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: ' I I . . 73-96 GIAZIERj Jack, 1943- CONFLICT AND ODNCltlATION AMONG THE MBE^ OF .• University of-California, Berkeley, Ph.D., 1972 Anthropology

I- • University Microfilms, A XEI^ Company, Ann Arbor, Michigan

© 1972- ^

JACK GLAZIER

ALL RIGHTS RESERVTID

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. I THIS DISSERTATION HAS BEEN MICROFIIAIED EXACTLY AS -RECEIVED. >l' r

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ConflJ.ct and Conciliation among the Mbeere oT Kenya By Jack Glatier A.B. (Butler University) 1965- . M.A. (University of California) 1968

N- DISSERTATION

Submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in

Anthropologyi:

t A in the

f- GRADUATE DIVISION

of lihe UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY s Approved:

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Coomlrttee in Charge

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PLEASE NOTf

Some pages may have indiStinet print FiImed as received

University Mi.crofilms, A Xerox Education Company

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: f Acknowledgements

In the course of graduate studies, field­

work, and the preparation of this dissertation,' I

have accumulated many scholarly debts which cah be

acknowledged here but can be repaid only through

. V further anthropological endeavor. Initially, I

wish tO'.jthapk the Department of Anthropology,

University of California, Berkeley; for the award

of an NIH Training Grant (Np. GM 1224) which made-

possible both'my graduate education a‘nd fieldwork.

My sincere thanks go to Professor George M. Foster,

Director of the Training Grant Program during the

period of ray Support; thanks are also due to

Mrs. Gerry Moos, secretary for the Traineeship

Program and Mrs. ^Virginia Raphel, graduate 'secre­

tary, for their assistance in administrative matters

during the period pf graduate school and research.

In-Kenya, I. received the kindest cooperation

of Professors B. A. Ogot and Alan H. Jacobs, both

of the Institute of African Studies (formerly the •* *'** Institute for Development Studies). To them I am

■grateful for their assistance in securing my

, appointment as 'Visiting Research Associate of the : 4*^ -ii-

Institute. The various associates of the Institute

including .Stanley Mwaniki, Jurg Mahrier, and Tom

Weisner, both informally and in seminars, provided

stimulating critipism and.discussion of'key ideas

V presented in this study. i also wish to thank

Alan Jacobs for first suggesting .Mbeere as a

research site. ‘ .

Once in the field, the people of Mbeere

gradually took me into' their confidence during the

» A particularly anxious and difficult-period of

changing land tenure. Patiently., they-baught-me

kimbeere language and custom. Those who greatly ..

helped me are too numerous to name. In the

■(difficult days of struggle with a new language and

t’ new way of. life, my wife and I were'aided for -brief • • i - . periods by the following assistants; -Steven Meruti,

Jonathan. Mwaniki, Gerald Njiru, Dunstan Mugo,

. ' Catherine Ngungi, Caramelina ciaina, arid, for a -

Monger period, David Kariuki.

During the writing up stage, I was

assisted ’with helpful c'fiticism from Professors - » ' ■ I William AShack and Carl G. Rpsberg, Jr. To

.Elizabeth Colson, I owe a special debt of gratitude

for'her numerous letters of. comment,- criticism.

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and encouragement during the period of, fieldworl^.

Both in the research and writing of this work, she

Brought to bear criticism that- was both cogent and

-pdhetrating, enabling me to develop and re'fine

major points of argxmient..

Just before my departure from Kenya, David

Brokeneha arrived to evaluate the special Rural

Development Programme for. Mbeere. It was a welcome opportunity to talk with another

anthropologist on the spot about matters which had

consumed my attention for "a year. As I was writing

up my material, frec^uent exchanges, especiallyV ' ’ -I* concerning land and |Land tenure, between Brokensha

and myself were very profitable.

I also wish to thank Bjorn Moe and the

Eastern Province Planning Team-for permission to reproduce their excellent maps of Mbeere.

My wife, Phyl, experienced with me the joys and frustrations of living and doing research in rural Kerfya.. She actively participated in the research, particularly in those areas of special■ «> concern to ;^eere women who, according to Mbeere custom, did hot wish to discuss such matters with a man.In addition, she undertook a collection of .

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>■ Mbeere folklore, which I have drawn upon, in pursuit

of her own scholarly interests in that field. Most

especially, I am grateful to her both for criticism

of my writing and ideas and for her o^ numerous

insights into Mbeere life. She brought to the field­

work the creativity of an artist' and the discernment

.. of a litetary critic and, by sb doing,' helped me to

see relationships which otherwise might have

escaped me.

