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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Indigenous responses to the imposition of colonial law: the case of the Kuria people of Tanzania
Author:Rwezaura, B.A.ISNI
Year:1988
Periodical:The African Review: A Journal of African Politics, Development and International Affairs
Volume:15
Issue:1
Pages:77-88
Language:English
Notes:biblio. refs.
Geographic terms:Tanzania
Great Britain
East Africa
Subjects:Kuria
colonialism
bridewealth
law
imperialism
Kuria (African people)
Abstract:This paper discusses the attempts by the colonial State of Tanzania to regulate Kuria marriage payments and how the Kuria responded. Field research was carried out in 1979-1980 among the Tanzania section of the Kuria people, who reside in the Tarime district, east of Lake Victoria. Increase in the cattle population in the mid-1920s and the transformation of the Kuria economy were factors leading to a rise in marriage payments. Since bridewealth was central to Kuria social and economic organization, the Kuria either largely ignored or actively opposed the rules imposed by the colonial government aimed at limiting the amount of marriage payments. The author uses S.F. Moore's analysis of the limits of imposed law and her concept of the semi-autonomous social field (as developed in 'Law as process: an anthropological approach', London, 1978) to explain this resistance. Notes, ref.
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