Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-zzh7m Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-27T03:24:49.277Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Waswahili: The social history of an ethnic group1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 January 2012

W. Arens
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Definitional questions, such as ‘Who are the Waswahili’, posed by Eastman (1971) in this journal, appear to have been of little interest in the past, as many social anthropologists either ignored the problem or assumed that the answers were self-evident. However, those who have confronted this task have shown that simplicity and self-evidence is rarely a characteristic feature of the inquiry. Even classic ethnographic cases of supposed culturally homogeneous and distinct tribal groups are at present being re-examined in light of the renewed interest in this topic (cf. Helm, 1968). Whether or not the Nuer are the Dinka, or vice versa, it has been minimally established that such questions are legitimate and even fruitful in sharpening our analytical approach to subject populations.

Résumé

LES WASW AHILIS: HISTOIRE SOCIALE D'UN GROUPE ETHNIQUE

Les tentatives qui ont été faites jusqu'à présent pour parvenir à une définition des Waswahilis d'Afrique Orientale n'ont guère été satisfaisantes; ceci a été dû au souci trop exclusif de dégager des traits culturels qui ne représentent qu'une partie des composantes ethniques. De plus, l'absence d'une perspective diachronique en la matière a aussi été l'une des faiblesses des considérations précédentes portant sur ce sujet. Il en résulte que les définitions actuelles sont ou bien trop étroites en égard aux données, ou bien trop larges et trop vagues pour avoir quelque valeur. Par contre la présente étude, poursuivant celles de Barth et de Weber, se concentre sur les facteurs d'organisation qui entrent en jeu dans la conceptualisation de l'identité ethnique swahilie, et montre que pour des raisons variées, la diversité culturelle a toujours été un des traits caractéristiques de cette catégorie ethnique. Ce terme, ainsi qu'il est suggéré, a été originellement associé au statut social d'étranger dans une zone particulière, et pour une raison de cet ordre, a été appliqué à des individus et à des groupes ayant des formations culturelles différentes.

L'analyse historique montre que pendant la période coloniale, la désignation ethnique de swahili renfermait une valeur sociale négative, peut être en raison des implicatons du terme qui en faisaient une forme de ‘désintégration tribale’. L'usage de ce terme fut donc évité par la population africaine qui fit son choix en faveur d'une identité tribale, ou d'une identité arabe lorsque cela était possible. Cependant, au cours des dix années qui ont suivi l'indépendance de la Tanzanie, le terme a fait sa réapparition car on encourage à présent le développement des caractéristiques qui sont traditionnellement associées au mode de vie swahili: en effet, elles s'allient aux perspectives sociales et politiques qui dépassent le simple cadre local et que favorise le gouvernement national.

La conclusion de cette étude est que ce genre d'examen diachronique et sociologique des composantes ethniques a trop souvent été laissé de côté au profit d'un modèle tribal plus simpliste représentant un concept qui non seulement a des connotations péjoratives mais dont la valeur explicative dans l'Afrique contemporaine reste bien contestable.

Type
Research Article
Information
Africa , Volume 45 , Issue 4 , October 1975 , pp. 426 - 438
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 1975