Finally, I wish to thank Oberlin College-for

financial assistance in the final typing and dupli­

cation of this manuscript.

Y r Jack Glazier Oberlin, Ohio

May 26, 1972

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Note on- kimbeere/Kikuyu Orthography and Pronunciation

^ The transcription of Kimbeere words and

texts follows orthography of Kikuyu as

it appears in Benson's Kikuyu-English Dictionary

(1964).Kimbeere and Kikuyu are very closely

related, separated for the most part by phonological

and minor lexical differences; grammatical differ-

• ences between the two languages are not significant.

A high degree of mutual intelligibility exists

between Kimbeere and Kikuyu. s g. A seven vowel sygtem characterizes both

Kimbeere and Kikuyu; a, e, _i, o, and u appear and,

in addition, two other forms, i and u, occur.

These vowels are pronounced approximately as follows:

'v ■ a father e re^ht ^ • i greet.' o ought u boot i b^. u boat

% Consonant sounds are similar to those in English, but a b?ief word is necessary concerni,pg

the Kiitibeere/Kikuyu c, ;yi, and ng'. C is normally

pronounced in Mbeere as English although one may

hear a ch version in parts of Kikuyuland. is 5- -Vi-

usually Voiced as in that, but agaj.n, vqiceless ^

o' -*■ 5 ' may occur.Finally, ng' , the velar ipasal,' is pro­

nounced as the n£ in singer, apd■it should be

distinguished from initial in Kimbeere pro­

nounced virtually as one sound, the hard, £ of get.

Phonetic differences within Kimbeere exist

between administrative Locations. To the north.

* ■ in EvuTOre Location, for example, v is more . prevalent\:han b, although the situation is

reversed as one moves southward through Nthawa and

into Mavuria (official spelling)J In the latter

■ area, people are more apt to say kabiu (knife),'

mubiriga (clan), etc. People in-Evurore, on the ' .V other hand, tend to say kaviu, muviriga, etc. My

, fieldwork was carried out in both Mavuria and

Evurore Locations, with greater time spent in the

latter area. For that reason, Kimbeere terms, which

appear in this work will- be as they are used in

Evurore, except.in those instances where I give

Kimbeere texts -recorded in Mavuria.

. Finally, official government spelling of

.the group and territory is Mbere, but-the people

themselves pronounce the word by dravJing out the V jnj^dle vowel, as in "Mbeere".I have .selected the -vii-

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one brief reference to Mbeere uses that form.I

am using, the word Mbeere to refer to the territory

and to the people, either in the singular or plural.

The Bantu prefixes, mu- and a-, referring to one . V Mbeere or to two or more, respectively, have been

dropped for convenience. I do, however, use the > term I^imbeere in reference to the language of

Mbeere.

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. LIST OF MAPS AND TABLES

V • Maps

1 1. Mbeere in Relationship to the Lands of the Kikuyu, Embu, and Meru ...... 21

2, Population 302

3. Locations and Sublocations . . 303

4. Altitude 304

5. Land Adjudication305

Tables

1. Comparative Censuses of Mbeere'1939-69 . . . . . 27

2.Incidence of Polygyny 62 P 3. Multiple Garden Holdings205

4. Number of Registered Land Cases Mbeere Divisional^ ' Court January, 1959 to August, 1970 ...... 237

5. Land Disputes in Nguthi Between Groups within a Moiety and Between Groups From Different Moieties270 ■ is>

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■ . 9^ TABLE OF CONTENTS V

Acknowledgements

Note on the Orthography and Pronunciation of Kimbeere/Kikuyu Terms i '...... V

List of Maps and Tables viii

-f I, INTRODUCTION 1

The problem, its investigation, and • the research setting ...... 1

a) The problem 1

b) The investigation of the , problem and the research setting jf'. The ethnographic conte^ct 18

The administrative organization of / Mbeere ...... S3

/■ Physical environment, population, and economy ...... 25

Ethnographic and historical research in Mbeere- ...... -...... 29

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II. MBEERE SOCIAL ORGANIZATION32 r Moieties 32

Descent arid descent groups 40

Parish and homestead; organization and I. composition ...... 50 Marriage and bridewealth60

