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Abstract
This article focuses on the impact of colonialism on indigenous African military institutions by examining the case of Ugenya, a sub-group of the Luo of western Kenya. It adds to the body of historical literature on the conquest of Kenya, delving into changes that the British introduced in Ugenya to dismantle the Ugenya military from the 1890s to 1914. Its main contention is that when the European colonial powers invaded Africa, they did not just use force and violence to subjugate Africans, they also introduced policies whose sole aim was to emasculate future African military capacity to wage war against colonial aggression: colonial policies gradually neutralized the African military and reduced the capacity of indigenous populations to resist colonial domination.
Notes
1. Ogot, War and Society in Africa. Two other exceptions deserve mention: Doyle, Crisis and Decline, analyses how the British scorched-earth policy nearly destroyed the Bunyoro environment; Reid, Political Power, penetratingly analyses the nature of the Ganda military, its transformation, and ultimate collapse during the nineteenth century.
2. For Kenya, see Anderson, “Massacre at Ribo Post”; Lamphear, The Scattering Time; Matson, Nandi Resistance to British Rule; Brantley, Giriama and Colonial Resistance in Kenya; Lonsdale, “Politics of Conquest”; and Ogot, “British Administration in the Central Nyanza.”
3. For examples: Parsons, Rank-and-File; Parsons, “Wakamba Warriors”; Parsons, “Kibra is our Blood”; Parsons, “Dangerous Education?”; Lewis, Empire State-Building; Killingray, “Labour Exploitation.”
4. For Kenya and the World Wars: Anderson and Throup, “Africans and Agricultural Production”; Furedi, “Demobilized African Soldier”; Lonsdale, “The Depression and the Second World War”; Morris, British Techniques of Public Relations and Propaganda; Shiroya, Kenya and World War II; Spencer, “Settler Dominance”; Zeleza, “Kenya and the Second World War.”
5. For recent examples dealing with Kenya, see Anderson, Histories of the Hanged, and Elkins Imperial Gulag.
6. Doyle, Crisis and Decline; Reid, Political Power.
7. Evans-Pritchard, “Luo Clans and Tribes.”
8. Nundu, Nyuolruok Dhoudi Mag Ugenya; Otieno, “The Biography of Ex-Chief Muganda Okwako.”
9. See Ogot, History of the Southern Luo; Ogot, “Reverend Alfayo Odongo Mango,” 90–1; Dealing, “Politics in Wanga”; Were, History of the Abaluyia; Osogo, “Historical Traditions.”
10. Nundu, Nyuolruok Dhoudi Mag Ugenya.
11. For a more detailed analysis of the British in Western Kenya, see: Lonsdale, “Politics of Conquest,” and Lonsdale, “Conquest State of Kenya, 1895–1905”; Hoeller-Fatton, Women of Fire and Spirit; Ogot, “British Administration in the Central Nyanza.” See also Ogot, History of the Southern Luo; Ogot, “Reverend Alfayo Odongo Mango.”
12. Ogot, “Reverend Alfayo Odongo Mango.”
13. Hoeller-Fatton, Women of Fire and Spirit.
14. For discussion of pre-colonial African military institutions in eastern Africa, see: Reid, “Mutesa and Mirambo”; Reid, “Traders, Chiefs, and Soldiers”; Reid, “War and Militarism in Pre-Colonial Buganda”; Reid, Political Power; Doyle, Crisis and Decline.
15. Ogot, History of the Southern Luo, 73; Cohen, “The River-Lake Nilotes”; Herring, “Political Development.”
16. Ogot, History of Southern Luo.
17. Ogot, History of Southern Luo., 167.
18. Ogot, History of Southern Luo., 226; Osogo, “Historical Traditions,” 36; Herring, “Political Development,” 105; Malo, Dhoudi Moko Mag Luo, 15.
19. Ogot, “British Administration in the Central Nyanza.”
20. Ogot, “British Administration in the Central Nyanza.”, 257
21. As cited in Smaldone, Warfare in the Sokoto Caliphate, 5.
22. Thomas Alfred Oluoch, Oral Interview (hereinafter O.I.) on January 12, 2001.
23. Ayot, The Luo Settlement in South Nyanza.
24. DC/CN. 3/1, 1909–1929, Kenya National Archive (KNA).
25. Ogot, History of the Southern Luo; Were, “The Origin and Growth.”
26. Ogot, History of the Southern Luo, pp. 165–6.
27. Osogo, “Historical Traditions,” 38.
28. James Muga Muganda, O.I., March 22, 1991.
29. Dealing, “Politics in Wanga.”
30. Before the arrival of the Arab-Swahilis and Europeans, Mumias was known as Lureko, and was the capital of the Wanga Kingdom. When the Arab-Swahili arrived during the reign of Shiundu (nabongo (king) of Wanga 1841–82), they referred to the place as “Kwa Sundu.” The Europeans found Mumia as nabongo of Wanga Kingdom, and named the place “Mumia's.”
31. DC/CN. 3/7, 1918–1928, KNA; PC/NZA, 1/1/4, 1908–09, KNA; Dealing, “Politics in Wanga”; Were, History of the Abaluyia; Were, Western Kenya Historical Texts.
32. Dealing, “Politics in Wanga,” 278.
33. Dealing, “Politics in Wanga,”, 260, and 267; Were, History of the Abaluyia, 128, 131, 139.
34. As mentioned earlier, narratives from Ugenya neighbours were collected and published in Dealing, “Politics in Wanga”; Were, History of the Abaluyia; Were, Western Kenya Historical Texts; and Were, “Ethnic Interaction in Western Kenya.”
