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COLONIALISM AND THE SEVERITY OF FAMINES AND FOOD SHORTAGES AMONG THE GUSII OF WESTERN KENYA, 1890-1919.

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Published on Saturday, 30 June 2007 23:06
Pre-colonial food shortages in Africa were not uncommon as their causes ranged from extreme environmental factors such as drought, inter- and intra-ethnic wars, and invasion of locusts and numerous animal, crop and human diseases. This paper sets to examine the nature of famines and food shortages in pre-colonial and colonial Gusiiland up to 1919. Two major famines, one in each period, are examined to show their changing patterns. It emerges in the paper that food production systems in pre-colonial Gusiiland were fairly stable, diverse, efficient and largely self-sustaining. Mechanisms and strategies for preventing and minimizing the occurrence of famines and food shortages including complex food production systems and elaborate social and economic relationships and institutions emerged. Other food shortage alleviation strategies identified include agricultural diversification, rotational bush-fallowing, keeping of reserve food, use of bush foods, elaborate network of trade, widespread kin networks and efficient methods of food storage. However, in the colonial period the Gusii agricultural and food production systems were systematically modified, destroyed and marginalised, thus forming the basis of the severity of the earliest colonial famine in 1918/19. The introduction of new crops, land alienation, labour conscription, the depletion and neglect of the livestock industry, and the change in patterns of exchange coupled with the need to pay the colonial taxes, all rendered the Gusii people vulnerable and susceptible to the scourge of famine and food shortages. Famines and food shortages became more frequent not as a result of drought but due to colonial erosion of fairly stable systems of food production and distribution among the Gusii people.

Food shortages in pre-colonial Gusiiland, and indeed in pre-colonial Africa were not uncommon. Their causes ranged from extreme environmental factors such as drought, inter- and intra-ethnic wars, locust investation and diseases. But it is also true that there existed elaborate mechanisms and strategies for preventing and minimizing the occurrence of food shortages. Food production systems were chosen within environmental limits, and complex relationships and institutions developed to minimize food shortages. Mechanisms and strategies such as agricultural diversification, rotational bush-fallowing, keeping of reserve food, use of bush foods, elaborate network of trade, widespread kin networks, and many others served as safeguards against famines and food shortages.

Colonial rule altered the safeguards against food shortages previously existing in Africa. The resulting social formations created by Africa’s incorporation into the world economic system subjected its people into production of raw materials for external market. The introduction of taxes and forced labour were geared into serving foreign interests. The result was that African food production systems were modified and to an extent, neglected. The ecological balance was upset, kinship relation severed, and social obligations curtailed. Famines and food shortages became more frequent not as a result of drought but due to colonial erosion of fairly stable systems of food production and distribution in pre-colonial Africa.

This paper sets to examine the nature of famine in pre-colonial and colonial Gusiiland up to 1919. Two major famines, one in each period, are examined to show their changing patterns. The paper tries to demonstrate that food production systems in pre-colonial Gusiiland were fairly stable, diverse, efficient and largely self-sustaining. However, in the colonial period this system was destroyed and modified and formed the basis of the severity of the earliest colonial famine in 1918/19.

Food Production Systems
Nature presented the Gusii with an abundant and vast land resource as a major means of production (Uchendu, 1975:11). The soils were fertile and well drained, and there was ample rainfall. Abundant land that was forested formed the basis of hunting, gathering, cultivation and cattle keeping as major sources of food production.

The hunting and gathering system of appropriation of subsistence from nature is, according to Abdul Sherrif (1985:4), universal and was practiced as late as the nineteenth century in Kenya. Under this system little energy and time is invested in the production of food. The Gusii supplemented their cultivation by hunting and gathering. Among the foods gathered, usually by women were an assorted number of fruits and wild vegetables. Hunting, mainly done by the young energetic men and boys was mainly for game meat, making hunting one of the means of food appropriation. Other than big and small animals, birds were also trapped or sling shot.

However, it should be noted that the food that was hunted and gathered comprised only a small proportion of Gusii diet (Nyamwaro, Omenge, O.I. 1989). In the years preceding colonial rule, agriculture was the main pre-occupation. Kiriama (1986:196) observes that the Gusii were mixed farmers who emphasized the cultivation of grains and supplemented their diet with limited livestock products. The two most important crops in Gusiiland were wimbi (finger-millet or eleusine) and mtama (sorghum). These formed the main staples, with wimbi the more important. Wimbi was used to make ugali and for brewing beer, essential for the proper entertainment of older men.

Pumpkins, vegetables, maize, sweet potatoes together with wimbi and sorghum were all grown through an elaborate system of inter cropping or multiple cropping. Inter-cropping, which Zeleza (1986:174) calls the “heart of African agriculture”, appears to have been the rule in Gusiiland. This was a rational way of not only preserving the soil by preventing soil erosion and exhaustion, but in ensuring food security and self reliance and also maximized on labour “which was scarcer than land” (Levine 1979:5).

To ensure an adequate amount of food production, both men and women undertook crop production jointly. It should be noted here that men had their individual plots (called embonga) whose produce acted as a food bank, as will be shown later. The Gusii ensured high yields, especially for wimbi by selecting the big ‘healthy’ wimbi heads which were threshed and stored separately and designated special seeds (Machani, O.I. 1989). Land preparation by burning replenished the soil with mineral nutrients ensuring higher yields.

The Gusii practiced rotational fallow; a piece of land could be cultivated for two to four years before being abandoned and a new one prepared. Other than maintaining the eco-system, soil fertility, high yields and checking soil erosion, the flexibility of the system allowed movement to another plot if adverse environmental or ecological circumstance occurred in the form of pest damage, weeds or unanticipated poor soil performance. By having plots in different micro-environmental and micro-ecological areas farmers had the chance of spreading risks.

Animal husbandry was one of the most lucrative enterprises in pre-colonial Gusiiland. Since land was abundant cattle used to be the main inheritable asset. The Gusii kept cattle, sheep and goats, which supplied them with milk, blood and meat, especially of sheep and goats. While the head of the homestead retained overall claim of ownership to the land and cattle, each wife maintained her own allocation of land and cattle ( Garst, 1972:98) Cattle were the main source of prestige and power, and numbers were cherished since they indicated a man’s wealth.

In the quest to protect their animals from enemies the Gusii evolved a system of building fortified villages; and for the same reason the Gusii fought their neighbouring Kipsigis in 1890 (Mwanzi, 1977:85) or 1891 Ochieng, 1974 a: 130) during the battle of Saosao. The importance of animals among the Gusii can be appreciated when it is realized that they were used to pay dowry and were central to the reproduction of the Gusii. They were also an important item of exchange both within and without. For the same reason the Gusii medicinemen were well versed with cattle diseases and their forms of treatment.