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Law and order and the state in the Nyamwezi and Sukuma area of Tanzania

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 December 2011

Ray Abrahams
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Extract

The Nyamwezi and Sukuma area of Tanzania covers about 50,000 square miles from Lake Victoria in the north to the southern edges of Tabora District. The area probably contains between 4 and 5 million people, about one fifth of the total Tanzanian mainland population. The two peoples speak regional variants of a single language—the name Sukuma simply meant ‘northerners’ originally—and they share many common social structural and cultural forms (Abrahams, 1967b).

Résumé

Le respect de la loi et de l'ordre et l'état dans les régions de Nyamwezi et de Sukuma en Tanzanie

Le but de cet article est de considérer le développement des institutions légales et politiques au cours de la période coloniale comme étant une des phases de l'histoire plus vaste du développement de l'influence gouvernementale et du contrôle exercé sur les populations dans la région de Nyamwezi et de Sukuma. La dignité de chef, le gouvernement colonial et l'état indépendant ont tous coexisté avec l'organisation et l'expérience légates et politiques au niveau du village tout en les dominant, et sont tous, à des moment différents, entrés en conflit avec l'administration politique du village. Des formes de collaboration entre voisins dans de travail le maintien de l'ordre existent ici depuis longtemps et elles jouissent à présent d'une renaissance spontanée grâce à l'émergence des groupes vigilante ‘;Sungusungu’ de village. La situation concernant le développement de la loi et de la juridiction a été complexe. Dans certains contextes, tels que celui d'homicide violent, l'état a considérablement accru ses pouvoirs depuis l'époque pré-coloniale. Dans d'autres cas, qui sont également considéréd localement comme homicide, tels que la sorcellerie et la mort d'une jeune fille non mariée donnant naissance à un enfant, il a tendance à adopter un rôle moins actif qu'auparavant. Généralement, les villageois ont également eu tendance à s'éloigner des gouvernements officiels et de leurs institutions légales au cours des périodes de colonialisation et d'indépendance.

Type
Women's responses to wrongs
Information
Africa , Volume 59 , Issue 3 , July 1989 , pp. 356 - 370
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 1989

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