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.

After still photography, seeing images in three dimensions is widely considered the most important visual technology of the nineteenth century.1 From its invention in the 1830s stereoscopic photography rose to become one of the most popular forms of entertainment and education in Europe, and especially North America. As home entertainment these three-dimensional views brought the world, from the American Civil War and the Chicago Columbian Exposition of 1893 to the Russo-Japanese War and Africa, into uncountable American parlours. By the end of the nineteenth century, few homes and schools were without collections of stereo cards and viewers. Their decline came only in the 1920s and 1930s with the spread of radio and film.

The stereo craze was given a considerable boost in the 1880s when two brothers, Elmer and Ben Underwood (at ages 20 and 18 respectively) began a house-to-house sales programme from their home town of Ottawa, Kansas. Initially they began with exclusive sales agreements with a number of photographers to market west of the Mississippi, but their success soon led these same photographers to grant them US rights. (In the beginning individual photographers sold their photographs to publishers who produced them for sale.) By 1887 they had an office in Baltimore, and in 1889 they crossed the Atlantic to Liverpool. In 1891 they moved their headquarters to New York and began to hire their own staff photographers. One of these was James Ricalton whose work we will turn to momentarily. The extent of their success was such that by 1901 Underwood and Underwood were producing 25,000 view cards a day, seven million a year, and selling upwards of 300,000 stereoscopes (stereo viewers) annually.2 Ringing endorsements for their products were secured from the likes of Thomas Edison, Andrew Carnegie, Woodrow Wilson, Arthur Conan Doyle, and Pope Pius X. As individual families aspired to amass collections of stereo views, Underwood and Underwood tapped a new market, that of educational institutions and public libraries, with endorsements from the presidents of the University of Chicago, and Columbia, and Harvard ensuring their success.

Underwood and Underwood, however, was not the only company selling stereo cards, and as their competitors adopted their approaches to marketing, new innovation were required. Particularly successful was the introduction for sale in 1905 of boxed sets – sets by country, from Australia to France, and the Holy and to the Philippines. These were followed by regional sub-sets, for example, Niagara Falls and the Grand Canyon, and then by subject areas, including ‘Art’, ‘Real Children in Many Lands’, ‘The Lordly Elephant’ and ‘Rubber Manufacturing’. These card sets, each in their own labelled box, ranged in size from 18 to 100 views, with later ‘World Tour’ sets produced in 600 and 1,200 card editions.

A few individual cards with images from Africa appeared before 1900 but these were largely as a result of photographers documenting the Second Anglo-Boer War. These Boer War images were in fact the first Africa sets produced, initially 36 cards in 1905 and later 100 card sets in 1912, a year which also marked the introduction of the first boxed set of Africa stereo cards, with subsequent editions in 1914 and 1922. These early sets included images from South Africa, Rhodesia, Portuguese East Africa, Zanzibar, German and British East Africa, Uganda and the Belgian Congo. Those ‘tribal’ peoples who were specifically identified included the Kavirondo, Kikuyu, Maasai, Wakamba, Swahili and Zulu.3

The earliest stereoscopic cards consisted only of a pair of images. Later captions in the form of titles were added to images, in the earliest examples as a sticker on the back. With later printing and publishing improvements these titles appeared in English on the front and in six languages on the back (English, French, German, Spanish or Italian, Dutch and Russian). Not satisfied, Underwood and Underwood late in the company's existence began printing text on the back, especially on their educational views. For example, on one of the cards in this study, information appeared under the following headings ‘Geography – Races of Mankind’, ‘People and Homes – Architecture’ and Zone Life – Transportation’. Generally in highly stereotyped depictions, these text panels both ‘explained’ the image and added information that the photograph itself might only hint at. When the Keystone Company, Underwood and Underwood's principal competitor in the early twentieth century, bought them out, they expanded text panels to every slide they published.4

Even without the addition of text panels, stereoscopic views were widely understood to be photographic documents, and as such a way of accumulating knowledge about near and far way places and people. For Africa, they are part and parcel of other image makers that provided Europe and North America with ways of seeing Africa – tobacco card inserts, postcards, Tintin comic strips, line drawings in publications such as the Illustrated London News, colonial cinema, and colonial exhibitions. Without captions the image is left to guesswork; with a caption the meaning is fixed.5 Generally such image makers presented Africa as mute and speechless with the continent known only from depictions of Africa and Africans. Given no voice, these images were simply absorbed into the existing historical and cultural milieu of middle-class North America and Europe, in which the African landscape was uncontrolled and natural, and the people who occupied it backward and primitive, if not barbarous and certainly uncivilised.

