Destroying Mumiani: Cause, Context, and Violence in Late Colonial Dar es Salaam

Abstract

This article examines and contextualizes a riot that occurred in Dar es Salaam in 1959, in the peri-urban neighbourhood of Buguruni. The riot involved accusations that security guards and police were abducting neighbourhood residents and killing them in order to use their blood for the preparation of magical medicines. Those who abducted Africans for this purpose were popularly termed mumiani. Their rumoured existence is examined in the wider context of Dar es Salaam's rapid urbanization, its peri-urban politics and land conflicts, and its systems of law and knowledge. The article also explores the many possible interpretations of this riot. Drawing on interviews with local residents, court testimonies, official correspondence, newspaper accounts, and colonial memoirs, the article constructs a historical account of the riot's location, Buguruni, as well as a narrative of the riot itself and the subsequent legal actions. Such a violent event raises questions about the relationship between historical evidence and causality, as well as questions about contextualizing major events that fit awkwardly into prevailing historical narratives.

Acknowledgements

A draft of this article was presented as a paper at the 1998 African Studies Association meeting in Chicago, Illinois. I would like to thank Andrew Burton, James Giblin, and Peter Pels for their comments on earlier drafts, and also my research assistant, Mohamed Kibanda, for his invaluable help.

Notes

1. Sadleir, Tanzania, 156.

2. Turnbull to Lennox-Boyd, 4 July 1959, Colonial Office, British National Archives, Kew (hereafter CO) 822/1795. There are two copies of the subsequent inquiry into the riot; a summary of the inquiry report is in CO 822/1795, and the summary appended with full testimonies is in CO 822/1796.

3. The belief that blood was collected specifically for European hospitals has a long genealogy, beginning in 1947 and continuing at least until 1972. See White, ‘Cars Out of Place’, 32; and Swantz, ‘Role of the Medicine Man’, 103–05.

4. See Pels, ‘Mumiani’, 165–87; and especially White, Speaking with Vampires.

5. Quotation is from White, Speaking with Vampires, 5.

6. For a state of the art study, see Ashforth, Witchcraft.

7. Molohan, Detribalization.

8. Mwijarubi, ‘Historical Study of Class Relations’, 3.

9. Leslie, Survey, 65.

10. Leslie, Survey, 66, 180. Mwijarubi, ‘Historical Study of Class Relations’, 5, states that the Kizaramo word ‘vibuguru’ means ‘small heaps of soil’ which the cluster of huts resembled.

11. According to Leslie, Survey, 258, 68 per cent of Buguruni was Zaramo in 1957, compared to 40 per cent over the whole of Dar es Salaam.

12. For a historical account of Buguruni from the perspective of the Achimboko or eponymous ‘Malapa’ family of Buguruni kwa Malapa, see Polomack, ‘Mixité et territorialité’, 162–63.

13. Brian Hope Winstanley, the District Commissioner of Dar es Salaam, elaborated that there were roughly five groups in Buguruni, ‘static householders, static tenants with employment in town, transient householders who build a banda, sell after a period and move out again, temporary tenant who stays for up to 6 months a year, and the transient African who stays for anything from one day or one month here and earns his living as he can, fruit vending, peanut vending … ’. Inquiry held at Buruguni, 15–20 May 1959, Testimony of Winstanley, page 50, CO 822/1796 (hereafter referred to as Inquiry).

14. Tanganyika Standard, 16 May 1959. The earnings were estimated from poll tax returns.

15. Inquiry, Testimony of Winstanley, p. 50. The Liwali of Dar es Salaam guessed the Buguruni had between 4,000 to 5,000 total residents in 1959. Ibid.

16. Iliffe, Modern History, 385.

17. Leslie, Survey, 182.

18. This summarizes arguments in Brennan, ‘Nation, Race and Urbanization’, 57–76, 188–95, 209–16.

19. Interview with Shirin Virjee (daughter of Suleiman Daya), Dar es Salaam, 20 August 1998; testimony of Suleiman Daya (son of Suleimán Daya), Inquiry, page 65.

20. Letter to M. E. L. S. W., 17 November 1948, Tanzania National Archives, Dar es Salaam (hereafter TNA) 36707/94.

21. Letter to M. E. L. S. W., 17 November 1948, Tanzania National Archives, Dar es Salaam (hereafter TNA) 36707/94.; Provincial Commissioner (hereafter PC) Eastern to Chief Secretary, 23 March 1948, TNA 36707/45.

