Small-Scale Resistance in Uganda

The Lango ‘Rising’ at Adwari in 1919

Bibliographic Data

ID6041965
AuthorsJemma Tosh (0000-0002-6548-7759, corresponding author), John Tosh
Year1974
Volume9
Issue1
Pages51-64
Publication date1974-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueAzania Archaeological Research in Africa (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0067-270X • E-ISSN: 1945-5534
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/00672707409511715
OpenAlexW2032853083
LanguageEN
Citations received13
References cited6

John Tosh conducted his research in Uganda while a Research Student of the British Institute in Eastern Africa. He is now lecturing in London. This article attempts to shed light on the reception of colonial rule in stateless societies through the detailed reconstruction of a single armed clash in Lango. The Adwari disturbances of 1919 were not a major upheaval, but merely one of many small-scale ‘incidents’ which attended the extension of colonial rule during the pacification period in East Africa. Such incidents were an important feature of early colonial government, but they cannot often be rescued from obscurity, and their atmosphere tends to be elusive. For the Adwari disturbances, however, there exists an unusually rich combination of sources. As a result, the movements and motives of Lango rebels, Lango ‘collaborators’, colonial officials and Ganda agents emerge in focus. Most interest attaches to the contrasting attitudes of the Lango participants; these suggest that the response of stateless societies to colonial rule could be complex, and that opportunities to manipulate European officials in the interests of local factions were not confined to centralised polities

Cartography · Colonial rule · Colonialism · Geography · Government (linguistics · Indirect rule · Political economy · Political science · Resistance (ecology · Scale (ratio · Sociology · State (computer science · Stateless protocol · African history and culture analysis · African history and culture studies · Global Maritime and Colonial Histories · History · Law