The focus of this study is seven stereoscopic cards of the Kikuyu published and copyrighted by Underwood and Underwood in 1909, and presumed to have been taken by James Ricalton, who was one of their principal photographers, and is associated with other images of Africa from this same period.6 As will be clarified in the second section of this paper, we believe these photographs were taken at Nyeri when the only individual identified by name on one of the cards was resident in 1908–09. Most photographs taken in early Africa only identified people as belonging to a particular tribe. Most uncommon then is that one of these stereo cards is captioned, ‘King Wambugoo and his sixteen wives, the royal family of the Wa-Kikuyu, E. Africa’. This provision of a name, allowing Wambugu full status as a human being, is rare in an era when most non-Westerners were presented as an essentialised indigenous ‘type’.

Photographs can serve a variety of roles in historic inquiry and contextual analysis. For example, they can provide a basis for examining the early creation of popular images of Africa. Or they can provide an entrée to the study of cultural representation in another time period, in this case the Kikuyu of Mount Kenya in the first decade of the twentieth century. And they can also serve to spark new enquiry, in this case 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. In this preliminary study it is the latter two points of inquiry that we will take up – the cultural representation of the Kikuyu circa 1909, and an enquiry into the identity and role played by Wambugu wa Mathangani in the first half of the twentieth century. First the photographs; then the biography.

The Photographs7

The stereoscopic card that provided our entrance into this subject is as already noted, ‘King Wambugoo (sic) and his sixteen wives, the royal family of the Wa-Kikuyu. East Africa’ (Figure 1). Chief Wambugu, although in his early 40s at this time, sits dressed as a warrior, judging by his headdress of ostrich plumes, thumbi, short sword, spear and shield. One possible implication is that he could still perform the duties of a warrior if and when necessary. It could also be that the photographer urged the wearing of such finery to enhance his photographs. Elders in fact kept such items in their homes as reminders of their warrior years. Wambugu is also wearing an ivory arm band, ngotho, and although not visible probably also wore a long ring-like piece of metal on his finger to indicate he didn't work. The quantity of bead work, and the brass and copper wire worn by the women behind him, suggests both the level of wealth Wambugu had already achieved, as do the number of wives he had already married, and the degree of trade in which he and the community were involved. Note also, the conical roofs of the Kikuyu houses in the background.

Figure 1.  ‘King Wambugoo (sic) and his sixteen wives, the royal family of the Wa-Kikuyu. East Africa’ [#10546/ 1909/U-116378].

The same conical roofs are also shown in ‘The wives and children of a Kikuyu chief – near Mt. Kenia, East Africa’ (Figure 2), and beadwork is even more remarkable in this photograph as it is worn by women, girls and children alike. The standing ladies are young initiated girls. On the two girls at the right, their adornment of beaded necklaces, arm coils, leg bands, and cowrie shell decorations are all designed to announce their availability to suitors. The hairstyle, with tufts of unshaved hair in the back may be representative of a style designed to ward off the evil eye. The mothers are sitting to the left on traditional stools. The leg bracelets, ndogonye, worn by both the girls and women were made locally by resident blacksmiths.

Figure 2.  ‘The wives and children of a Kikuyu chief—near Mt. Kenia, East Africa’ [#10549/ 1909/U-116195].

