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Intertribal Tensions in Some Local Government Courts in Colonial Tanganyika: II1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

T. O. Beidelman
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Extract

In order to illustrate the operation of the system, I consider various court cases in more detail.2 I begin with two cases involving Kaguru and two other tribal groups which are minorities in Kaguru-land, the Gogo and Kamba. The Gogo are a minority whose lands border the Kaguru to the west. There are some Gogo residing in every court area of Kaguru-land. In many court cases, Gogo are treated in a manner similar to that of any Kaguru so unfortunate as to dwell in an area where he has no kinsmen to support him in difficulties. These cases indicate a basic aspect of Kaguru affairs, that the rights of individuals are respected by those in authority mainly because such individuals can draw support from others whose cooperation and help in turn may one day be essential to the officials over them. Few such checks protect the lone, poor tribal outsider who has come to Ukaguru because of famine or other troubles in his own land. In the distant past, such aliens were sometimes taken as slaves.Some Gogo reside in small colonies nearby Kagaru, but in many other areas they reside alone or in very small groups. Whereas the Gogo constitute no threateningly large minority in any of the Kaguru areas of Kilosa District, the Kamba form a large minority in several Kaguru headmanships.Furthermore, some lone Kamba or small Kamba groups are found in all of the Kaguru court areas.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of African Law , Volume 11 , Issue 1 , Spring 1967 , pp. 27 - 45
Copyright
Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies 1967

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References

page 27 note 2 The writer attended many of the cases cited here; the accounts, except where noted below, are an amalgam of his own observations, Kaguru comments and the court records. However, the following accounts of cases are based only on court records and comments by Kaguru: Nos. 10, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 22.

page 28 note 1 It is important to note that only very rarely did the writer comment in any way on the proceedings of a court or interfere in local administrative affairs. He tried to make it clear that he had little contact with the colonial administration, since any such impression would have seriously hampered his observation of the workings of the local Native Authority, especially those aspects of it which seriously diverged from what was reported to Kilosa.

page 31 note 1 By Kaguru custom, with which the alien woman was evidently familiar, any injury involving bloodshed is considered far more serious than one in which no blood is spilled, even though the latter may be, medically speaking, far more serious, cf. Beidelman, 1963.

page 31 note 2 However, a headman collecting fines normally collected by a court, would be doing something which few if any court holders would allow, cf. Case No. 15.

page 32 note 1 Legally, caning was to be private. However, all caning which the writer saw administered through a Kaguru court was done publicly. There were some practical reasons for this, but some Kaguru also recommended public caning as a general policy because it is more of a punishment due to the humiliation involved.

page 33 note 1 According to Lindblom, the parents of the dead child should have intercourse. It is not clear in the present case why the brother rather than the youth himself was asked to do this, cf. Lindblom, 1919, p. 109.

page 33 note 2 Kaguru custom forbids two members of the same lineage having sexual relations with the same girl or even with girls of the same lineage. Thus, in Kaguru eyes, adherence to the Kamba custom would compel the Kaguru girl to commit incest. This, in turn, would put all of her relatives in supernatural danger.

page 33 note 3 In all cases cited, the accused stated that they were “Masai”, and cases are so registered. Many of these were Baraguyu and known to the writer (for reasons explaining Baraguyu use of the term “Masai”, cf. Beidelman, 1960). Nonetheless, true Masai also raid the area so the writer could not assume that those litigants not personally known to him were all Baraguyu, since the two peoples are not always easy for a stranger to distinguish. He therefore uses the term “Masai” unless the person in question was actually known to him as a Baraguyu. For purposes of this paper, the distinction is not crucial, since in either case this involves intertribal conflict.

page 35 note 1 Confinement in a Kaguru jail, for any long period, was serious punishment. It was not possible for a tall person to lie outstretched on its floor (here, two tall Masai were confined for weeks). The food provided was Kaguru vegetables and Masai would have obtained little or none of the food to which they were accustomed, milk and meat.

page 36 note 1 I could not discover the exact method by which receipts might be altered by court clerks; however, it would not have been difficult to change the carbon of such a receipt to a different amount. It appears that this may have happened in some courts at times and it was a matter of concern to the colonial administrators.

page 36 note 2 The writer's clerk served as a witness in the case; the writer's being a witness would have taken the case out of the local court's jurisdiction.

page 37 note 1 Contrast this with a case between Kaguru held at the same court in the same month where a Kaguru beat another with a stick and was fined 30 shillings plus 20 shillings compensation.

page 37 note 2 Contrast this with a case heard three months later where four Kaguru beat another, breaking his finger. One Kaguru paid 70 shillings fine and 50 shillings compensation; one paid 30 shillings fine and 50 shillings compensation and the other two paid nothing.

page 39 note 1 For example, there were twelve headmanships in the Idibo Subchiefdom. Five of these had sizeable Kamba populations; one contained a Kamba majority: Talagwe 3.6 per cent, Idibo 5.4 per cent, Nguyami 11.6 per cent, Leshata 43.1 per cent, Ndogomi 57.0 per cent. All of these headmanships were administered by Kaguru headmen. In addition, there were a good number of Kamba in some areas of Ukaguru as well.

page 40 note 1 One might argue that those states in which really strong Native Authorities were maintained (e.g., the northern kingdoms and the interlacustrine kingdoms of Uganda) are those whose traditional forces now most inhibit the achievement of a unified, modern state.

page 42 note 1 On the other hand, in Ukaguru, at least, the amalgamation of court areas under one court holder has put a greater burden on individual judges, so that cases in any area are not always heard as frequently as in the past. This overburdening of court facilities has led to considerable delay in hearing cases. This seems to have led many to seek settlement out of court.