeastern Kenya from 1963–8. In the hopes of containing the ‘shifta’, or guerillas, fighting against it, the Kenyan state implemented a policy of forced settlement or ‘manyattazation’. This article explores the temporal, spatial, and gendered implications of ‘manyattazation’ and its antecedents. It indicates that changes in spatial organization transformed the economic and cultural realms of northeastern Kenyans in ways that resonate into the present. Government ‘manyattas’ began primarily as trading centers, became virtual prisons during the war, and continue to be sites of conflict over the meaning of home. This article posits a local history of altered migration in which state progress is paradoxically linked to poverty and stasis, through temporal discourse.

Keywords

Kenyadevelopmenthouseholdspatial patterns
Type
Space and Time in Northern Kenya
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 58 , Issue 3 , November 2017 , pp. 403 - 423
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

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Footnotes

*

I am particularly indebted to Jim Sweet for his support on this project. Thanks to Athan Biss, Florence Bernault, Dave Bresnahan, Emily Callaci, Ben Cross, Katrina Daly Thompson, Skye Doney, Nicole Eggers, Lindsay Ehrisman, Lacy Ferrell, Sarah Hardin, James Homsey, Dan Hummel, Phil Janzen, Neil Kodesh, Misha Mintz-Roth, Janey Myers, Alberto Ortiz, Patrick Otim, Stephen Pierce, Matt Reiter, Julia Seibert, Tina Silva, Caitlyn Tyler-Richards, and Kevin Walters for their helpful insight. Thanks also to the anonymous reviewers of The Journal of African History and Richard Ambani and the staff of the Kenya National Archives as well as my friend Fahim Abdul. Author's email: seanphillipbloch@gmail.com

References

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9 Mburu, Bandits on the Border, 224. My number is inclusive of Moyale, which Mburu leaves out of his assessment of the population at 397,091. See also Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning (MOFEP), Kenya Population Census, 1962 (Nairobi, 1964)Google Scholar and MOFEP, Kenya Populations Census, 1969 (Nairobi, 1970)Google Scholar. Whittaker, H., ‘Forced villagization during the Shifta Conflict in Kenya, ca. 1963–1968’, International Journal of African Historical Studies, 45 (2012), 352 Google Scholar.

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25 David Hume's view that there is no possible way of knowing the future, except in terms of probability, and Friedrich Nietzsche's concept of ‘eternal recurrence’, which explicitly denies an end to time, are pertinent here. See Hume, D., An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding: A Critical Edition, ed. Beauchamp, T. (Oxford, 2000)CrossRefGoogle Scholar and Nietzsche, F., Thus Spake Zarathustra (New York, 1960)Google Scholar.

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33 KNA PC/NFD/4/5/1 and PC/NFD/4/1/1. The branches came from haroresa (Grewia bicolor) or madera (Buddleja polystachya) while pigments were boiled out of the bark of hargasu or dakara. Among Gabbra mad'era refers to Cordia sinensis. See also Wood, When Men are Women, 151.

34 KNA PC/NFD/4/5/1, R. G. Brayne-Nicholls, ‘Some notes on the Golbo Boran of Isiolo’, 1954.

35 Ibid .

36 Ibid .

37 Ibid .

38 KNA PC/NFD/4/110.

39 Ibid .

40 Schlee, Identities on the Move, 67–8.

41 Galaal, The Terminology and Practice of Somali Weather Lore, 17.

42 Schlee, Identities on the Move, 70.

43 Wood, When Men are Women, 34–6.

44 Ibid . 26.

45 KNA PC/NFD/4/5/1.

46 Ibid .

47 For some description of precolonial trading settlements, see P. Dalleo, ‘Trade and pastoralism: economic factors in the history of the Somali of northeastern Kenya, 1892–1948’ (unpublished PhD thesis, Syracuse University, 1975); Hassen, M., The Oromo of Ethiopia: A History 1570–1860 (Trenton, NJ, 1994)Google Scholar; and Kassam, A. and Bashuna, A. ‘Marginalization of the Waata Oromo hunter-gatherers of Kenya: insider and outsider perspectives’, Africa: The Journal of the International African Institute, 74 (2004), 194–216 CrossRefGoogle Scholar. There is a wealth of scholarship on caravans in Tanganyika. For a representative example, see Rockel, S., ‘“A nation of porters”: the Nyamwezi and the Labour market in nineteenth-century Tanzania’, The Journal of African History, 41 (2000), 173–95CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