‘Kikuyu women with water vessels (gourds) beside village store houses. East Africa’ (Figure 3) illustrates the long leather shirts, nyathiba, worn by married women: the three on the right. They are also interestingly oversewn with beads. These married women are also adorned with beaded necklaces and long strands of metal wire, but their large hoop earrings, hang'i, of beads threaded on wire, denote their particular status as a woman whose eldest child has been circumcised. These hoops were worn through extended ear-lobes, but because of their weight, were held in position by a clearly visible beaded headband. The status of the two girls on the left is most interesting, and especially the one second from the left as she appears in more than one of the images wearing a leather cap she would have made and decorated herself with beads and cowries. Worn for ceremonies and dancing, this is an indication to suggest the photographer had a major influence in how at least some of Wambugu's family members dressed for these photographs. Again the conical roofed houses are present but this photograph also introduces Kikuyu agriculture as gourds of this sort, were used for a variety of purposes – fetching and carrying water, making beer, gitumbi, and storing grain, kinya. Given the shape and wide opening of the two gourds in the centre, it is thought these are for beer; the two outer ones on the left and right for grain.

Figure 3.  ‘Kikuyu women with water vessels (gourds) beside village store houses. East Africa’ [#10551/U-116394].

‘Grinding corn – Kikuyu women decorated with beads and brass wire – Mt. Kenia district. E. Africa’ (Figure 4), while adding to the agricultural dimension of Kikuyu society in this decade, also shows well the adornment of women. The hammered brass leg bands and bracelets, and large hoop earrings, and collars are obvious, but especially noteworthy on the lady second from the left are the ornately decorated strands of beads and/or cowries worn on the hips over top of a leather skirt but behind her apron. These also appear in a couple of the other photographs, and as with a number of other items, needs further exploration. Again the quantity of beads, wire, and cowries are clear indicators of Wambugu's wealth at this time and the extent of trade he carried on with the Kamba and others bringing goods from the coast.

Figure 4.  ‘Grinding corn—Kikuyu women decorated with beads and brass wire—Mt. Kenia district. E. Africa’ [#10544/Keystone from U&U].

Again the image, ‘Maidens of a Kikuyu tribe planting beans – warriors on police duty’ (Figure 5), is about agriculture, and although only beans are mentioned in the title, there are at least two other significant points worth noting. One are the bananas in the background, which was a staple for the Kikuyu, but also especially interesting is the presence of the natural vegetation left intact, clearly illustrating the broad environmental knowledge and concerns that were part of the Kikuyu adaptation to living on the slopes of Mount Kenya. Also of note is the use of digging sticks, miro, in preparing the plot. And of course from the women's earrings and other adornment we know only the young lady in the leather cap on the far right is a maiden. In the background are five warriors complete with spears and shields, who were clearly posed here for effect, since they were neither needed for ‘police duty’ nor would they have wasted their time watching beans being planted.

Figure 5.  ‘Maidens of a Kikuyu tribe planting beans—warriors on police duty’ [#10550/Keystone from U&U].

‘Warriors and Women of a village near Mt. Kenia in festival dress, East Africa’ (Figure 6) depicts warriors and initiated girls in dancing regalia; the dance, called gichukia. The warriors have painted their bodies white with ochre/clay. That they are carrying staves, topped by colobus monkey hair and pompons, rather than spears, signifies that this is a peaceful gathering. The warriors, wearing coverings of leather decorated with beads and grass, are also adorned with a wide variety of decorations, including bells and iron and brass bracelets. The elder at the left would appear to be the leader of the group as indicated by his stool and flywhisk.

Figure 6.  ‘Warriors and Women of a village near Mt. Kenia in festival dress, East Africa’ [#10543/1909/U-116233].

The image of ‘A Kikuyu warrior buying a wife from her father, the King (payment in goats); East Africa’ (Figure 7) brings us back to Chief Wambugu wa Mathangani, still wearing his warrior's garb. And while the warrior is in fact not buying a wife from Wambugu, the bringing of goats as the first step in asking for a particular girl in marriage, njurio, was the practice. If the goats were accepted then the bridewealth negotiations could begin between the families. Goats were also used in bridewealth at this time as the Kikuyu did not have many cattle then. Such occasions could indeed be witnessed by young and old alike. There are many other points of interest in the image, including the hairstyle worn by the warriors, the short swords worn by the warriors at the far left (squatting) and far right, the knobkerrie held by the one to the left of Wambugu, and the markings of the shield at the far right. More interestingly is that, circa 1909, it is likely Wamburu would have upwards of a dozen children (in the first photograph of Wamburu with his wives, ten of them are wearing the hang'i earrings indicating their children have been circumcised), so it is indeed possible one was a daughter eligible to marry. There is of course no way today of knowing for certain, and this is the subject we will return to in some concluding remarks.

