Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-vvkck Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-29T11:27:55.774Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The social context of iron forging on the Kenya coast

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 December 2011

Chapurukha M. Kusimba
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Ironsmiths occupy an important yet ambiguous position in many African societies. They are both revered and feared, because they wield social power which arises from their access to occult knowledge, not only of metallurgy but of healing, divination, circumcision and peacemaking. In some societies smiths enjoy high status and are the wealthiest people. In others they are feared, covertly maligned, and blamed for societal misfortunes. In still others the smiths' position is often marginal except when they are needed to intercede on their society's behalf to solve natural or cultural predicaments. The forge or smithy plays a central role in the community as tool-making centre, a place of refuge from violence, of purification, and for healing. This article examines the social context of iron forging among the ironsmiths of the Kenya coast, focusing on the role of iron forging in the coastal economy, the forge, the smiths' life cycle, the institution of apprenticeship, the ritual and technical power of smiths, the role of women in the smiths' community, and the future of iron forging on the coast. It is argued that, while coastal smiths are marginal and despised, they hold important ritual and spiritual powers in coastal society. The article concludes that a detailed understanding of the traditional crafts historically practised on the coast can do much to illuminate the complex history of coastal society.

Résumé

Les forgerons occupent une position importante bien qu'ambigüe dans beaucoup de sociétés africaines. Ils sont à la fois vénérés et craints parce qu'ils exercent un pouvoir social qui provient de leur accès à la connaissance de l'occulte, non seulement en ce qui concerne la métallurgie mais le guérison, la divination, la circoncision, et la pacification. Dans certaines sociétés les forgerons ont un statut élevé et sont les gens les plus riches. Dans d'autres ils sont craints, calomniés indirectement, et sont tenu responsables des malheurs de la société. Dans d'autres encore la position des forgerons est souvent marginale sauf lorsqu'on a besoin d'eux pour intervenir en faveur de leur société pour résoudre des prédicaments naturels ou culturels. La forge joue un rôle central dans la communauté en tant que centre d'outillage, refuge contre la violence, endroit de purification, et endroit de guérison. Cet article examine le contexte social de la forgerie du fer parmi les forgerons de la côte du Kenya, se concentrant sur le rôle de la forgerie du fer dans l'économie côtière, la forge, le cycle de vie des forgerons, l'institution de l'apprentissage, le pouvoir rituel et technique des forgerons, le rôle des femmes dans la communauté des forgerons, et le futur de la forgerie du fer sur la côte. Il est soutenu dans cet article que tandis que les forgerons côtiers sont marginaux et méprisés, ils détiennent des pouvoirs rituels et spirituels important dans la société côtière. Cet article conclut qu'une compréhension détaillée de l'artisanat traditionnel de la manière dont il était pratiqué historiquement sur la côte peut beaucoup contribuer à illuminer l'histoire complexe de cette société côtière.

Type
Maintaining meanings in the midst of change
Information
Africa , Volume 66 , Issue 3 , July 1996 , pp. 386 - 410
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 1996

