The Absence of Political Associations among the Gusii Prior to 1940

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Periodical article

Title:	The Absence of Political Associations among the Gusii Prior to 1940
Author:	Maxon, Robert M.
Year:	1981
Periodical:	Transafrican Journal of History
Volume:	10
Issue:	1
Pages:	112-123
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Kenya
Subjects:	Gusii anticolonialism Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups) Politics and Government History and Exploration
External link:	https://www.jstor.org/stable/24328591
Abstract:	The Gusii highlands in the southwest of Kenya experienced nothing of the kind of activity that led to the formation of political associations focusing on local affairs in the period prior to 1940. A number of factors relating to the Gusii response to colonial rule interacted to produce a different pattern of social activity than among other population groups, e.g. the Kikuyu and the Kavirondo. Gusii resistance to colonial rule took different channels - notably Mumboism-Sakawaism - from the establishment of local political associations, and these channels in themselves served to deflect interest in such political bodies. Gusii resistance to mission, education, as well as the form it took and the results it achieved, proved also to be an important deterrent to the formation of political associations. Only towards the end of World War II would such a body emerge in the form of the Kisii Union. Notes.