Figure 7.  ‘A Kikuyu warrior buying a wife from her father, the King (payment in goats); East Africa’ [#10548/U-116257].

Wambugu wa Mathangani

Towards the end of the nineteenth century, Kenya and indeed the whole of East Africa experienced a series of traumatic events that had far reaching impact on its peoples. To begin with, there were natural calamities that afflicted both animals and human beings. These were pleuro-pneumonia and rinderpest, which decimated livestock and seriously undermined the economic viability of the people particularly amongst the pastoral communities. Then came smallpox and jiggers. And as though these were not devastating enough, locusts swooped into the region, followed by a severe drought and finally, famine. These calamities caused untold suffering and resulted in the death of thousands of people.8

In the fight for survival, there emerged a group of enterprising or opportunistic men who created a niche for themselves by taking advantage of the limited opportunities open to them. Some organised their neighbours to migrate to those areas that were not adversely affected by the calamities. Others resorted to trade, procuring foodstuffs from areas of plenty and selling it in food deficit ones. But some unsavoury individuals resorted to anti-social activities. They organised armed brigands that terrorised even their own communities. For all practical purposes, these became marauding warlords, which consequently led to the breakdown of law and order in many regions. And in the process, these individuals acquired power and prestige that lay outside the traditional social and political structures.9

While this was going on, external influences brought in a new dimension. From around 1880s, Swahili and Arab traders began to penetrate into the interior in search of ivory, among other things. At the same time, European explorers and adventurers also began to extend their activities into the hinterland of Kenya. Their activities threw these communities into unfamiliar and uncharted waters. And in the final analysis, they posed unprecedented new challenges that had to be solved, albeit with no previous experience of what to do under such circumstances.

At the same time, Britain and Germany were competing for the control of East Africa. Initially unwilling to commit itself to the colonisation of Kenya and Uganda, in 1888 Britain chartered the Imperial British East Africa Company (IBEACO) to administer the area. The company established forts along the route to Uganda. Inevitably, this brought the company into closer contact with the people around such fortifications. The need to keep the route open and the necessity of obtaining foodstuffs to feed the caravans and soldiers entangled the fledgling administration in local affairs. Such commitments led to skirmishes and at times open warfare, which, in turn, proved to be too expensive for the undercapitalised company. In the end, it became bankrupt and handed over Uganda and Kenya to the British Government in 1894 and 1895, respectively.10

From the outset, Britain faced a number of problems, not least the difficulties encountered in the attempt to establish an administrative structure. Unlike the coastal area where the Sultan of Zanzibar had a modicum of an administrative system, the interior was a different ball game. In many cases, there were no visible local leaders who were available, let alone willing, to assist the British. If anything, many of them were opposed to the British intrusion into their domain. It is in this context that Wambugu wa Mathangani comes into the picture.

His father, Mathangani, was a medicine man, mundu mugo, who plied his trade between Gikondi, Mukurueini Division of Nyeri District, and the southern frontier of Kiambu District. It is said that his services were in great demand. He provided individuals with charms for protection against malevolent eyes. At the same time, since the frontier was a volatile environment, given that the Maasai were close by, he also did the same to protect the frontier community from Maasai attacks. Once at the frontier, he took the opportunity to trade with the Maasai, selling red ochre to them at Ndeiya in exchange for livestock. On such trips, Wambugu accompanied his father.11

In these ventures, Mathangani created a bond of close friendship with the local leaders, athamaki, particularly at Muguga. He did the same with those from Murang'a. Gikondi being far from Kiambu, he would then temporarily leave the livestock acquired under the care of one of his many friends. Indeed, it was one of them who introduced him and his son, Wambugu, to the British. By then, the British had already established an administrative fort at Dagoretti and later Fort Smith.