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

Allen, J. de V. 1993. Swahili Origins: Swahili culture and the Shungwaya phenomenon. London: James Currey.Google Scholar
Arens, W. 1975. ‘The Waswahili: the social history of an ethnic group’, Africa 45 (3), 426–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barnes, H. B. 1926. ‘Iron smelting among the Ba-Ushi’, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 56, 189–94.Google Scholar
Berg, F. J. 1968. ‘The Swahili community of Mombasa, 1500–1900’, Journal of African History 9 (1), 35–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brantley, C. 1981. The Giriama and the Colonial Resistance in Kenya, 1800–1920. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Brelsford, W. V. 1949. ‘Rituals and medicines of Chishinga ironworkers’, Man, 48–50, 27–9.Google Scholar
Brown, W. H. 1985. ‘History of Siyu: the development and decline of a Swahili town on the northern Kenya coast’. Ph.D. dissertation, Bloomington, In.: Indiana University.Google Scholar
Cassanelli, L. W. 1982. The Shaping of Somali Society. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chakrabarti, D. 1993. The Early Use of Iron in India. Delhi: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Chami, F. A. 1994. ‘The Tanzanian Coast in the First Millennium AD’. Ph.D. thesis, Gustavianum: Uppsala University.Google Scholar
Childs, S. T. 1991a. ‘Style, technology, and iron-smelting furnaces in Bantu-speaking Africa’, Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 10, 332–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Childs, S. T. 1991b. ‘Transformations: iron and copper production in Central Africa’, in Glumac, P. (ed.), Recent Advances in Archaeometallurgical Research. Philadelphia: MASCA Research Papers in Science and Archaeology 8 (1), 33–46.Google Scholar
Childs, S. T., and Killick, D. 1993. ‘African metallurgy: nature and culture’, Annual Review of Anthropology 22, 317–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chittick, N. H. 1974. Kilwa: an Islamic trading city on the East African coast. Nairobi: British Institute in Eastern Africa.Google Scholar
Chittick, N. H. 1977. ‘Prelslamic trade and ports of the Horn’, in Leakey, R. E. and Ogot, B. A. (eds.), Proceedings of the VII Pan African Congress of Prehistory and the Quaternary. Nairobi: International Louis Leakey Memorial Institute for African Prehistory.Google Scholar
Chittick, N. H. 1984. Manda: excavations of an island port on the Kenya coast. Nairobi: British Institute in Eastern Africa.Google Scholar
Constantin, F. 1989. ‘Social stratification on the Swahili coast: from race to class’, Africa 59 (2), 145–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
David, N. R., Killick, D., and Wayman, R. 1989. ‘Between bloomery and blast furnace: Mafa iron-smelting technology in north Cameroon’, African Archaeological Review 7, 183–208.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
De Maret, P. 1980. ‘Ceux qui jouent avec le feu: la place de forgeron en Afrique centrale’, Africa 50 (3), 263–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
De Maret, P. 1985. ‘The smith myth and the origin of leadership in Central Africa’, in Haarland, R. and Shinnie, P. (eds.), African Ironworking: ancient and traditional. Oslo: Norwegian University Press.Google Scholar
Dewey, W. 1990. Weapons for the Ancestors. Iowa City: University of Iowa Video Production Unit.Google Scholar
Donley, L. 1984. ‘The Social Uses of Swahili Spaces and Objects’. Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Cambridge: University of Cambridge.Google Scholar
Eastman, C. M. 1971. ‘Who are the Swahili?’, Africa 42 (3), 228–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fowler, I. 1990. ‘Babungo: a study of iron production, trade and power in nineteenth century Ndop plain chiefdoms (Cameroon)’. Ph.D. thesis, University of London.Google Scholar
Fowler, I. 1995. ‘The rise and fall of iron working in Africa’, in Coy, M. W. and Plotnicov, L. (eds.), Africa in World History: old, new, then, and now. Ethnological monographs 16, Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh.Google Scholar
Frank, B. E. 1994. ‘More than wives and mothers: the artistry of Mande potters’, African Arts 27, 26–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Freeman-Grenville, G. S. P. 1962. The East African Coast: select documents from the first to the earlier nineteenth century. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Garlake, P. S. 1966. Islamic Architecture on the East African Coast. Nairobi: British Institute in Eastern Africa.Google Scholar
Giles, L. L. 1989. ‘Spirit Possession on the Swahili Coast: peripheral cults or primary texts’. Ph.D. dissertation. University of Texas at Austin.Google Scholar
Grandmaison, C. C. 1989. ‘Rich cousins, poor cousins: hidden stratification among the Omani Arabs in eastern Africa’, Africa 59 (2), 176–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gray, K. R., Cooley, W., Lutabingwa, J., Mutai-Kaimenyi, B., and Oyugi, L. A. 1995. A Strategic Analysis of Manufacturing Industries in Kenya: textiles, woodwork and metalwork. Lanham, Md.: University Press of America.Google Scholar
Guennec-Coppens, F. 1989. ‘Social and cultural integration: a case study of the East African Hadramis’, Africa 59 (2), 185–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hassan, al-A., and Hill, D. R. 1986. Islamic Technology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Herbert, E. 1993. Iron, Gender, and Power: rituals of transformation in African societies. Bloomington, In.: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Horton, M. C. 1986. ‘Asiatic colonization of the East African coast: the Manda evidence’, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 3, 1–13.Google Scholar
