About the Book
The Îgembe region of Kenya is a rich agricultural area on the equator, where people live in a unique time-world. Whenever a problem arises, people do not hasten to a conclusion, but 'wait' as a means of solution. This does not mean doing nothing. It is simply acknowledging the benefits of waiting for a time when the community is better able to resolve the issue.
An important characteristic of this indigenous community is its orientation toward communal intentions and exclusion of individualism. In over 20 years of research and extensive fieldwork, the author has traced the major social and historical turning points such as the price collapse of coffee beans, which had supported the local economy, as well as the accumulation of social events such as collective sanctions against sexual predators and multiple homicide compensation claims, to observe how internal village conflicts, initially difficult to resolve by consensus, are overcome by waiting, before rallying to regain 'communal intent' by 'concealing' the individual.
This ethnography portrays a contemporary African agrarian people living between their unique time-world, their views of humanity and social structure, the institutions of state governance, and the global cash crop economy.
Table of Contents:
Introduction
Chapter 1 A farming community: Circuit cultivation in transition
Chapter 2 The field is theirs: Kûrûmithua ndewa, age-class formation and the persistence of local memory
Chapter 3 Man who never dies: Clan revival for new generations
Chapter 4 The Athimba: Fifteen years of clan making in a local context
Chapter 5 Clanship and îchiaro: The individual, the depersonalized and the indeterminate
Chapter 6 Feathers and guardians: The perpetuation of shared personhood
Chapter 7 Transcending inner conflicts: Election day for the Athimba clan
Postscript
Appendix 1 Homicide compensation in Kenya
Appendix 2 A witchcraft accusation in Mûringene in September 2005
References
Index
About the Author :
Shin-ichiro Ishida, PhD of Social Anthropology, is a Professor at the Graduate School of Humanities, Tokyo Metropolitan University.
Review :
Prof Ishida's book offers a fine piece of ethnography addressing a major issue for any human grouping: how to restore co-existence between neighbors after major breakdowns like crime, incest, or witchcraft accusations? Thanks to collaborative fieldwork over the past twenty years in a rural community of the densely populated Meru Highlands (Kenya), Prof Ishida is able to describe around twenty cases studies, rooted in the daily village life, from their inception to their diverse conclusions. After outlining the land reforms and cultivation background, Ishida reveals the unsuspected role of key ombudsmen, and their distinctive agency – either rational or ritual – in various processes involving clans members and villagers. While describing the rituals of oath-taking, the sacrifice of livestock and the sharing of food, Ishida highlights the overt collaboration of the local government administration with the customary actors and their shared expectations of conflict resolution. We learn how the lengthy process is imbued with intrinsic efficiency and has become integral to the judiciary process and the identification of the culprits. Addressing this unique display of rational and performative actions, the author underlines historical variations in the use of customs, sometimes latent, other times reenacted, but always responding to local and national issues and the changing ethos of successive generations. As one of the few authoritative studies about the Îgembe people, the book is a contribution to "Indigenous essentialism", enriching and allowing for new conversations and comparative research."" —Anne-Marie Peatrik, Emeritus Research Professor, Anthropology Directrice de recherche émérite au CNRS
""To understand and appreciate the Îgembe subgroup of the larger Amîîrû community living east of Mt. Kenya, this is the book to read. The author's holistic approach to their traditional life despite contemporary challenges is admirable. The author meticulously illustrates how they demonstrate ability to use customary institutions and memory to sustain their indigenous values. The role played by experienced elders to nurture the application of customary law and adapt it to the dynamics of modern times cannot be gainsaid. As contemporary law is allowed to take its course, customary law thrives alongside it. This approach is very important and complements the contemporary legal approaches. "" — Njuguna Gichere, Research Scientist, National Museums of Kenya
""Shin-ichiro Ishida is famous for his sophisticated projects on social anthropological fieldwork among multiple communities. In this book he reveals the secret "communal intention" of the Îgembe people of Kenya. Ishida convincingly argues that while the Îgembe seemingly do not make any clear judgement of interpersonal disputes, they are not, in fact, wasting time. Instead, Ishida reveals that they are creating time in appreciation of the merit of waiting until cases are ready to be settled through the facility of conditional curses and the power of îchiaro. This clearly demonstrates that, by putting the factor of time into perspective, human social structures, social institutions, religious notions and the law are, at their base, deeply and closely entangled. Their interconnections are vividly presented in this masterpiece of ethnography, as the embodiment of a trinity of compelling and spellbinding metaphors: the feather, which represents a value system, the horns which symbolise the social institutions of age class (nthukî) and the clans (mwîrîa), and the guardian, the Îgembe themselves, those who employ the agency of the feather and the horns."" —Kiyoshi Umeya, Professor of Social Anthropology, Graduate School of Intercultural Studies, Kobe University, Honorary Research Professor, Langaa RPCIG, Cameroon
