A Complex Polity

Weaving together ethnography and history, this book offers an in-depth
analysis of the pre-colonial polity of the Meru of Kenya and its radical
transformations from 1908 through the 1950s. It addresses the manifold issues
of initiation and the politics of belonging, unravels the intertwined life
courses of men and women, and disentangles the web of family life and the
handover of power across political generations. Restoring two well-known
instances of Meru politics to their rightful place––the enigmatic mûgwe and
the famous njûûri ncheke––the book also offers a fresh reading of the
controversial story of Mbwaa. It sheds light on the crisis of the 1930s
affecting male and female initiations, and establishes a link with the
demographic transformations and the radical shift that occurred during the
1950s. A Complex Polity renews the issue of the historicity of political
generation-set systems in Meru, as well as elsewhere in Kenya and eastern
Africa. More broadly, the work aims to promote comparative anthropology to
enhance knowledge of African pre-colonial democracies and polities, and a
deeper understanding of social and cultural change in the longue durée,
linking precolonial and postcolonial Africa.