Horton, M. C. 1987. ‘Early Muslim trading settlements on the East African coast: new evidence from Shanga’, Antiquaries Journal 67 (2), 290–325.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hughes, T. P. 1989. American Genesis: a century of innovation and technological enthusiasm, 1870–1970. New York: Penguin Books.Google Scholar
Jeffreys, M. D. W. 1952. ‘Some notes on the Kwaja smiths of Bamenda’, Man 62, 152.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jeffreys, M. D. W. 1971. ‘Some notes on the ironworkers of Bamenda’, Nigerian Field 36, 71–4.Google Scholar
Killick, D. J. 1990. ‘Technology in its Social Setting: bloomery iron-working at Kasungu, Malawi, 1860–1940’. Ph.D. thesis. Yale University.Google Scholar
Kirkman, J. S. 1964. Men and Monuments on the East African Coast. London: Lutterworth Press.Google Scholar
Kirkman, J. S. 1966. Ungwana on the Tana. The Hague: Mouton.Google Scholar
Knappert, J. 1970. Myths and Legends of the Swahili. Nairobi: Heinemann.Google Scholar
Knappert, J. 1972. A Choice of Flowers: Swahili songs of love and passion. London: Heinemann.Google Scholar
Kusimba, C. M. 1993. ‘The Archaeology and Ethnography of Iron Metallurgy on the Kenya Coast’. Ph.D. thesis, Ann Arbor, Mi.: University Microfilm International Dissertation Services.Google Scholar
Kusimba, C. M. 1996. ‘Kenya's destruction of Swahili cultural heritage’, in Mclntosh, R. and Schmidt, P. (eds.), Plundering Africa's Past, Bloomington, Ind.: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Kusimba, C. M., Killick, D. J., and Creswell, R. G. 1994. ‘Indigenous and imported metals on Swahili sites of Kenya’, MASCA Papers in Science and Archaeology, 11, 63–77.Google Scholar
Larick, R. 1991. ‘Warriors and blacksmiths: mediating ethnicity in East African spears’, Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 19, 299–331.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lemelle, S. 1992. ‘Ritual resistance and social reproduction: a cultural economy of iron-smelting in colonial Tanzania, 1890–1975’, Journal of Historical Sociology 5 (2), 161–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lemonnier, P. 1986. ‘The study of material culture today: toward an anthropology of technical systems’, Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 5, 147–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lemonnier, P. 1992. Elements of an Anthropology of Technology. Ann Arbor, Mi.: Anthropology Papers, University of Michigan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mazrui, A. M., and Shariff, I. N. 1994. The Swahili: idiom and identity of an African people. Trenton, NJ.: Africa World Press.Google Scholar
McNaughton, P. R. 1988. The Mande Blacksmiths: knowledge power and art in West Africa. Bloomington, Ind.: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Middleton, J. 1992. The World of the Swahili: an African mercantile civilization. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Miller, D. 1989. ‘Northern Kenya riverrine farmers in conflict with colonial and postcolonial development strategies’, in Linnebuhr, E. (ed.), Transitions and Continuity of Identity in East Africa and Beyond—In Memoriam David Miller. Bayreuth: Bayreuth African Studies.Google Scholar
Mirza, S., and Strobel, M. 1989. Three Swahili Women: life histories from Mombasa, Kenya. Bloomington, Ind.: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Msamba, F. M., and Killick, D. J. 1992. Kasungu and Kaluluma Oral Traditions, 1982–83. Unpublished typescript, Department of History, Chancellor College, Zomba.Google Scholar
Mtoro, bin Mwinyi Bakari. 1981. The Customs of the Swahili People: the Desturi za Waswahili, ed. Allen, J. W. T.. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Nicholls, C. S. 1971. The Swahili Coast: politics, diplomacy and trade on the East African littoral, 1798–1856. London: Allen & Unwin.Google Scholar
Nimtz, A. E. 1980. Islam and Politics in East Africa: the Sufi order in Tanzania. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Nurse, D., and Spear, T. 1985. The Swahili: reconstructing the history and language of an African society, 800–1500. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Okoro, J. A. 1990. ‘Blacksmithing rituals and traditions in northeast Ghana’, inAncient Myths and Images: the archaeology of ideology. Proceedings of the twenty-third Chacmool conference,Calgary, Alta, pp. 5–12.Google Scholar
Parkin, D. 1970. ‘Politics of ritual syncretism: Islam among the non-Muslim Giriama of Kenya’, Africa 40 (3), 217–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Parkin, D. 1972. Palms, Wines, and Witnesses. San Francisco: Chandler.Google Scholar
Parkin, D. 1989. ‘Swahili Mijikenda: facing both ways in Kenya’, Africa 59 (2), 161–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Parkin, D. 1991. Sacred Void: spiritual images of work and ritual among the Giriama of Kenya. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Parkin, D., and Constantin, F. (eds.). 1989. ‘Social stratification in Swahili society’, Africa 59 (2), 143–220.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pfaffenberger, B. 1988. ‘Fetishized objects and the humanized nature: towards an anthropology of technology’, Man 23, 236–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pfaffenberger, B. 1992. ‘The social anthropology of technology’, Annual Review of Anthropology 21, 491–516.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pouwels, R. 1987. The Horn and Crescent: cultural change and traditional Islam on the East African coast, 800–1900. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Prins, A. H. J. 1965. Sailing from Lamu: a study of maritime culture in Islamic East Africa. Assen: Van Gorcum.Google Scholar