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Abrahams, R. G. 1961. ‘Kahama Township, Western Province, Tanganyika’, in Southall, A. (ed.), Social Change in Modern Africa. London: Oxford University Press for I.A.I.Google Scholar
Arens, W. 1973. ‘Tribalism and the Poly-Ethnic Rural Community’, Man (N.S.), viii. 441–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arens, W. 1974. ‘Changing Patterns of Ethnic Identity and Prestige in Contemporary East Africa’, in Arens, W. (ed.), A Century of Change in Eastern Africa. The Hague: Mouton.Google Scholar
Barth, Fredrik. 1969. ‘Introduction’, in Barth, Fredrik (ed.), Ethnic Groups and Boundaries. Bergen-Oslo: Universitets Forlaget. Allen & Unwin.Google Scholar
Batson, Edward. n.d. The Social Survey of Zanzibar. Department of Social Studies, University of Cape Town: Cape Town, by the direction of the Zanzibar Government. 21 volumes.Google Scholar
Baumann, O., 1891. Usambara und seine Nachbargebiete. Berlin: D. Reimer. (Quoted in Werner, 1955.)Google Scholar
Bendix, Reinhard. 1962. Max Weber: An Intellectual Portrait. Garden City: Doubleday.Google Scholar
Berndt, Catherine H. 1967. ‘The Quest for Identity: The Case of the Australian Aborigines’, Oceania, xxxii. 16–32.Google Scholar
Berndt, Ronald M. 1959. ‘The Concept of “the Tribe” in the Western Desert of Australia’, Oceania, xxx. 81–107.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bienen, Henry. 1970. Tanzania: Party Transformation and Economic Development. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Burton, Richard F. 1872. Zanzibar: City, Island and Coast, vol. i. London: Tinsley.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dale, Godfrey, 1920. The Peoples of Zanzibar. London: Universities Mission to Central Africa.Google Scholar
Drummond, Henry. 1891. Tropical Africa. New York: Scribner & Welford.Google Scholar
Eastman, Carol M. 1971. ‘Who are the Waswahili?’, Africa, xli. 228–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Glickman, Maurice. 1972. ‘The Nuer and the Dinka: a further note,’ Man (N.S.), vii. 586–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Guillotte, J. V. n.d. ‘Language and Politics.’ Unpublished MS.Google Scholar
Gulliver, P. H. 1959. ‘A Tribal Map of Tanganyika’, Tanganyika Notes and Records, lii. 61–74.Google Scholar
Harries, Lyndon. 1964. ‘The Arabs and Swahili Culture’, Africa, xxxiv. 224–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Helm, June (ed.). 1968. Essays on the Problem of Tribe. Seattle and London: University of Washington Press.Google Scholar
Hino, Shumya. 1968a. ‘The Costume Culture of the Swahili People’, Kyoto University African Studies, ii. 109–45.Google Scholar
Hino, Shumya 1968b ‘Social Stratification of an African Town’, Kyoto University African Studies, ii. 51–73.Google Scholar
Ishige, Naomicki. 1969. ‘On Swahilization’, Kyoto University African Studies, ii. 93–108.Google Scholar
Knappert, Jan. 1970. ‘Social and Moral Concepts in Swahili Islamic Literature’, Africa, Xl. 125-36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Krapf, J. L. 1860. Travels, Researches and Missionary labours during an Eighteen Years' Residence in Eastern Africa. London: Trubner.Google Scholar
Leach, E. R. 1965. Political Systems of Highland Burma. Boston: Beacon Press.Google Scholar
Lienhardt, Peter. 1968. The Medicine Man. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Lofchie, Michael F. 1968. Zanzibar: Background to Revolution. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Lugard, Frederick. 1893. The Rise of Our East African Empire, vol. i. Edinburgh and London: Black-wood.Google Scholar
Lyne, Robert Numez. 1905. Zanzibar in Contemporary Times. London: Hurst & Blackett.Google Scholar
Macdermot, B. H. 1972. ‘The Nuer are not Dinka’, Man (N.S.), vii. 480.Google Scholar
Middleton, John and Campbell, Jane. 1965. Zanzibar: Its Society and Politics. London: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Moerman, Michael. 1965. ‘Ethnic Identification in a Complex Civilization?’, American Anthropologist, lxvii. 1215–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moerman, Michael 1968. ‘Being Lue: Uses and Abuses of Ethnic Identification’, in Helm, June (ed.), Essays on the Problem of Tribe. Seattle and London: University of Washington Press.Google Scholar