35. Beachey, “Arms Trade.”
36. On the nature of these firearms and their importation into Africa, see Journal of African History 12, no. 4 (1971), a special edition focusing on firearms.
37. Odhiambo, “Movement of Ideas,” 176; Beachey, “Arms Trade.”
38. Dealing, “Politics in Wanga,” 281.
39. Dealing, “Politics in Wanga,” 281.
40. Dealing, “Politics in Wanga,” 281; Perham, Diaries of Lord Lugard, 402.
41. Dealing, “Politics in Wanga,” 303.
42. Lonsdale, “Politics of Conquest,” 849; Ogot, “British Administration in the Central Nyanza,” 249; Mungeam, British in Kenya, 7.
43. PC/NZA. 1/4, 1908–09, KNA; Bridges, “British Exploration,” 89; Mungeam, British in Kenya. 2.
44. Thomson, Through Maasailand, 160; Osogo, “Historical Traditions” 77; Osogo, Nabongo Mumia, 11.
45. Hobley, Kenya from Chartered Company, 68.
46. Hobley, Kenya from Chartered Company, 81.
47. Lonsdale, “Political History of Nyanza,” 98.
48. Hobley, Kenya from Chartered Company, 80.
49. Lonsdale, “Political History of Nyanza,” 101; Dealing, “Politics in Wanga,” 309.
50. The Imperial British East Africa Company, which had run the East African Protectorate since 1888, went bankrupt due to mismanagement, the high cost of military actions (especially in Uganda) and low capital. Its work was taken over by the British government in 1895. See, Ogot, “Kenya Under the British, 1895–1963,” 250.
51. Ogot, “Kenya Under the British,” 249.
52. Dealing, “Politics in Wanga,” 354–5; Osogo, Nabongo Mumia, 25–6.
53. PC/NN, 2/2, 1912–1918, KNA.
54. Charles Oloo Meso, O.I., March 1, 1991; Otieno, “The Biography of Ex-Chief Muganda Okwako.” See also: Lonsdale, “Politics of Conquest.”
55. Odhiambo, “Movement of Ideas,” 175
56. Osogo, Nabongo Mumia, 18, 77.
57. Uduny Otieno, O.I., April 22, 1991; Owino Orego, O. I., May 8, 1991; DC/CN. 3/4, 1913–23; DC/CN. 3/4, 1913–29, KNA; Ogot, History of the Southern Luo.
58. DC/CN. 3/4, 1913–23, KNA.
59. DC/CN.3/4, 1913–23, KNA.
60. Hobley, Kenya from Chartered Company, 217.
61. Thomas Alfred Oluoch, O.I., 12 January, 2001; James Muga Muganda, O.I., March 23, 1991; Zibedi Omondi Ndaga, O.I., April 16, 1991; Hobley, Kenya from Chartered Company, 368; Dealing, “Politics in Wanga,” 381.
62. James Muga Muganda, O.I., March 23, 1991.
63. James Muga Muganda, O.I., March 23, 1991; Zibedi Omondi Ndaga, O.I., April 16, 1991.
64. DC/CN. 3/1, 1900–10, KNA; DC/NNA. 3/3/6, 1929–30, KNA
65. DC/NN. 10/1/1, 1926–40, KNA
66. Ogot, “Reverend Alfayo Odongo Mango, 1870–1934.”
67. Patrick Otieno Odhiambo, O.I., April 23, 1991; DC/NN. 3/1, 1900–1916; Otieno, “The Biography of Ex-Chief Muganda Okwako.”
68. Lohrentz, “The Campaign to Depose Chief Mulama”; Osogo, “Historical Traditions”; Hoeller-Fatton, Women of Fire and Spirit; Ogot, “Reverend Alfayo Odongo Mango;” Ogot, “British Administration in the Central Nyanza.”
69. Ogot, “British Administration in Central Nyanza.”
70. Lonsdale, “The Politics of Conquest,” 852–3.
71. Hobley, “Hobley Diary,” in microfilm, 1894–97.
72. Patrick Otieno Odhiambo, O.I., April 23, 1991.
73. Hoeller-Fatton, Women of Fire and Spirit, 13–14.
74. Hobley, “Hobley Diary,” in microfilm, 1894–97.
75. Lonsdale, “Politics of Conquest,” 853
76. Low, “British East Africa,” 33.
77. Bode, “Leadership and Politics,” 49.
78. Dealing, :Politics in Wanga,” 352.
79. Dealing, “Politics in Wanga,” 352; Bode, “Leadership and Politics,” 68–9.
80. DC/NN. 1/4, 1918–19, KNA.
81. Hobley, “Kavirondo,” 372; Dealing, “Politics in Wanga,” 336; Bode, “Leadership and Politics,” 64.
82. Lonsdale, “Political History of Nyanza.”
83. DC/CN. 3/4, 1913–23, KNA; DC/CN. 3/5, 1914–31, KNA; Savage and Munro, “Carrier Corps Recruitment,” 313–14.
84. PC/NZA. 3/31/3, 1908–09, KNA.
85. PC/NZA. 1/1/8, 1913, KNA.
86. Hoeller-Fatton, Women of Fire and Spirit.
87. Ogot, “Reverend Alfayo Odongo Mumbo.”
88. DC/NN.10/1/1, 1926–40, KNA.