Like his father, Wambugu was born in Gikondi around 1865, and probably married his first wife in the 1890s. Meinertzhagen took his picture in 1902 and he appears to be either in his late 20s or early 30s.12 In his lifetime, he married about 42 wives, seven of whom had no children while others had one child each. In total, he had approximately 60 children. Interestingly, he astutely used marriage to cement his relationship with some of the most important families in Nyeri and Kiambu. For example, he married into the Harry Thuku family. He also married the daughters of Paramount Chief Kinyanjui Gathirimu, the leading potentate of Kiambu. And for Gatonye Munene's daughter he is reputed to have paid 80 goats at a time when the bride price was only 20. By this gesture alone he became the talk of the frontier.

Kinyanjui and Gatonye had been made chiefs earlier, after Britain took over from IBEACO in 1895. It was Gatonye who apparently introduced Wambugu to the British officials during a parley at Gatonye's home called to discuss the soured relations between the Kikuyu and the British at Fort Smith. Indeed, it should be noted that the Kikuyu and company officials had been at each other's throat since 1891.13 However, that chance meeting, between Wambugu and the British, was to drastically change Wambugu's fortunes.

To begin with, he welcomed the motley crowd of traders and officials who passed by his home in Gikondi. Indeed, he allowed them to camp there. Brisk trade in ivory ensued, with Wambugu acting as a middleman.14 This not only elevated him to a muthamaki, leader, in the eyes of the local people but it must have generated good will on both sides. Increasingly, he was seen as a friend of the new order at a time when others were violently hostile to the uninvited guests. At that stage, he appears to have enjoyed the status of a headman of Gikondi.

The British established a boma, administrative centre, at Nyeri in 1902 after fierce fighting between them and the people of Tetu.15 Thereafter, Wambugu decided that it was in his interest to be closer to the British administrators. He must have relocated after 1904 because Meinertzhagen camped at his village on 12 August 1903. Father Filippo Perlo also found him there in September 1903. And he was still in Gikondi in 1904.16

He relocated in stages. First, he moved to Gatura, then settled at Tambaya for a while before making his home at the present site of the Nyeri Golf Club, next to the British boma. It is most likely here that the photographs were taken by Ricalton. For unexplained reasons, he moved to the Temple Road in the municipality before decamping to the present site of the Wambugu Farmers Training Centre, where his father and mother died. Much later he made his final home a little further south at Gatitu in the 1940s.17

Wambugu was gazetted as a Paramount Chief on 25 April 1913. However, by that time he had already significantly assisted the British to establish its control in Nyeri. For example, he lent a hand in the removal of the Laikipiak Maasai from the environs of Amboni to Uaso Nyiro, thus making way for European settlement in the corridor between Mount Kenya and the Nyandarua, Aberdare, ridges. At the beginning of white settlement in the area, he also took an active part in removing the Kikuyu, who had settled north of Chania river, to the Nyeri reserve.18 Obviously, his good relations with Kiambu chiefs, traders and the British were beginning to pay dividends.

By 1916, he was controlling the largest population in the locations of the present day Tetu division as shown below:19

Table

Tetu South	Chief Nderi	7,714
Tetu North	Chief Ndiyuini	14,705
Gaki	Ngatunyi	1,335
Aguthi	Wambugu	49,951

By 1923, his jurisdiction covered Mbiyuini, Aguthi, Githi, Gaki and Gikondi locations, and under him were 113 village heads.20 His services were highly valued by his superiors, and, in return, he was regarded as the most important and trusted chief in the whole of Nyeri District. Indeed, in the early stages of the British administration, he was put in charge of the entire district. In 1919, one of the early District Commissioners, S. H. La Fontaine, described him in the following glowing terms: ‘Wambugu is a powerful, influential and obedient Chief who renders very great assistance to the Government by his wise advice. He is absolutely trustworthy and reliable.’21 There were few chiefs who won such accolades. Consequently, he ranked with Karuri Gakure of Murang'a and Kinyanjui Gathirimu of Kiambu in the eyes of the provincial administration. No wonder that he had a long administrative career, which stretched up to 1949. And as a sign of gratitude his son, William, succeeded him in Aguthi. A second son, Rufus Gachanja, also became chief of Gikondi, his original home. Wambugu was also a member of the Nyeri Local Native Council (LNC) from its inception until 1956. Between 1949 and 1956 he was even made an honorary chief after retirement in order for him to remain a member of the council. Above all, he was a Vice Chairman of the LNC from 1944 to 1956. For a man who was illiterate, this was no mean achievement given that there were younger and educated councillors. Perhaps he was regarded as an asset because in council deliberations he acted as a moderating voice. For instance, in contentious issues, he was normally called upon to act as an arbiter, as clearly indicated by council records.22