Moffett, J. P. 1958. Handbook of Tanganyika. Dar es Salaam: Government Printer.Google Scholar
Naroll, Raoul. 1964. ‘On Ethnic Unit Classification’, Current Anthropology, v. 283–312.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Newcomer, Peter. 1972. ‘The Nuer are Dinka’, Man (N.S.), vii. 5–11.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nicholls, C. S. 1971. The Swahili Coast. New York: Africana Publishing Corporation.Google Scholar
Omar, Saada Salim 1941. ‘The Swahili Life’, Tanganyika Notes and Records, ix. 20–6.Google Scholar
Parkin, David. 1969. Neighbours and Nationals in an African City Ward. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pearce, F. B. 1920. Zanzibar: The Island Metropolis of Eastern Africa. London: Fisher Unwin.Google Scholar
Pool, Ian. 1963. ‘When is a Maori a Maori?’, Journal of the Polynesian Society, lxxii. 206–10.Google Scholar
Prins, A. H. J. 1967. The Swahili-Speaking Peoples of Zanzibar and the East African Coast. London: International African Institute.Google Scholar
Roscoe, John. 1921. Twenty-Five Years in East Africa. Cambridge: The University Press.Google Scholar
Ruschenberger, S. W. 1838. Voyage Around the World. Philadelphia: Carey, Lea and Blanchard.Google Scholar
Salim, A. I. 1973. Swahili-Speaking Peoples of Kenya's Coast. Nairobi: East African Publishing House.Google Scholar
Skinner, Elliott P. 1963. ‘Strangers in West African Societies’, Africa, xxxiii. 307–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Southall, Aidan W. 1970. ‘The Illusion of Tribe, in Gutkind, P. C. W. (ed.), The Passing of Tribal Man in Africa. Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar
Stigand, C. H. 1913. The Land of Zinj. London: Constable.Google Scholar
Tanganyika Territory. 1932. Census of the Native Population, 1931. Dar es Salaam: Government PrinterGoogle Scholar
Tanganyika Territory 1953. Report on the Census of the Non-Native Population taken on the night of 25th February, 1948. Dar es Salaam: Government Printer.Google Scholar
Tanner, R. E. S. 1964. ‘Cousin Marriage in the Afro-Arab Community of Mombasa, Kenya’, Africa, xxxiv. 127–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vincent, Joan E. 1965. ‘The Social Basis of Party Conflict in Zanzibar, 1956-1963’. M.A. thesis. Department of Political Science, University of Chicago.Google Scholar
Ward, Barbara E. 1965. ‘Varieties of the Conscious Model: The Fishermen of South China’, in Banton, Michael (ed.), The Relevance of Modelsfor Social Anthropology, A. S. A. Monographs 1. London: Tavistock Publications; New York: Praeger.Google Scholar
Watson, William. 1974. ‘British Colonial Policy and Tribal Political Organization’, in Arens, W. (ed.), A Century of Change in Eastern Africa. The Hague: Mouton.Google Scholar
Weber, Max. 1958. From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology (eds. Gerth, H. H. and Mills, C. W.). New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Weber, Max 1961. ‘Ethnic Groups’ (trans. Kolegar, F.), in Parsons, Talcott, et al. (eds.), Theories of Society, vol. I. New York: The Free Press of Glencoe.Google Scholar
Werner, A., 1955. ‘Zanzibar and the Swahili People’, Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, vol. 12. New York: Scribner.Google Scholar
Wilson, Monica. 1963. Good Company. Boston: Beacon Press.Google Scholar
Wijeyewardene, G. E. T. 1959a. ‘Administration and Politics in two Swahili Communities.’ Paper read at a Conference of the East African Institute of Social Research, Kampala.Google Scholar
Wijeyewardene, G. E. T. 1959b ‘Mamburi: Status and Social Relations in a Multi-Racial Community’. Paper read at a Conference of the East African Institute of Social Research, Kampala.Google Scholar
Whiteley, Wilfred. 1969. Swahili: The Rise of a National Language. London: Methuen.Google Scholar
Zanzibar Protectorate. 1931. Report on the Census Enumeration of the Whole Population on the night of the 28th-29th March, 1931. Zanzibar: Government Printer.Google Scholar
Zanzibar Protectorate 1953. Notes on the Zanzibar Protectorate 1948. Zanzibar: Government Printer.Google Scholar