Riwruok E Teko: Cultivating Identity in Colonial and Postcolonial Kenya

Grappling with the Past: Wrestling and Performative Identity in Kenya

“…Popular among labour migrants in towns such as Nairobi and Mombasa, by the end of the Second World War dozens of these organisations formed across the colony and often used dance, sport and other leisure activities to market their organisation and encourage migrants to stay connected with the politics of development back 'home'. 13 From sport to alcohol and illicit sex, ethnic associations like the Luo Union attempted to manage the leisure time of migrant workers throughout the colonial era. Operating in a precarious partnership with colonial authorities, associations worked to both promote activities they deemed culturally appropriate and combat behaviour they branded immoral.…”

When did the Luyia (or any other group) become a tribe?

“…Yet the framework of the "invention of tradition" fails to account for how these political thinkers fashioned an ethnic project without a common stock of historical myths and without a founding father from whom to imagine a patria. Unlike the more maximal cultural projects of the Luo, Kikuyu and the Haya farther afield, or even the more federalist projects of the Mijikenda and the Kalenjin, the "invention" of Luyia ethnic architects was not of a unified traditional past but rather of a corporate present and a common future (Cohen and Odhiambo 1989;Willis 1992Willis , 1993Spear and Waller 1993;Berman 1998;Bravman 1998;Ogot 2001;Peterson 2004a;Carotenuto 2006;Lynch 2011;Willis and Gona 2013). In the comparative politics of patriotism in colonial Kenya, ethnicity offered a historically contingent and politically viable form of community building (Lonsdale 2008).…”

Young, Urban, Professional, and Kenyan?: Conversations Surrounding Tribal Identity and Nationhood

“…Underlying this theory is a suggestion that those who hold the same traditions and have the same ethnicity are bound together by a communal sense of belonging. Carotenuto (2006) writes, "it has become commonplace to argue that cultural components such as a common language, religious and social traditions, a shared historical memory, and place of origin may all be important foundations of ethnic solidarity" (p. 55).…”

“…Therefore, primary allegiance as the most basic sense of belonging is first attributed to one's tribe and then to one's nation. Carotenuto (2006) punctuates, "scholars now argue that many contemporary African ethnicities are socially constructed phenomena that were drastically shaped by the colonial encounter" (p. 55). He is contending that Indigenous identity preceded the advent of colonial authority.…”

“…Grievously, these identities had to be re-contextualized to fit into the oppressor mold. Carotenuto (2006) continues, "foreign impositions radically altered African identities from top down, by imposing foreign borders, altering local authority, and codifying and reworking cultural traditions" (p. 55). The claim, here, is not that Indigenous identities would have remained pristine and stagnant; rather, it is that colonization counterfeited the naturally fluid processes of cultural dynamism.…”