Wambugu is remarkable for other reasons. In spite of being a truly traditional Kikuyu, he went out of his way to support educational and missionary enterprise. He gave his own land free of charge for the building of the following churches and schools: 1920s Gikondi Catholic Church, 1930s Kagumo School and Tambaya, 1935 Church of Scotland Mission at Gatitu and Riamukurue in 1948. Then in 1956 he leased for 50 years 203 acres to the Nyeri District Council to establish Wambugu Farmers Training Centre. He wanted members of his family to be taught modern farming methods and, consequently, he offered the training centre an extra 5 acres free of charge. At the same time, when Africans were allowed to plant coffee, he donated land for the building of Kagumo Coffee Factory. Truly, he was a generous chief towards his community.23

But he could afford to be generous. As far back as 1913, he was earning a salary of 120 rupees per month. Equally, in the early stages of his career, he was entitled to a portion of the tax collected. Apparently, he used most of his salary to purchase land, which was cheap at the sparsely populated frontier. He also engaged in other enterprises, such as growing wattle trees and selling tembo, local brew. Indeed, he was constantly urging agricultural officers to offer advice on what crops to grow in order to increase production or how to engage in export trade.24

Although he served the British with unswerving loyalty and dedication, he was not oblivious to the fact that he needed local support if he was to succeed as a chief. Consequently, he was foremost among his contemporaries in raising matters that were of concern to the Kikuyu. A reading of the minutes of the Nyeri LNC and African District Council minutes from 1920s to the 1950s, clearly demonstrate the issues that were close to his heart. Being a staunchly traditional individual, he was greatly agitated by the erosion of Kikuyu customs by the wave of westernisation that was sweeping through the country. In particular, he was critical of young councillors who criticised their own customs. Kikuyu girls, who dressed indecently and were frequent patrons of drinking dens, worried him. And for the controversial female circumcision he urged caution, arguing that in time this would be abandoned.25

His efforts were also directed towards the improvement of the infrastructure. He championed the building of roads and bridges so that there would be easier movement of people and goods in his area of jurisdiction. He was also an ardent supporter of the establishment of health centres. He is credited with persuading the LNC to build a maternity wing at the Provincial General Hospital at Nyeri.26 Surprisingly, he did not shy from raising politically sensitive issues. He was opposed to the allocation of plots to non-natives in rural markets. He often complained about the burden of taxation, particularly that levied on huts and women, which he regarded as ‘oppressive and troublesome’. He deplored the low wages paid to Africans. And he was irked by the scarcity of employment for the youth. Agriculture remained a pet subject for him. He constantly sought ways and means of making the colonial government focus on this sector, which he thought was essential in giving his people economic empowerment. To this end, he was an enthusiastic supporter of the initiation of agricultural shows at Ruring'u near Nyeri Town.

In this entire advocacy his success was mixed. However, he was conspicuously successful in one important area. He often requested the government to include more land in the reserves in view of the increased population in the reserve. For example, when he met Meinertzhagen in 1949, he told him, ‘Give us back our land.’27 To that end, he was able to convince the colonial government to return Nyeri Hill to the reserve under the management of the local council. His contention was that it was a sacred hill and as such no Kikuyu had the temerity to cut its trees. In other words, it would be safe from destruction. And the Kikuyu were allowed access to the Njeng'u salt lick, which had previously been included in the white highlands. In all these endeavours, his general argument was that the Kikuyu had not been consulted when the demarcation between the native reserve and the white highlands was undertaken. He argued, ‘When the line was made we were not told that the land was taken from us for ever, but that the forest had been taken away for the protection, and now we are claiming back what was given to Government for protection only.’28

