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Tribal associations, tribal solidarity, and tribal chauvinism in a Kenya town

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2009

M. Tamarkin
M. Tamarkin
Affiliation:
S.O.A.S., University of London
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Extract

From a close analysis of African activities and actions in the Kenyan town of Nakuru from the 19205 to the 1960s, it is argued that living in towns tended to consolidate the identities of tribal groups and to exacerbate their differences. Contrasts between the urban responses of the Kikuyu, on the one hand, and the Western Kenyan tribes, the Luo and the Abaluhya, on the other, are analysed, and are related to differences in the tribal structures and in the political, economic and social changes that were taking place in their rural areas. By the early 1960s, the stage was set for open political competition between tribal groups.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 14 , Issue 2 , April 1973 , pp. 257 - 274
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1973

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