Kaguru people

The Kaguru, or Kagulu, are an ethnic and linguistic group based in central Tanzania. In 1987 the Kaguru population was estimated to number 217,000.

Ukagura (Kaguraland about 3,600 square miles) lies roughly 200 miles directly due west of Bagamoyo and Sadani on the 'Street of Caravans' (reached by the German caravan of Stokes on August 12, 1890, about two and three weeks after starting from Sadani). The mountains formed part of a belt stretching diagonally from southwest to northeast across the East Rift system of German East Africa. To the west and north lies the central plateau comprising two-thirds of Tanzania.

There are three very different areas, the core, the plateau, and the lowlands. The core is mass of mountain peaks (6,000 - 7,000 ft.) considered part of of the east rift system, and represents one third of the area. In the German Sergeant Bauer's time only a a few of its mountains were, and remain today, thickly wooded, for most were already deforested because of the iron smelting industry with its intense need for charcoal and the severe agricultural clearing. After the coming of the Germans much land was preserved as woodland reserved and can be considered beautiful semitropical forestland of great density and abundant rain. The steep terrain had a network of valleys ideal for refugees escaping raids, particularly from the Hehe of the south and the Massai of the north and is considered the 'heartland'. The word 'Kaguru' refers to the highlands with heavy rain (100 inches on the peaks) that was cool and capable of the regular production of vegetables, and some rice, millet, and plantains. It contained no maize.

Next the plateau is a land of less rain and more warmth, of large expanses of scrubland and forest, scattered peaks and rocky outcrops, a land of dry and wet seasons. It is a land of periodic famine due to drought, but healthier than the damp and chilly 'heartland'. It was after more peaceful time had arrived that people began returning to the 'Street of Caravans' and the caravan's resting places. Generally the very largest livestock holdings were kept here.

The remaining 20 percent had the most extreme contrast between wet and dry seasons. Lying below 2,000 feet altitude it had the least dependable agricultural conditions, being a flat grassy plain, it was most vulnerable to raiding, difficult to defend against these raids, was most prone to cattle diseases, and contained the largest number of non-Kagura who had settled either as refugees or part of the very impressive caravan trade.

During Sergeant Bauer's time, the Kaguru still tended to stay in large, palisade settlements on the plateau where enough men lived to defend against the raids for livestock, grain, metal goods, or slaves. The plateau represented 50% of Ukagura and had become the area where most Kaguru lived.

The earliest European accounts of the Kaguru gave them various names and seem to be only vaguely aware of them (the Germans with Sergeant Bauer and Charles Stokes make no mention of them). Them were lumped together with their neighbors the Gogo or the Sandawe to the west or the mountain and plateau Kaguru were given separate names. They were ethnically placed with other highland peoples who were also matrilineal and had similar lifestyles.

There were no traditional firmly established chiefdoms or political systems. A few leaders would rise up and establish a network of contacts on the main caravan trading stations. It was here that these leaders became responsible for overstating their influence and power and tried to claim special rank and privileges, and it was also here that caravans were offered the services of law and order in return for recognition, munitions, trade goods, and cash. These leaders also offered the Kagura protection against dangerous, armed outsiders who were to kill in order to get supplies and labor. While the Arabs, Germans, and British were only too happy to imagine coherent 'tribal' areas under the control of cooperative chiefs, some of the leaders were actually to follow through on their offerings. In reality, however, the Kagura were quite close to being stateless. Ukagura was the last site for caravans taking on supplies and water before entering the dry western plains, (Mr. Stokes' caravan is only one example), and it was the first good supply and resting place for caravans after crossing the wild plains to and from the coast with their slow moving shipment of trade goods.

Christian missionaries not only established their headquarters among the Kagura in order to aid their fellow missionaries passing through, but also condemned a wide range of Kaguru customs such as polygyny, ancestral propituation, and the use of rainstones and other magical medicines.

Also included in the condemnation were alcohol consumption, dancing, native jewelry, dress, hairstyles, ear-piercing, red ocher for cosmetics, Kaguru music and songs, including many forms of etiquette. They violently opposed female circumcision, but since this was not performed in public it was difficult to prevent. The missionaries also tried hard to segregate the Christan initiates from the pagans. By and large the missionaries were unsuccessful with their opposition. Had they been successful most of Kaguru culture and identity would have been lost. They also interfered with the illegal slave trade by reporting it to the European authorities on the coast through their connections there.

The Kagura were and remain a matrilineal people (tracing the descent and inheritance through the female) and speaking Chikaguru. They needed to establish broad and diverse relationships since their society was organized around relatives and household groups containing people people who could be called upon for support and were a major resource for security and prosperity. Since Ukagura was vulnerable to raids, and at times lacked sufficient manpower to work the land, defend it, and guard against outsiders looking for goods and captives, people not land, were the scarcest and most sought-after resource.

Every third of fourth year a Kagura could expect lean times, while every seventh or eighth year conditions could become very brutal. The Kagura were forever caught between trying to meet their own needs and having to meet the requirements of others who sooner or later might in turn come to their rescue. Diverse social ties are crucial, since harvests and polonged dryness vary between areas and help can be vital, involving more than just sharing harvests, but also borrowing livestock, or permission to resettle.

The Kagura negotiate rights to land, to rituals, bridewealth, fines and inheritance as part of kin membership determined through birth and marriage. Their society existed of about one hundred matrilineal clans with a wide variety of names such Cat, goat, Messengers, Spoiled Beer, Rain, Beads, Ravines, Criw, etc, with each containing thousands of members. Each clan was associated with one or more pieces of land that it claimed as its own and each year would organize rituals to revitalize this land. In practice, actual ownership of a clan area was negotiable and could lead to trouble. In Sergeant Bauer's time most Kaguru felt secure within a local area and resisted leaving it.

Flesh and blood was identity and came from the mother. The father was important but not as powerful as the ties to the mother and her kin. A child is a member of its mother's clan but not a member of the father's. Ties to the mother were automatic and profound, ties to the father and his kin went into effect only after payments were made. Most Kagura marriages were not considered complete until the birth of children, which only then complicated the varying interplay of loyalties over time.

Men monopolized all rutual and official public life, but women were also essential, whether or not they were married, and had total rights of control over their children. The difference between the two sexes can be illustrated by the kinds of abuse aimed at each. A man may be told he is unmarried or acts as though he were uncircumcised. This can be changed. a woman, on the other hand, can be rebuked for having no children, a flaw in the woman that cannot be changed.

Brother-sister relationshps are important. A sisters consent to be married and not run away puts her brother in debt to her. Yet in later live, brothers may encourage their sisters to leave their husbands. The bridewealth received for a sister often enables her brother to marry. A brother hopes to make claims on the loyalty and labor of a sister's sons and bridewealth from her daughters. Men encourage marital instability amoung their own sisters and nieces while urging marital stability within their own households. Even though the couple's attitudes are taken into consideration, marriage is seen as a coompetition for alliance, and it is the relatives of a couple who determina marriage. It is this intense competition that provides the broad economic, social, and political security go neccessary and so important.