Wambugu died on 1 January, 1959 and was buried with full military honours as befitted a pillar of the colonial administration. Before that, he had witnessed the horrors of the Mau Mau, which split his own family down the middle. This is a situation that he had predicted way back in 1949, when he told Meinertzhagen that before the colonial period, ‘We were better off and much happier; soon or later there is bound to be a clash, an armed clash, between black and white in Kenya; I want to avoid that.’29 Tragically, that was one wish that was not fulfilled.

Concluding Remarks

Many legitimate criticisms have been levelled against photographs of the sort we have chosen to explore in this paper, especially because such photographs were so eagerly sought after and they so mightily transformed the popular understanding of the world. Photographers such as Ricalton barged into the privacy of communities, posed people, recreated rituals and other customary practices (often staging them out of doors so they could be photographed) to make them more photogenic. They then sold and distributed their black and white images not only as reality, but ‘as the essence of Africanness’.30 Yet Kikuyu (and the same can as easily be said for photographs of other named ‘tribal’ peoples who were photographed) were religious, practised medicine, told narrative histories, travelled among their neighbours, traded and intermarried with them, but what the commercial photographs presented to a world was the Kikuyu as ‘other’, the antithesis of civilisation. Decorative feathers, beads, wire, traditional leather dresses, personal adornment, and other cultural representations turned human beings into mere objects; bearers of material culture with spears, shields, and other weapons adding to their sense of Africanness. These were images of people against which western populations could measure their own sophistication and modernity, the superiority of their own beliefs and culture.

Yet, while it can indeed be argued that such images made or rendered the Kikuyu the ‘other’ in their own time and place, our interviews with relatives of Wambugu suggest there is a very different way of looking at these photographs. For the family, seeing the photographs was emotional and personal. ‘These are people from “out there” who are related to me! It takes you back to your roots’, and proudly declaring, ‘they are wearing “original things”’. The first question was always, ‘When were these taken?’ with the immediate wondering if anyone in the pictures can be identified. For the family these are not photographs about Africanness, nor are they concerned that they are stand-ins for all Africans – these are their Kikuyu family members. ‘You want to think, this could be so and so. The pictures connect you to another time period. So you look at these with the old folks trying to find resemblances with people alive today.’ And then comes sadness, and recognition of the reality that it is twenty years too late to identify anyone by name. Today there are no living wives; only eight sons remain.

One son, Kariuki Mathangani Wambugu, recalled that when visitors came and wanted to take photographs, his father could organise people for such events. But a granddaughter, Salome W. Mathangani, noted that while you can arrange people you cannot pose them and tell them how to look. Examining the image ‘The wives and children of a Kikuyu chief – near Mt. Kenia, East Africa’ she commented, ‘Look at them! They look like women today – especially this girl, with her hands on her hips, shoulders turned and looking at the camera. And the little boy; he looks so royal and confident.’

Thoughts then turned to what the photographs show. Some of their observations were incorporated into the earlier comments on each photograph, but more generally family members noted with a great sense of pride that this was indeed a wealthy family, ‘All the cowries and beads, even on the little kids.’ Drawn again to the female members of the family, and perhaps not surprising since the family photographs of Wambugu, which the family generously shared with us and allowed us to re-photograph, are all of Wambugu with other men. There is not a woman in one of them. The granddaughter excitedly commented, ‘The girls are beautiful and healthy!’ She then went on to point out that it is sometimes said that ‘Kikuyu women have thin legs, but in our family we have good legs, and these girls and women have good legs!’ This was followed by certain sadness, thinking out loud, ‘most of these women died without ever seeing a picture of themselves. Muzungu came and took pictures, but they never sent them back.’ Yet, for the sons we interviewed, the comment of one provides an appropriate family response to seeing these stereo card photographs; ‘Seeing my father there – my hearts strikes up [with excitement]. How can I see my father at that time?!’

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’.