Narrative As a Process of Re-Negotiating Ethnic Identities Among Abanyole of Western Kenya
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Narrative as a Process of Re-negotiating Ethnic Identities among Abanyole of Western Kenya Dishon G. Kweya A Thesis Submitted to the School of Literature and Language Studies, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Johannesburg, 2011 i Abstract Whereas there is an accumulation of a large body of research in oral literature, it is mostly confined to what is considered as the “fabula” and “folk wisdom” ( tsingano ) genres. Such understanding of genre eschews oral history because it is designated as a “factual” genre and ceded to historians. Using material collected ethnographically among the Abanyole of Western Kenya, this study combines historical and literary methods to investigate the Nyole expression of ethnic identity through the oral historical narrative. The study shifts attention from the perceived mutual exclusiveness of factual and fictional genres by focusing on the processes of the constitution and narration, and the purpose of narration of akakhale (the past) by the Nyole to cast light on the methods of fashioning the Nyole historical and social imagination. Thus, the study suggests alternative methods of reading the oral historical narrative by highlighting the discursive processes and the predominance of language use in the production the texts of the Nyole past. Taking the notion of the past as the storehouse of a people’s idea of origin and ethnic identity as the point of departure, the study investigates how Abanyole talk about their ethnic identity. In the process the study shifts attention from the external dimensions, which have predominated discourses on ethnicity, to the internal processes or the intra-community dimensions of ethnicity. The thesis demonstrates that narration of the Nyole past is not meant to reproduce kernels of truth-as-it-was; the purpose which the narration process is deployed to serve, and the meaning of the narrative is unveiled by interrogating the Nyole social and historical contexts, and the dynamics of the immediate context of narration which include the narrator’s conscious selection in the process of integration of what should constitute the ideal community history. Hence, the thesis underscores the implications of the exclusive Nyole social structure, the uncertainty produced by population explosion and scarcity of land, the interpretation of the objective of ethnographer, the need to represent the past in an acceptable and non-threatening manner; and oral history as narrative to highlight how textuality and performativity are deployed to deal with issues of legitimacy and the desire to have a more inclusive definition of being Nyole. The thesis appropriates narrative as a socially symbolic act as a model to explicate the multiplicity and contradiction in the Nyole narrative of origin, and the uncertainty in the conception of belonging to the Nyole sub-group of the Luhya ethnic nation. ii Dedication To my son Luke Kweya Okoba, who remained the ideal son, colleague, and reader; In memory of my mother Florence Odero Kweya who nurtured this idea but gave up too soon, and My father George Kweya Okoba who, having waited patiently, considered his mission accomplished after granting me an interview in 2006 and retreated in 2007 iii CONTENTS Declaration i Abstract ii Dedication iii Contents iv Acknowledgements ix Maps xiii Chapter One Introduction: Understanding ambiguity in the manifestations of ethnicity 1 1.0. Overview 1 1.1. The Abanyole 7 1.2. Some elements of the Nyole social configuration 14 1.3. Ethnicity and ethnic identity 17 1.4. Issues of ethnicity in Africa 18 1.5. Significance and Justification of the study 29 1.6. Theoretical Perspectives 35 1.6.1. Narrating History as a Fiction Making Process 35 1.6.2. Discourse as a device of interpretation 37 1.6.3. Intertextuality as a Tool of Discourse 40 1.6.4. Theoretical orientation of the study 43 1.7.1. Methodology 46 1.7.2. Methods of data collection 48 1.8. Data Analysis 53 iv 1.9. Thesis organization 55 Chapter Two Figuring the nation: conceptions of Nyole nationality, nationness and Belonging 59 2.0. Overview 59 2.1. Narrating the nation 64 2.2. Background: debates on the origin of the Abaluhya 66 2.3. The Luhya: disparate or related groups? 