22. Interview with Munir Daya (grandson of Suleiman Daya), Dar es Salaam, 14 December 1998; Cooper to District Commissioner (hereafter DC) Dar es Salaam, 15 December 1953, TNA 540/27/19/74; DC Dar es Salaam to Town Clerk, 23 December 1953, TNA 540/27/19/75.

23. This information comes from interviews that Adrienne Polomack carried out in Buguruni in 1999. See Polomack, ‘Mixité et territorialité’, 163.

24. Interview with Mohamed Ramadhani Mkasi, Buguruni, 3 October 1998; Tanganyika Report for the Year 1958, 123.

25. Burton, African Underclass, 201.

26. Salehe Athmani to DC Dar es Salaam, 28 November 1953, TNA 540/21/8/304. Original in Swahili. All translations are by the author.

27. Inquiry, p. 7.

28. For a full account of these structures in colonial Dar es Salaam, see Burton, ‘Adjutants, Agents, Intermediaries’, 98–118; for Tanzania in general, see Eckert, ‘Useful Instruments of Participation?’, 97–118.

29. Wazee wa Buguruni Area to DC Dar es Salaam, 8 August 1958, TNA 540/DC3/3/17.

30. Deputy PC to DC Ilala, 14 August 1958, TNA 540/DC3/3/17.

31. Burton, African Underclass, chapter 12.

32. Testimony of Fraser-Smith, Inquiry, p. 8.

33. Testimony of Bethwel Mohamed Kwangale, Inquiry, p. 72.

34. Turnbull to Lennox-Boyd, 20 February 1959, CO 822/1795; Tanganyika Standard, 18 February and 16 May 1959; Inquiry, p. 66. None of the sources gives the identity of the man, and no one I spoke with remembered this European.

35. PC Eastern to Member for Local Government, 28 January 1950, TNA 50007, quoted in Burton, African Underclass, 182.

36. Burton, African Underclass, 182.

37. Tanganyika Standard, 1 and 3 February 1950. A later story claims that eight Africans were convicted. See ibid., 16 May 1959.

38. Interview with Mohamedi Ramadhani Mkasi, Buguruni, 22 September 98. Mkasi is a Zaramo born in 1938 who has lived most of his life in Buguruni kwa Madenge and was present at the riot and subsequently arrested. In addition to Mzee Mkasi, my research assistant Mohamed Kibanda and I interviewed five other people whose accounts, excepting a few significant details, closely match that of Mkasi, although none are as complete. All interviews were conducted in Swahili.

39. Mkasi, 22 September 1998; interview with Mzee Saidi, Temeke, 11 October 1998; Baragumu, 18 February 1959.

40. Report of Inquiry held by L. A. Davies, Resident Magistrate, Dar es Salaam, 29 May 1959, CO 822/1795. This report, the appended testimonies of the inquiry included in CO 822/1796, Turnbull to Lennox-Boyd, 4 July 1959, CO 822/1795, Tanganyika Standard, 18 February 1959, and Baragumu, 18 February 1959, provide the main documentary sources for the riot.

41. One of the four men imprisoned for damage, Mbegu Salemani, was identified by P.C. Patrick at the criminal inquiry. Tanganyika Standard, 9 April 1959. He was not identified by the other surviving officer, Corporal Jonathon.

42. Testimony of Patrick, Inquiry, p. 18.

43. The street had narrowed near the Arab shop to where it was no longer passable, thus forcing the officers to exit the car. Mkasi, 22 September 1998 and Tanganyika Standard, 18 February 1959.

44. Report of Inquiry, CO 822/1795.

45. Tanganyika Standard, 18 February 1959.

46. Inquiry, p. 16.

47. This was the testimony of a Goan factory worker at Metal Box named Victor Francis Albuquerque. Tanganyika Standard, 16 May 1959.

48. ‘Sacking of house began night chase’, Tanganyika Standard, 18 February 1959. They failed to burn down the house, but did burn down a nearby shed. The night watchman's house had been set on fire and firemen were called to put it out. Neither they nor the other police who arrived met the mob or the original police car, as they had already left to Buguruni kwa Sentano. Baragumu, 18 February 1959.

