Letter from Mbugwe, Tanganyika

Abstract

Opening ParagraphGicha Mbee, the author of the following report, is a member of the Mbugwe tribe of northern Tanganyika. I first met him, then a youth of about fifteen, in 1951 while doing an anthropological field study of the Mbugwe. I soon discovered that he was proficient at writing, although he had had only four years' schooling at the local mission school, and engaged him as an informant to write ethnographic texts. Since then he has corresponded with me and has continued to send me ethnographic material written in Swahili—about 700 pages altogether, including a detailed sketch of his childhood which I am at present translating for publication. In 1963 I suggested to him that he compose a narrative of recent events in Mbugwe, giving special attention to the local effects of Tanganyika's independence. He sent the report in several instalments, and this, translated from his Swahili, constitutes the article which follows.