Black mischief

Crime, protest and resistance in colonial Kenya

Datos Bibliográficos

ID8955720
AutoresDavid M Anderson (0000-0002-0328-1640, SOAS University of London, autor de correspondencia)
Año1993
Volumen36
Número4
Páginas851-877
Fecha de publicación1993-12-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaThe Historical Journal (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0018-246X • E-ISSN: 1469-5103
EditorialCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0018246x00014539
OpenAlexW2072400080
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas20
Referencias citadas15

This article examines the history of African resistance to colonial rule among the Nandi and Kipsigis peoples of Kenya's Western Highlands. Anti-colonial protest centred on the activities of a group of ritual leaders, the orkoiik of the Talai clan, who were believed to possess supernatural powers of prophecy and divination. Between the late 1890s and 1905, the orkoiyot Koitalel had come to prominence as a leader of resistance to conquest. After his defeat the British briefly attempted to harness his Talai clansmen to the system of colonial government, promoting them as chiefs. This move was based upon a misunderstanding of the status of the orkoiik, whose powers often stood in direct conflict with the authorityof the elders and who were greatly feared by many Nandi and Kipsigis. By the igsos the orkoiik were deeply implicated in much criminal activity, especially the theft of livestock from European settler farmers. On three occasions orkoiik attempted to organize armed risings . The article concludes with a discussion of the place of the orkoiik in the historiography of Kenya. Although Koitalel and Barserion are commonly presented as heroes of a glorious resistance to colonialism, it is suggested that this interpretation fails to reflect the deep ambiguity of the status of the orkoiik, and the complexity of the struggles that took placewithin African societies under colonial rule

Ancient history · Clan · Colonial rule · Colonialism · Ethnology · Government (linguistics · Historiography · Interpretation (philosophy · Political science · Resistance (ecology · African history and culture studies · African studies and sociopolitical issues · Global Maritime and Colonial Histories · History · Law · Philosophy