69 2.4. Narratives of Abanyole origin 75 2.4.1. Uganda origin narratives 75 2.4.2. Beyond Uganda origin narratives 82 2.4.2.1. Muchel’le and the Abyssinia-Israel perspective of the Nyole origin 83 2.4.2.2. Okweingoti and the Enandete perspective of the Nyole cradle 90 Chapter Three The micro-politics of narrating the past 104 3.0. Overview 104 3.1. The context of the text 107 3.2. Performing community: contextual dynamics 111 3.2.1. Gerontocracy 111 v 3.2.1.1. Mbalukha Makaali and selective memory 112 3.2.1.1.2. To be seen; to be heard? Age and legitimation of knowledge 120 3.3. Men raconteurs; women patrons: gender and the performance space 130 3.4. The ethnographer as context 137 Chapter Four Narrating community, narrating the self: the interface of personal and public histories 144 4.0. Overview 144 4.1. Time, the self and the genres of history 148 4.2. Popular history and the fashioning of mongrel genres of the past 151 4.2.1. Community past as the story of the exploits of the narrator’s ancestors 151 4.2.2. Community history as the exploits of the narrator 155 4.3. Popular history, mongrel genres, and mainstreaming the self 168 Chapter Five Verbal inscriptions: oral history, documents and the emergent Nyole Identity 176 5.0 Overview 176 5.1. Reconfiguring community pasts 181 5.2. Literate documents: textual haunting in Nyole oral history 183 5.2.1. Tin trunk literacies and community past: Rev. Aggrey Anduuru 183 vi 5.2.1.2. Anduuru’s texts 189 5.3. Literate documents and witnessing to postcolonial injustice: Hezekiah Ong’ondo 200 5.4. Community identity and the power of literacy and documentation 210 Chapter Six Imagining the post-nation: Maseno border and the production of cultural fluidity 213 6.0. Overview 213 6.1. Materialization of the boundary at Maseno 215 6.2. Exploring the post-nation 218 6.3. The background of the Maseno boundary controversy 220 6.3.1. The Story of the formation of the Nyole nation 221 6.3.2. The story of the Abanyole-Luo interaction 224 6.3.3. Imperial history of the Lake Region 228 6.4. Abandu Belisili and their malcontents 235 6.4.1. What we name we own: contests over place names 241 6.4.2. Language use and restoration of authority 245 Chapter Seven Conclusion: Narrating Akakhale as a window to the contemporary Nyole social configuration 251 vii Appendices 268 References 393 viii Acknowledgement I am greatly indebted to my supervisor Prof. Isabel Hofmeyr for her commitment, encouragement and patience since we first discussed my work in Kenya in 2005, and throughout my stay at the University of the Witwatersrand. I will always treasure her mentorship which greatly shaped my ideas, and the trouble she took to ensure that my study was funded. I also wish to thank members of staff of the Department of African Literature Prof. James Ogude, Dr. Dan Ojwang, Prof. Bheki Peterson, and Mrs Merle Govind; the Head of School Prof. Leon De Cock; and Prof. Hillary Janks, Prof. Anette Horn; and Deliah Rossouw. I would also like to thank my colleagues at the School of Literature and Language Studies for those stimulating discussions we had especially during the seminars and conferences. I am grateful to Prof. Emilia Ilieva, Prof. C. J. Odhiambo, Dr. Tom Odhiambo, Dr. Joseph Walunywa, Dr. Onyango Ogola, Dr. Felicia Yieke, Dr. Okello Ogwang, and Dr Maina Mutonya for setting aside time to read my work and make comments; and to Prof. Sue Van Zyl for the opportunities she granted me to attend writing workshops at Wits Rural and Parayse. I will always treasure the discussions with Prof. Maurice N. Amutabi (during his visit to South Africa and in numerous email exchanges) for his valuable suggestions on the issues of Ebunyole, and for the generous load of books he sent from USA. I was also the beneficiary of the generosity of the late Prof. Atieno Odhiambo who gathered materials and sent to a person he hardly knew when he read about my project on the internet. I am grateful to CODESRIA for the sponsorship to the methodologies workshop in Gaborone, Botswana in 2008 and specifically to Dr. Omobolaji Olarinmoye for his constructive comments on my study during this event. My special gratitude to Prof Aggrey Sindabi, Dr. Fugich Wako, Dr. J. ix Nyairo, Prof E. Ilieva, Prof. J. Bosire, Mr. Austin Bukenya, and Bunyole Kenya Development Forum: they consistently encouraged me to embark on this project. I am greatly indebted to the Andrew Mellon Mentorship Program for the generous scholarship they made available to me which made my stay in South Africa a lot easier, and my supervisor Prof. Hofmeyr for recommending me for the scholarship. I am also very grateful for the Harold and Doris Tothill Prestige Scholarship, and the E. P. Bradlow Scholarship through the University of the Witwatersrand. I most sincerely thank the University of the Witwatersrand for the Postgraduate Merit Award and the University Council Postgraduate Scholarship, and for the various awards of overseas travel grants to attend conferences. I also benefited from additional funds extended to me by the department, by the school through Prof. Kathleen Thorpe, and by Prof. Hofmeyr personally to enable me attend these conferences both inside and outside South Africa.