49. Mkasi, 22 September 1998.

50. Saidi, 11 October 1998.

51. Mkasi, 22 September 1998; Saidi, 11 October 1998; interview with Mzee Haji, Buguruni, 1 October 1998; interview with Mzee Njechele, Buguruni, 5 October 1998. Mkasi and Haji stated that these events occurred in 1958; Saidi said that it was in either 1959 or 1960. Njechele was the owner of the building in which the Arab shop was situated.

52. Saidi, 11 October 1998; Mkasi, 22 September 1998 and Njechele, 5 October 1998. Saidi, who maintained that the white officer was killed, also added that many people do not remember this fact.

53. Tanganyika Standard, 19 February 1959. Those jailed on poll tax served from four to six months. Njechele, 5 October 1998, and Haji, 1 October 1998.

54. Tanganyika Standard, 21 February 1959.

55. Tanganyika Standard, 20 February 1959; Turnbull to Lennox-Boyd, 4 July 1959, CO 822/1795.

56. Report of Inquiry, CO 822/1795; Friedland, ‘Some Urban Myths’, in Dubb (ed.), Myth in Modern Africa, 96.

57. Testimony of William Popple, Acting Assistant Commissioner of Police, Inquiry, p. 26.

58. ‘Buguruni Residents Blame “Enemies” for Rioting’, Tanganyika Standard, 20 May 1959.

59. Testimony of Bethwel Mohamed Kwangane, Inquiry, p. 87.

60. Turnbull to Lennox-Boyd, 4 July 1959, CO 822/1795. The plan was to impose a £3 fine on each of the roughly 1,000 households in the area of Buguruni concerned with the riot.

61. Rolfe to Fry, 23 July 1959, CO 822/1795.

62. Three men, Saidi Rajabu, Hassani Salehe, and Vincent Patrisi were sentenced to four years imprisonment for criminal damage; Mbegu Salemani was sentenced to five years because he appeared more involved, having blown the whistle that started the riot. Tanganyika Standard, 21 April 1959.

63. Saidi, Mkasi, Haji, and Njechele were all arrested and finger-printed by the police in the morning following the riot. The only person whom I spoke with that was not arrested was Fatma Said, on account of her gender. Interview with Fatma Said, Buguruni, 29 September 1998.

64. Njechele, 5 October 1998; Saidi, 11 October 1998. All informants used the phrase ‘kupiga pete’, literally ‘to form a ring’, to describe the police action of surrounding Buguruni on the morning after the riot. Mkasi remembers the police action beginning earlier, around midnight. Mkasi, 22 September 1998.

65. Mkasi, 22 September 1998. This memory contrasts starkly with the newspaper's uncritical account of Makita's testimony. See Tanganyika Standard, 21 May 1959.

66. Testimony of Asumani Majita, Inquiry, p. 98.

67. Tanganyika Standard, 18 February 1959; Baragumu, 18 February 1959.

68. Tanganyika Standard, 9 April 1959.

69. Provincial Annual Report 1959, Eastern Province, 23.

70. Tanganyika Standard, 21 February 1959.

71. Editorial in Baragumu, 19 February 1959. The editorial reads ‘Na ni jambo la kutisha na msiba wa namna gani kuona kuwa kilio kile cha siku hizi ‘Uhuru’ kinachanganyika na kilio cha umwagaji damu na ukatili wakishenzi wa ‘Mumiani.’ Kazi ya utulivu zaidi, na kazi ngumu pia, zitahitajiwa kabla watu wale watumiao vilio hivi pamoja wanaweza kudhaniwa wanafaa katika kuifahamu serikali ya kisasa. Na kuna maelfu mengi ya watu ambao hawatakuwa na hatia ya ushenzi wa namna hii wa kizamani kama ghasia za mumiani, lakini ambao bado hawajafikia katika fikara zinazojulikana na viongozi wa serikali au vyama’.

72. On this dynamic, see Brennan, ‘Short History’, 250–76.

73. Testimony of Winstanley, Inquiry, p. 58.

74. Mkasi, 22 September 1998; Njechele, 5 October 1998. Optimistically, the Deputy Provincial Commissioner praised this behavior by maintaining that some 500 Africans ran off, but had returned voluntarily within ten minutes after the bee attack, a hopeful sign of responsible citizenship in the wake of the riot. Tanganyika Standard, 19 February 1959.

