Colonial Chiefs in Chiefless Societies

Robert L. Tignor

doi:10.1017/S0022278X00025131

Colonial Chiefs in Chiefless Societies

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 November 2008

Robert L. Tignor

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The proliferating literature on the emergent states of Asia and Africa stresses as its theme their newness and lack of political experience. New nation states have arisen often where none existed before, and their leaders have been confronted with a host of problems which they had not faced previously. Nowhere are such states thought to be more novel and inexperienced than in Africa, where a scant half century ago peoples lived in tribal communities, their economic and political context being demarcated mainly by family and kin groups. Lucy Mair's appropriately titled book, The New Nations, puts the problem pithily: ‘The new African governments are recruited from new men…The relationship of the leader with his followers, of ministers with their colleagues, with bureaucrats, with the general public, are new relationships.’1

Type: Articles
Information: The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 9 , Issue 3 , October 1971 , pp. 339 - 359

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022278X00025131 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1971

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References

^{Page 339 note 1} Mair, Lucy, The New Nations (London, 1963), p. 123.Google Scholar

^{Page 339 note 2} Zolberg, Aristide, ‘The Structure of Political Conflict in the New States of Tropical Africa’, in The American Political Science Review (Washington), LXII, 03 1968, pp. 70–87.Google Scholar

^{Page 340 note 1} E.g. Jones, G. I., Report of the Position, Status, and Influence of Chiefs and Natural Rulers in the Eastern Region of Nigeria (Enugu, 1956), P. 5.Google Scholar

^{Page 340 note 2} E.g. Lambert, H. E., ‘The Use of Indigenous Authorities in Tribal Administration: studies of the Meru in Kenya Colony’; University of Capetown: Communications from the School of African Studies, 16, 04 1947.Google Scholar

^{Page 341 note 1} Standard works include: Meek, C. K., Law and Authority in a Nigerian Tribe (London, 1937)Google Scholar; Kenyatta, Jomo, Facing Mount Kenya: the tribal life of the Kikuyu (London, 1938)Google Scholar; Lambert, H. E., Kikuyu Social and Political Institutions (London, 1956)Google Scholar; Lindblom, Gerhard, ‘The Akamba: an ethnological monograph’, in Archives d'études orientales (Uppsala), XVII, 1920Google Scholar; and Jacobs, Alan H., ‘The Traditional Political Organization of the Pastoral Masai’, D.Phil. thesis, Oxford, 1965.Google Scholar

^{Page 342 note 1} See, for example, the letter from the District Commissioner, Nyeri, to the Provincial Commissioner, dated 4 April 1913, where G. A. S. Northcote states that the Kikuyu did not have ‘hereditary, autocratic rulers such as…the Zulu chiefs’; PC/CP/6/I/I/, Kenya National Archives, Nairobi.

^{Page 343 note 1} There is a short but well-informed discussion of the system by Afigbo, A. E., ‘Revolution and Reaction in Eastern Nigeria: 5900–1929’, in Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria (Ibadan,) III, 3, 12 1966, pp. 539–57.Google Scholar See also Gailey, H. A., The Road to Aba (New York, 1970).Google Scholar

^{Page 343 note 2} Rosberg, Carl G. and Nottingham, John, The Myth of Mau Mau: nationalism in Kenya (Stanford, 1966), p. 83.Google Scholar

^{Page 343 note 3} Political Record Books, Kiambu District; K.N.A., Nairobi.

^{Page 344 note 1} Interview with Dr L. S. B. Leakey, 10 1970.

^{Page 344 note 2} Political Record Books, Muranga District; K. N. A., Nairobi.

^{Page 344 note 3} Secretariat, Southern Province, to Chief Secretary, 27 August 1923; CSO 26/1 09253/1, Nigerian National Archives, Ibadan.

^{Page 344 note 4} Cooke, W. H., Annual Report for Onitsha Province, 1920–1921Google Scholar; CSO 21/5, 13, N.N.A., Ibadan

^{Page 344 note 5} Machakos District Political Record Book, 2925–30; DC/MKS 4/8, 1927, K.N.A., Nairobi.

^{Page 344 note 6} Quarterly Report, Ulu, Machakos, December 1909; ibid.

^{Page 345 note 1} Lonsdale, John, ‘The Emergence of African Nations’, in Ranger, T. O. (ed.), Emerging Themes of African History (Nairobi, 1968), P. 211.Google Scholar

^{Page 345 note 2} This important shift is clear in the Chief's Character Book, 1926–35; DC/KBU II/I, K.N.A., Nairobi. An interview with ex-Chief Josiah Njonjo, 4 June 1970, was also helpful.

^{Page 345 note 3} Rosberg and Nottingham, op.cit. pp. 83, 101, and 142; and Harry Thuku: an autobiography (Nairobi, 1970).Google Scholar

^{Page 346 note 1} See Kenya, , Native Labour Commission, 1912–13: evidence and report (London, 1913)Google Scholar; and, for the Ibo, the letter from Tugwell to Buxton, dated 7 June 1911, Anti-Slavery Papers, Rhodes House Library, Oxford.

