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Intertribal Tensions In Some Local Government Courts In Colonial Tanganyika: I1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

T. O. Beidelman
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Extract

This paper is a sequel to one published in Anthropos (Beidelman, 1961f). It is mainly concerned with the interrelations between various tribal groups in so far as these provide insight into some of the inherent difficulties in the policy of Indirect Rule in an African political unit. By such an analysis I hope to support further a contention long made by many critics of past colonial policy, viz., that Indirect Rule was workable only through a serious discrepancy between promulgated public policy and actual political action, a discrepancy which in the long run contributed to many of the difficulties of present-day administration and the effecting of social change in contemporary Africa.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of African Law , Volume 10 , Issue 2 , Summer 1966 , pp. 118 - 130
Copyright
Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies 1966

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References

page 119 note 1 Even detailed administrative reports must be considered with some reservation since they may sometimes represent accounts by a subordinate primarily concerned with creating the best impression possible with superiors on whom he depends for security and advancement. Thus, written reports in any complicated administrative system may not always correlate closely to the actual state of affairs “on the ground”. This, of course, applies to officials at all levels, from the petty headman reporting to his subchief to the European Minister reporting to his party and the voters on colonial policy and conditions. Strangely enough, this generally admitted factor is often lost sight of by political scientists describing African political systems.

page 119 note 2 To substantiate my case fully, I must provide information on the workings of the Native Authority in this area and on political activities within the Kaguru majority. This is beyond the scope of this short paper, but will be the subject of a later monograph. Some suggestions of these factors may be found in my works cited in the bibliography at the end of this paper.

page 120 note 1 I discuss these differences in some detail elsewhere (1961b); more general information on both these societies may be found by consulting my works cited in the bibliography.

page 121 note 1 The situation was very different in the Kaguru areas of Mpwapwa Area where Gogo seem to have dominated political affairs.

page 122 note 1 Cf. Beidelman, 1961b, 1961f. Some idea of the anti-Bantu attitudes which Baraguyu held and how these were expressed in insult and in cattle raiding may be found in Beidelman, 1964, 1965.

page 123 note 1 This section states the position as it was during the colonial period, but much of what is stated remains true of the present also.—Editor.

page 125 note 1 In his Survey of Native Administration (1952) Lord Hailey describes “A” Courts as empowered to fine 1,000 shillings, imprison up to one year; “B” Courts, 500 shillings and six months. However, in 1957, both Idibo (B) and Mamboya (A) imprisoned up to a year for certain offences; the difference lay only in the appellate authority of the “A” Court and its authority to hear cases involving larger amounts in civil disputes than those heard by a “B” Court.

page 125 note 2 The Provincial Commissioner wrote confidentially to the Kilosa District Commissioner in January, 1950: “ … I do not like the very lenient punishments meted out for cattle theft. These, I admit, are presumably the limits of the jurisdiction of the courts, but in that case I seriously suggest to you that you should either issue an order that all cattle theft cases should go to the “A” Court of Mamboya (the Paramount Chief's court); or to the District Court of Kilosa.”

Neither of these alternatives was taken; instead, harsher penalties seem to have been allowed in the lower level courts, apparently without any alteration of the legislation on which the courts were based.

page 126 note 1 Of course, this was only possible in the case of relatively uneducated litigants.

page 128 note l Cf. Beidelman, 1961b; 1961f. To some extent, the vigilante-type activities of Umwano in Ukaguru now seem to have been taken over by members of the officially sponsored TANU Youth League which, although not legally authorized to use force, does seem to have quasi-official backing for such actions.

page 129 note 1 In this case, a son of a member of the matri-clan recognized by the government as dominant in the area. The selection of such a person, referred to as a “son of the clan” rather than “member of the clan”, tended to support the position of the previous subchief who could remind the present subchief that he held office not by his own rights, but only through the sufferance of the members of the clan to whom this office belonged.

page 130 note 1 By law, all private organizations must be registered with government and their aims and rules presented in an official charter.