The age organization 72 ' . 'Si III. CIRCUMCISION CEREMONIAL 84

• ■' The physical operation in its historical setting...... 85

The ideology of circumcision . . . . . 88

Changing age at circumcision . . 106

The ceremonial complex of circumcision110

a)Opposition of the parental descent groups of the initiate: a processual view ■ . . 112

b)Secular sources of conflict expressed in the circumcision ceremonial ...... 121 •

c)One Mbeere circumcision: an illustration , , 128

d)Men vs. women 147

Summary and- conclusions154:■

IV. THE OATH IN LITIGIOUS CONFLICT: AN APPEAL TO SUPERNATURAL SANCTIONS T ...... ■159

An oath-taking procedure: litigation and ritual ...... 169

Conelusion iT 197 ; r V. LAND AND LITIGATION 202

Rules of land tenure 203

Land consolidation in Central Kenya and its delayed extension to Mbeere . . . 222

The anticipation of land consolidation, increasing land disputes-? and the failure of the oath ...... 231 \

9^ ‘ :‘w a) The process of land con­ -■V solidation v'in ^Mbeere 231

b) The anticipation of land consolidation and,changing ■I land disputes . . , , . 233

■c). The use of the ‘’oath in settling land disputes ' 240

d) . Analysis of recent land disputes and the ineffec­ tiveness of the oath . . 249

e) Recent land disputes: a case study from Nguthi 259

VI. CONCLUSION 292

Appendix 301

Bibliography 306

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. CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

The problem, its investigation-, and the research setting

a) The problem

. Studies of conflict in the context of ritual

•f.' i , and ceremonial are well established in anthropology

and have particular relevance to the African field;

most notably Gluckman (1955, 1963, 1965) and Turner

(1957, 1968), as well as Fortes and Evans-Pritchard

(1940), Evans-Pritchard (1948), and Wilson (1957,

1959) hav^g examined the role of conflict in ritual

and ceremonial. , Conflicts expressed.in rituals

studied by these scholars are of one particular

kind — those emerging from,a conflict of values or

social principles. Ritual action is seen as tempo-

. rarily harmonizing relationships by calling on

•, people to affirm their collective loyalties to

commonly held interests or values? conflict is thus

temporarily masked under a veil of consensus.

Gluckman has distinguished conflicts which can only

be submerged in ritual from disputes which can be

settled through secular, judicial processes. Thus he -2-

^^eserves the term "conflict" for discrepancies between

. structural principles, values, loyalties, and moral

duty and self-interest.These he sees as leading to

redressive ritual (1965:246-247); C3luckman then uti­

lizes terms such as quarrel, strife, and dispute for •

tensions whose resolutions lie in secular judicial or

legal proceedings (1965:109).I shall term this flatter

category of disputes litigious or.legal conflict.

This study concerns itself with the analysis

and comparison of two types of conflict in their re­ lationship to ritual and ceremonial activity, The f

theoretical framework derives from Gluckman's work in ■

this field.The first type of conflict I term struc­

tural conflict for it arises from individuals' adher­

ence to legitimate but contradictory values or

principles. The conflict lies ^thin the very

ordering of society, Beca.use people who are in such

conflict may each refer to socially acceptable but

mutually contradictory values (which lead the actors

into opposition), litigation or other forms of

secular dispute settlement cannot be used to resolve

• the conflict; each individual acts in a socially-

sanctioned manner so neither is legally guilty of wrongdoing. Rather,’ neither is guilty, but their

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.. gpherence to contradictory social values is the

source of interpersonal and social conflicts,leading

them into disagreement. Or, an individual may face

claims upon him that are mutually conflicting, yet

imperative; he is then lead into inevitable wrong-

doing, no matter what his course of action.

Structural conflict is thus endemic in a society and

* ■ . leads individuals and groups into unavoidable strife.

Temporary mitigation of structural cohfliet occurs

in ritual and ceremonial activities which bring to-

gether those individuals and groups (in conflifct) on

the basis of interests which they share. As they

collectively affirm loyalty to shared interests,

the underlying conflicts which divide them on other

secular occasions are for the ritual moment expressed,

. then shrouded, only to emerge once again, during

social crises,.to be again expressed and submerged

in further ritual action./

The second type of conflict analyzed in this

study I term litigious conflict'(here I depart from

Gluckman's terminology). Unlike structural conflict,

litigious conflict arises when parties in dispute

make reference to single social principles or values

which them^ives are nqt. contradictory. Legal -4-

V . ■/Mechanisms may then be brought into play to adduce

evidence and to resolve the controversy. Litigious .

conflicts, in which one party may emerge as the

winner, arise over theft, adultery, land holding, or

in any dispute over the control of scarce resoufces

or over a violation of customary law. Litigious

conflicts in Mbeere traditionally give rise to * ^

» ■ ritual activity, namely, oath-taking. Through oath­

taking rituals, the Mbeere invoke mystical forces both to punish litigants who lie and to effect r