48 Dalleo, ‘Trade and pastoralism’, 120.

49 Ibid . 122.

50 Ibid . 125.

51 Ibid .

52 KNA PC/NFD/4/1/10, C. H. Williams, ‘Trading centres and markets’, 15 Dec. 1941.

53 Miraa is Swahili for the plant and Khat is the Somali term. For a historical discussion of the plant in an Ethiopian context, see Gebissa, E., Leaf of Allah: Khat and Agricultural Transformation in Harerge, Ethiopia 1875–1991 (Athens, OH, 2004)Google Scholar.

54 KNA DC/ISO/3/28/14, A. J. Merifield, District Commissioner Isiolo to Ismail Elmi Hersi, ‘Your Letter dated 14th November 1960 to the District Commissioner, Lodwar’, 5 Jan. 1961.

55 KNA DC/ISO/3/28/14, Ismail Elmi Hersi to the District Commissioner, Lodwar, ‘Camel Trade’, 14 Nov. 1960.

56 MOFEP, Kenya Population Census, 1962.

57 Ibid .

58 Ibid .

59 Dalleo, ‘Trade and pastoralism’, 129.

60 KNA DC/ISO/3/28/26, District Assistant for DC, ‘Residential Plot Bullabessa’, 26 Jan. 1962.

61 Eastman, ‘Aspects of an African constructed environment’, 118.

62 Ibid .

63 Ibid., 117.

64 KNA PC/GRSSA/3/3/3, Mandera District Annual Report, 1968.

65 MOFEP, Kenya Population Census, 1969. This census explicitly warns that ‘due to boundary changes since the 1962 census … direct comparisons between the two censuses are difficult’. However, carefully tracing the establishment of the Eastern Province (EP) and North Eastern Province (NEP) out of the former Northern Frontier District (NFD), as this study has done, makes comparison fairly straightforward and is a reminder of the importance of treating boundaries as processes.

66 Ibid .

67 MOFEP, Kenya Population Census, 1962 and Kenya Population Census, 1969. If the area surrounding Garissa is included, as per the 1970 Garissa district report, then the population stood at a still small 883 residents.

68 MOFEP, Kenya Population Census, 1969.

69 Ibid .

70 Were, G. and Wanjala, C. (eds.), Marsabit District Socio-Cultural Profile (Nairobi, 1986), 123 Google Scholar.

71 Ibid . 85.

72 KNA BB/12/51, H. M. Ochieng to O. C. P. D. Isiolo, ‘Stock: Isiolo District’, 28 Sept. 1966.

73 KNA BB/12/51, ‘Shifta activities – Isiolo District’, 31 Mar. 1965.

74 Hansard Report, Kenya Gazette (Nairobi), 21 Sept. 1965.

75 KNA BB/12/51 and KNA DC/ISO/4/7/4. For instance, on 8 June 1966 Samburu raided 150 cattle from Boran traders in Isiolo.

76 KNA PC/GRSSA/3/7/9 and KNA DC/LAMU/2/7/15.

77 KNA DC/ISO/4/7/4, Ahmed Dahir to District Commissioner Isiolo, ‘Application for compensation’, 15 June 1971. The number of cattle also includes a further legal claim for 131 cattle. See KNA BB/12/51, A. R. Kapila and Co. to Senior State Counsel ‘Roba Guyo, Tadicha Dida and Wako Geraba’, 17 Nov. 1965. The total does not include the 5,125 cattle seized by the Kenyan Army on 21 Mar. 1965. Most of the claims came from nearby Bula-Pesa, which has since been incorporated into Isiolo town.

78 KNA PR/1/5, Minutes of North Eastern Regional Security Committee, 29 Aug. 1963.

79 For accounts of the slaughter of the Sakuye herd and their forced internment, see Schlee, Identities on the Move, 19 and Schlee, Islam and Ethnicity in Northern Kenya, 9–10.

