Destroying <i>Mumiani</i> : Cause, Context, and Violence in Late Colonial Dar es Salaam

Contenu

Titre

Destroying <i>Mumiani</i> : Cause, Context, and Violence in Late Colonial Dar es Salaam

Créateur

Brennan, James R. Voir tous les contenus avec cette valeur

Date

2008

Dans

Journal of Eastern African Studies Voir tous les contenus avec cette valeur

Résumé

This article examines and contextualizes a riot that occurred in Dar es Salaam in 1959, in the peri-urban neighbourhood of Buguruni. The riot involved accusations that security guards and police were abducting neighbourhood residents and killing them in order to use their blood for the preparation of magical medicines. Those who abducted Africans for this purpose were popularly termed mumiani. Their rumoured existence is examined in the wider context of Dar es Salaam’s rapid urbanization, its peri-urban politics and land conflicts, and its systems of law and knowledge. The article also explores the many possible interpretations of this riot. Drawing on interviews with local residents, court testimonies, official correspondence, newspaper accounts, and colonial memoirs, the article constructs a historical account of the riot’s location, Buguruni, as well as a narrative of the riot itself and the subsequent legal actions. Such a violent event raises questions about the relationship between historical evidence and causality, as well as questions about contextualizing major events that fit awkwardly into prevailing historical narratives.

Sujet

Zanzibar Voir tous les contenus avec cette valeur

Langue

eng

volume

2

numéro

1

pages

95-111

doi

10.1080/17531050701847276

issn

1753-1055, 1753-1063

Brennan, James R., “Destroying Mumiani : Cause, Context, and Violence in Late Colonial Dar es Salaam”, 2008, bibliographie, consulté le 8 septembre 2024, https://ibadica.org/s/bibliographie/item/7665