^{Page 347 note 1} Lt. Governor to Secretariat, Southern Province, 3 April 1923; CSO 26/I 09253/V.I, N.N.A., Ibadan.

^{Page 347 note 2} Interview with Rev. Musa Gitau, 13 June 1970.

^{Page 347 note 3} Ottenberg, Simon, ‘The Oracles and Intergroup Relations’, in Southwestern Journal of Anthropology (Albuquerque), XIV, 3, 1958, pp. 295–317Google Scholar; and Stevenson, Robert F., Population and Political Systems in Tropical Africa (New York, 1968).Google Scholar

^{Page 348 note 1} Eisenstadt, S. N., The Political Systems of Empires: the rise and fall of the historical bureaucratic societies (London, 1963).Google Scholar

^{Page 349 note 1} ‘Report on the Working of the Native Courts in the Southern Provinces’; Nigerian Sessional Paper No. 35 of 1924.

^{Page 349 note 2} Henmant to Cunliffe-Lister, 30 July 1932, enclosing the Southern Provinces Native Administration Estimates, 1932–3; CO 583/185/1533, Public Record Office, London.

^{Page 349 note 3} Political Record Book, Kiambu District; K.N.A., Nairobi.

^{Page 349 note 4} District Commissioner, Kiambu, to Provisional Commissioner, Nyeri, 22 May 1935; DC/KBU II/2, ibid.

^{Page 350 note 1} Some Hausa traders claimed that ‘the chief always had one or two graves ready in case he should need them. No person could count the number of people this chief has killed.’ Chibunze and Emebechi to Chief Secretary, 10 February 1931; CSO 26/I o9253/V.I, N.N.A., Ibadan.

^{Page 351 note 1} District Commissioner, Kiambu, to Provincial Commissioner, 3 March 1939; DC/KBU 11/2, K.N.A., Nairobi.

^{Page 351 note 2} There are many contemporary descriptions of corruption by chiefs. See, for example, the Final Report of the Economic Commission of the East Africa Protectorate (Nairobi, 1919), Part I, p. 229,Google Scholar for the evidence of Eland R. Watson, a coffee planter.

^{Page 351 note 3} Thuku, op. cit.

^{Page 352 note 1} Interviews in Kiambu District, 1970.

^{Page 352 note 2} Scott, James C., ‘Corruption, Machine Politics, and Social Change’, in The American Political Science Review, LXIII, 4, 1969, pp. 1142–59.Google Scholar

^{Page 353 note 1} See Wraith, Ronald and Simpkin, Edgar, Corruption in Developing Countries (London, 1963),Google Scholar and a critique by Lays, Cohn, ‘What is the Problem about Corruption?’, in The Journal of Modern African Studies (Cambridge), III, 2, 08 1965.Google Scholar

^{Page 354 note 1} Archdeacon W. E. Owen saw that among the Luo forced labour fell on those ‘least able to resist the demand’; Notes of Colonial Office meeting, 16 December 1930, CO/533/404/16381, Public Record Office, London.

^{Page 354 note 2} A zero-sum game in politics is one in which the interests of political competitors are viewed as diametrically opposed. Success for one group is at the expense of another and entails exclusion of the losers from the decision-making process and the rewards of office.

^{Page 355 note 1} A clear description of bitter rivalries for the office of chief and its use to undermine enemies was given to me by Rev. Musa Gitau, 13 June 1970.

^{Page 355 note 2} Stevenson, Marion to Oldham, J. H., 13 10 1921; 240Google Scholar Oldham Papers, Edinburgh House, London.

^{Page 355 note 3} Tugwell to Buxton, 7 June 1911; G224 Anti-Slavery Papers, Rhodes House Library, Oxford.

^{Page 356 note 1} Allen, Godfrey, ‘Whence Few Came Out: memoirs of a District Officer in Eastern Nigeria, 1926–1966’, p. 34Google Scholar; manuscript kindly lent by author.

^{Page 356 note 2} See Colonial Office Memorandum on Njiri wa Karanja, 10 February 1933, and Brumage to Provincial Commissioner, Nyeri, 18 August 1936; GO/553/431 and 466, Public Record Office, London.

^{Page 356 note 3} Lewis, W. Arthur, Politics in West Africa (London, 1965).Google Scholar

^{Page 357 note 1} Lambert, H. E., ‘Land Tenure among the Akamba’, in African Studies (Johannesburg), VI, 3, 09 1947, p. 134,Google Scholar and Oliver, Symes C., ‘Individuality, Freedom of Choice, and Cultural Flexibility of the Kamba’, in American Anthropologist (Washington, D.C.), LXVII, 2, 04 1965, pp. 421–28.Google Scholar

^{Page 357 note 2} J. M. Silvester, Annual Report for Machakos District, 1929; DC/MKS I/I/22, K.N.A., Nairobi.

^{Page 358 note 1} Interview with Josiah Manyaka Kivanguli, 20 June 1970.

^{Page 358 note 2} Quarterly Report for Ulu, Machakos, December 1909; DC/MKS I/I/4, K.N.A., Nairobi.

^{Page 358 note 3} S. H. Fazan, Annual Report for Machakos District, 1926; DC/MKS 1/1/15, ibid.

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