Prins, A. H. J. 1967. The Swahili-speaking peoples of Zanzibar and the East African Coast. London: International African Institute.Google Scholar
Read, F. W. 1902. ‘Iron-smelting and native blacksmithing in Ondulu country. Southeast Angola’, Journal of African Society 5, 44–9.Google Scholar
Reid, A., and Maclean, R. 1995. ‘Symbolism and the social contexts of iron production in Karagwe’, World Archaeology 27 (1), 144–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rostoker, W., and Bronson, B. 1990. Pre-industrial Iron: its ethnology and technology. Archeomaterials Monograph No. 1. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania.Google Scholar
Salim, I. A. 1976. ‘Native or non-native? The problem of identity and the social stratification of the Arab-Swahili of Kenya’, Hadith 6, 65–85.Google Scholar
Salim, I. A. 1985. ‘The elusive Mswahili: some reflections on his identity and culture’, in Maw, J. and Parkin, D. (eds.), Swahili Language and Society. Beiträge zur Afrikanistik 23, Vienna: Institut für Afrikanistik und Ägyptologie der Universität Wien.Google Scholar
Saltman, C., Coucher, C. L., and Herbert, E. W. 1986. Blooms of Banjeli: technology and gender in African iron-working. Sommerville: Saltman Productions.Google Scholar
Schmidt, P. 1978. Historical Archaeology: a structural approach in an African culture. Westport, Ct.: Greenwood Press.Google Scholar
Schmidt, P., and Childs, S. T. 1985. ‘Innovation and industry during the early Iron Age in East Africa: the KM2 and KM3 sites of northwest Tanzania’, African Archaeological Review 3, 53–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schmidt, P., and Childs, S. T. 1995. ‘Ancient African iron production’, American Scientist 83, 524–33.Google Scholar
Schwartz, M. J. 1982. ‘The isolation of men and the power of women: sources and uses of power in Swahili marital relationships’, Journal of Anthropological Research 38, 26–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schwartz, M. J. 1991. The Way the World is: cultural processes and social relations among the Mombasa Swahili. Berkeley: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shariff, I. N. 1973. ‘Waswahili and their language: some misconceptions’, Kiswahili 43, 67–75.Google Scholar
Shinnie, M. 1965. Ancient African Kingdoms. London: Edward Arnold.Google Scholar
Spear, T. 1978. The Kaya Complex. Nairobi: East African Publishing House.Google Scholar
Spear, T. 1982. Traditions of Origin and their Interpretation: the Mijikenda of Kenya. Athens, Oh.: Ohio University Center for International Studies, Africa Program.Google Scholar
Stigand, C. 1913. The Land of Zinj: being an account of the British East Africa, its ancient history and present inhabitants. London: Constable.Google Scholar
Stiles, D. 1979. ‘Boni ethnoarchaeology’, Kenya Past and Present 11, 12–17.Google Scholar
Stiles, D. 1982. ‘A history of the hunting peoples of the northern East African coast’, Paideuma 28, 165–74.Google Scholar
Tamari, T. 1991. ‘The development of caste systems in West Africa’, Journal of African History 32 (2), 221–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thompson, A. O. 1956. Geological Survey of Kenya. Nairobi: Government Printer.Google Scholar
Todd, J. A. 1985. ‘Iron production by the Dimi of Ethiopia’, in Haarland, R. and Shinnie, P. L. (eds.), African Ironworking: ancient and traditional. Oslo: Norwegian University Press.Google Scholar
Trimingham, J. S. 1964. Islam in East Africa. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Van der Merwe, N. J., and Avery, D. H. 1988. ‘Science and magic in African technology: traditional iron smelting in Malawi’, in Maddin, R. (ed.), The Beginning of the Use of Metals and Alloys. Cambridge, Ma.: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Van Noten, F. 1985. ‘Ancient and modern iron smelting in Central Africa: Zaire, Rwanda and Burundi’, in Haarland, R. and Shinnie, P. L. (eds.), African Ironworking: ancient and traditional. Oslo: Norwegian University Press.Google Scholar
Vansina, J. 1990. Paths in the Rainforests: towards a history of political tradition in equatorial Africa. Madison, Wi.: University of Wisconsin Press.Google Scholar
Wallace, A. F. C. 1982. The Social Context of Innovation: bureaucrats, families, and heroes in the early industrial revolution as seen in the Bacons' New Atlantis. Princeton, NJ.: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Wembah-Rashid, J. A. R. 1973. ‘Iron workers of Ufipa’, Bulletin of the International Committee of Urgent Anthropological Research 11, 65–72.Google Scholar
Wente-Lukas, R. 1977. ‘Fer et forgeron au sud du lac Tchad’, Journal des Africanistes 47, 107–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Willis, J. 1993. Mombasa, the Swahili and the Making of the Mijikenda. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Winter, J. C. 1989. ‘The prehistory of Lower Pokomo social organization as reconstructed from kinship nomenclature’, in Linnebuhr, E. (ed.), Transitions and Continuity of Identity in East Africa and Beyond—In Memoriam David Miller. Bayreuth: Bayreuth African Studies.Google Scholar