75. Belief in mumiani may have reached East Africa through sepoys recruited from Delhi in 1889; Pels, ‘Mumiani’, 167, claims it arrived between 1904 and 1906 in Mombasa in reference to a Parsee who practiced it. White, Speaking with Vampires, 15–16, notes that the term mumiani appeared in Johann Krapf's dictionary, published about a decade before the sepoys’ arrival, and argues generally against Pels’ ‘neo-diffusionist’ account. Previous officials had demonstrated a keen interest in mumiani's genealogy, but never reckoned it a serious policy problem. See Baker, ‘Mumiani’, Tanganyika Notes and Record, 108–09. See also various correspondence in TNA 21855. For a history of Mumiani in the context of Tanganyika's colonial biomedicine, see Malloy, “‘Holding [Tanganyika] by the Sindano’”

76. Pels, ‘Mumiani’, 175.

77. Brennan, ‘Blood Enemies’, 387–411.

78. White, ‘Cars Out of Place’, 39.

79. White, ‘Cars Out of Place’, 40. White is writing here specifically of firemen.

80. White, Speaking with Vampires, 242–4.

81. White, Speaking with Vampires, 146.

82. White, Speaking with Vampires, 139.

83. Iliffe, East African Doctors, 90–91, cited in White, Speaking with Vampires, 247.

84. This follows Adam Ashforth's, insight into the spiritual and physical world of Soweto: ‘[t]o focus exclusively on identity and religious belief, however, is to miss the distinction between identity and security; a difference between discourses and practices that establish, or celebrate, who I am and those that preserve the fact that I am’. Ashforth, Witchcraft, p. 318. Emphases in original.

85. Brennan, ‘Youth’, 221–46.

86. By 1962, the ‘Tata Kabwera Foola Union’ had established itself in Ilala seeking to police the Buguruni and Ilala areas; it took up the task of expelling wahuni to ‘remove this shame’ from the town. It sought registration but did not wish to be part of the TANU Youth League. Circular of Tata Kabwera Foola Union, by Bakari Kondo et al., 25 March 1962, Chama Cha Mapinduzi Archives (Dodoma), Accession 5/57/27. See Brennan, ‘Youth’, 232.

87. Though recently the subject has gained more attention: see Kynoch, We Are Fighting the World; Buur and Jensen, ‘Introduction: Vigilantism’; Anderson, ‘Vigilantes’; and Pratten and Sen (eds), Global Vigilantes.

88. Testimony of Typing Pakosi, Inquiry, p. 20.

89. Testimony of Asumani Salam, Inquiry, p. 82.

90. For an account of the continuities between late colonial and post-colonial wahuni raids in Dar es Salaam, see Burton, ‘Haven of Peace Purged’, 119–51.

91. Turnbull to Lennox-Boyd, 4 July 1959, CO 822/1795.

92. Mkasi, 22 September 1998; Fatma Said, 29 September 1998; interview with Mzee Nyamato, Buguruni, 29 September 1998.

93. Fry to Rolfe, 27 March 1958, CO 822/1795. Fry suggested increasing the period of residency from 18 months of the last two years to 48 months of the preceding five years.

94. Tanganyika Standard, 18 May 1959.

95. Turnbull to Lennox-Boyd, 20 February 1959, CO 822/1795.

96. Giblin, History of the Excluded, identifies a similar distinction between the prioritizing narratives of state historians and the more ‘affective’ stories of subalterns, who retreat into what he terms a ‘private family sphere’ from the exploitations of the colonial and post-colonial state.

97. The 1950 dockworkers’ strike was based on a wage dispute and resulted in the death of the country's most vital trade union; the 1964 mutiny was over the slow pace of Africanization and resulted in the curtailing of opposition to the government, especially for political parties and trade unions. On the 1950 dockworkers’ strike, see Iliffe, Modern History, 404; on the 1964 mutiny, see Brennan, ‘Short History’, 267–68, and Brennan, ‘Youth’, 233–34.

98. The event passes unmentioned in John Iliffe's Modern History, a massively comprehensive work.

99. Turnbull to MacLeod, 1 April 1960, CO 822/2876/1.

100. Rolfe to Fry, 23 July 1959, CO 822/1795.

101. Interview with Munir Daya, 14 December 1998; Mwijarubi, 3.

102. Stren, Urban Inequality, 67.

103. Mkasi, 29 September 1998.