The Truth Be Told: Stereoscopic Photographs, Interviews and Oral Tradition from Mount Kenya

Abstract

Popular representations of Africa are ever-present, and their historical roots many. A little studied source of these representations is the stereoscopic slide, which was hugely popular in Europe and North America at the end of the nineteenth and into the first few decades of the twentieth century. This article examines a set of stereoscopic images taken of the Kikuyu near Mt. Kenya c. 1909. After a brief introduction to place this form of home entertainment, and education, in historical context, these images are used to address the broader issue of the ways one can “read” historical photographs. The first part of the article considers each of the seven slides and demonstrates how historical images can provide an entrée to the study of cultural representation in another time period. The second part considers the biographical study of a colonial era chief who might otherwise have remained, to historians at least, but one rather unremarked upon colonial functionary among many. From an identifying name in a caption on one of the stereoscopic slides, we take up the story of who Wambugu wa Mathangani was, and the role he played in the first half of the twentieth century. The article concludes with personal responses to the photographs by living relatives of Wambugu. They clearly do not see these as images of the “other” or representations of “Africanness,” but instead look upon them proudly as family photographs. Without any of their own pictures of women family members, these are emotionally acknowledged to be their “mothers and grandmothers,” who sadly can no longer be identified by name.

Notes

1. A three dimensional image is created by taking two pictures of the same subject through two separate lenses about 2.5 feet apart, resulting in two images, the difference between which is barely perceptible to the naked eye. When mounted side by side and viewed through a stereoscope, the brain puts the two images together in such a way as to produce a three-dimensional image with depth and perspective.

2. Loke, World as it Was, 12; also Waldsmith, StereoViews, 52.

3. Darrah, Stereo Views, 115; and Holmes, Around the World, 37–42.

4. An examination of such text panels is in Sobania, ‘But Where are the Cattle?’, 313–46.

5. Cf. Landau and Kaspin, Images & Empires, 4–14.

6. These seven stereo cards have been collected over the past decade from dealers who specialise in stereoscopic views. Others from this set have yet to be found, but have appeared in earlier works. For example, Loke published two additional Underwood and Underwood views, ‘Wa-Kikuyu women and young girl, highlanders of south-central Kenya’ and ‘Wa-Kikuyu spearman’, in which some of the same individuals are identifiable (World as it Was, 178–79). Ricalton's identity is confirmed in Davia, ‘World Traveler, Explorer, Photographer’. We are grateful to John Saddy, of Jefferson Stereoscopics, for guidance on this.

7. Information regarding the photographs was provided by Tabitha Gathoni Wachanga during interviews in Maragima in April and May 2004, and interviews with Ephraim Kariuki Wambugu and Salome W. Mathangani, in Nairobi on 19 May 2004. We also consulted Leakey, The Southern Kikuyu, Vol. 1.

8. Muriuki, History of the Kikuyu, 155–56; Hall's diary for 1893–94; Government of Kenya, Kenya Land Commission, Vol.1, 723, 726 and 746; Sobania, ‘Feast, Famines and Friends’, 118–42.

9. These brigands/warlords or entrepreneurs appeared in many Kenyan societies and not just among the Kikuyu, See Ambler, Kenyan Communities, Chapter 5.

10. Oliver and Mathew, History of East Africa , Vol.1, 391–432.

11. This is the view of his sons, Kariuki Mathangani Wambugu and Ephraim Kariuki Wambugu, who were interviewed on 23 March 2004 and 24 April 2004, respectively.

12. Wambugu's photograph appears in Meinertzhagen, Kenya Diary, opposite page 100.

13. Kariuki Mathangani Wambugu.

14. See Muriuki, ‘Kikuyu Historical Texts’, 306.

15. Muriuki, History of the Kikuyu, 163–64.

16. It is not clear when Wambugu migrated to Nyeri. However, Filippo Perlo and Meinertzhagen confirm that he was in Gikondi in 1903 and 1904. See Meinertzhagen, Kenya Diary, 1902 06, 132, and Cavicchi, Problems of Change, 112–13.

17. Ephraim Kariuki Wambugu and Kariuki Mathangani Wambugu.

18. KNA [Kenya National Archives], DC/NYI 6/1, Register – Nyeri, 1913–31, 33; and Government of Kenya, Kenya Land Commission, Vol. 1, 521.

19. KNA DC/NYI/3/5, Nyeri District Safari handbook.

20. KNA DC/NYI/3/1, Nyeri District Record Book, 19–23.

21. KNA DC/NYI 6/1, Register – Nyeri 1913–31, 54.

22. This is clearly demonstrated in the minutes of the Local Native Council from 1920s to 1950s. See KNA PC/CENTRAL/2/1/6; KNA PC/CEN/2/1/1; and KNA PC/CENTRAL/2/1/10. See in particular minutes of the meeting of 16 and 17 March 1933.

23. Ephraim Kariuki Wambugu and Kariuki Mathangani Wambugu.

24. Nyeri Local Native Council minutes for 29 January 1936.

25. Ibid. See minutes of the meetings of 20–22 July 1937, and 29 January 1936.

26. Ephraim Kariuki Wambugu and Kariuki Mathangani Wambugu.

27. Meinertzhagen, Kenya Diary, 106.

28. Kenya Land Commission, 7; and LNC minutes of 29 January, 1931.

29. Meinertzhagen, Kenya Diary, 106.

30. Cf. Preucel, ‘Learning from the Elders’.