80 KNA PC/GRSSA/3/3/3, Mandera District Annual Reports.

81 KNA PC/GRSSA/3/12/8, Wajir District Annual Reports; KNA DC/ISO/4/1/13, Isiolo Monthly Reports. The average lock up is the typical amount of prisoners on any given day as distinguished from total prisoners over the course of a year.

82 KNA PC/GRSSA/3/3/3, Mandera District Annual Reports.

83 KNA DC/ISO/3/15/1, Kenya Prisons Service, ‘Certificates of imprisonment/detention’, 1963.

84 KNA BB/12/51, ‘Isiolo and Marsabit/Moyale Districts Shifta Incidents from 1st August 1964 to 20th May 1965’.

85 Ibid .

86 KNA PC/EST/2/3/2.

87 Ibid .

88 KNA BB/12/51. Shifta deaths were estimated at 55 (probably an exaggeration), security forces at 6, and civilians at 52.

89 KNA BB/12/51, ‘Isiolo and Marsabit/Moyale Districts Shifta incidents from 1st August 1964 to 20th May 1965’.

90 Ibid .

91 Hurd, D., Kidnap at Kiunga (London, 1965)Google Scholar.

92 KNA PR/1/5, North Eastern Regional Security Committee, ‘Minute 92/64 – Home Guards’, 21 Aug. 1964.

93 C. Mitchell, ‘The dispute over the Northern Frontier District of Kenya, 1963–1967’ (unpublished PhD thesis, University of London, 1971), Appendix E.

94 Ibid .

95 KNA BB/12/51, Regional Government Agent to Civil Secretary Eastern Region, ‘Security situation – Isiolo’, 28 Oct. 1964.

96 Mburu, Bandits on the Border, 189.

97 KNA PR/1/5, Minutes of a meeting of the North Eastern Regional Security Committee, 1 June 1964.

98 KNA BB/12/51, P. E. Walters for Eastern Region Commissioner of Police, ‘The security situation in the north’, 7 May 1964.

99 KNA AHC/9/38, ‘Attendance of the funeral of Nur Dass at Balambala. date of death 2–8–65’, 7 Aug. 1965. Nur Dass was a former shifta who surrendered in December of 1964 and took up residence in Balambala near Garissa where he died about eight months later.

100 KNA DC/ISO/4/7/4, ‘Application for compensation’.

101 KNA DC/ISO/4/7/4, Khatima Abdi Noor to District Commissioner Isiolo, n.d. Noor was, of course, not completely unique as a town dweller of long standing. For other cases similar to hers see, for instance, KNA DC/ISO/4/1/15.

102 KNA DC/ISO/4/7/4, Noor to District Commissioner.

103 Ibid .

104 KNA DC/ISO/4/5/7, ‘Land allocation’, 1964–71.

105 KNA PR/1/5, Minutes of North Eastern Regional Security Committee, 1 June 1964.

106 KNA PC/GRSSA/3/7/9, Regional Government Agent to Civil Secretary North Eastern Region, ‘Mr. Mohamed Ali Haji’, 11 June 1964.

107 Ibid .

108 KNA BB/12/51, Provincial Police Officer to O. C. P. D., ‘Destruction of Kom Trading Centre’, 6 Oct. 1966.

109 KNA PC/GRSSA/3/7/9, Regional Government Agent to Commanding Officer Royal Engineers, ‘Dadab’, 12 May 1964.

110 KNA PC/GRSSA/3/14/7.

111 KNA BY/21/139, Provincial Health Inspector to District Health Inspector, ‘Re: Dilapidated buildings – Isiolo Township’, 18 Aug. 1967. The District Health Inspector for Mandera helped alleviate confusion in 1969, explaining ‘the plots should be adjacent to each other i.e. wall to wall whereas the existing premises have gaps of about 15 to 20ft from one to the other. This has caused great hindrance as far as the pegging of new plots is concerned.’ See KNA BY/21/183, District Health Inspector to Town Planning Advisor, ‘Mandera Township’, 31 Jan. 1969.

112 KNA DC/ISO/4/53, Director of Surveys to Office of the County Council, 8 Nov. 1974.

113 Ibid .