INTRODUCTION TO EAST AFRICAN GEOGRAPHY

                                                             Eastern Africa: Geography,


 Ethnography and Physical Activity It is important to consider the historical background, geographical features, ethnic origins and tribes of eastern Africa as a prelude to a later discussion on the social and cultural history of Tanzania. Before the colonialists partitioned Africa in the 1880s, present-day Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, which now geographically and politically form an entity called East Africa, were part of a larger area of eastern Africa. The term ‘eastern Africa’ will be used to refer to this area, except when referring to the present in which case the term will be East Africa. Eastern Africa: Historical Background Some of the earliest known written records of eastern Africa variously referred to its coasts as Azania, Po-pa-li or Zanj (the land of the black people). In a document entitled The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, the first known written record of the coast of eastern Africa, an anonymous Greek merchant referred to its coast as Azania. [1] The exact date of this volume is not known, but it is believed to have been written at the end of the first century AD. The same name was mentioned by another Greek, Claudius Ptolemy in his Geographia, written around 150 AD [2] and seven centuries later, a Chinese, Tuan Ch’eng-shih, referred to the coast of eastern Africa as the land of Po-pa-li. [3] In the middle of the ninth century, an Asiatic sailor, Buzurg Ibn Shahriyar, referred to the piece of land stretching from present-day Somalia to what is now Mozambique as Zanj (the land of the black). [4] The names Azania and Zanj are mentioned in many works dealing with the history of the coast of eastern Africa. [5] Almost all writers, both early and modern, of the history of this coast are in agreement that the area referred to as Azania or Zanj stretched from what is now Mogadishu in Somalia to the mouth of the Rufiji river in south-east Tanzania, thus covering the coasts of present-day Kenya and Tanzania. [6] The chief town mentioned by the early writers was Rhapta, which was the most southerly settlement known to them. The exact site of this town has never been established but its most likely location was in the Rufiji delta. [7] It will also be helpful here to briefly examine eastern Africa – its geography, the origins of its people and their culture – as a prelude to the later discussion on the social and cultural history of Tanzania. Before colonization, the area that is now East Africa was a vast piece of land without modern boundaries and was inhabited by groups of people whom we know today as tribes. [8] However, when the colonists The International Journal of the History of Sport Vol. 27, No. 5, April 2010, 759–779 ISSN 0952-3367 (print)/ISSN 1743-9035 (online) 2010 Taylor & Francis DOI: 10.1080/09523361003625824 divided the area up among themselves, they drew lines across areas without regard for those groups of people and so some tribes found themselves split by the new borders. This is true, for example, of the Masai, who can be found in both Kenya and Tanzania. As will become apparent, the geographical position of eastern Africa uniquely contributed to the development of events along its coast notably from the eighth century when the first foreigners, the Arabs, arrived and settled there. [9] Since then, eastern Africa has been an entrepoˆt for commerce from the Indian Ocean, especially from southwest Asia and India. Through commercial contacts, cultural interactions inevitably developed between the peoples of eastern Africa and those from overseas. The accessible geographical distance between eastern Africa and southwest Asia seems to have stimulated the growth of commerce between these parts of the world. It is only 1,700 miles from Zanzibar to Aden and about 2,500 miles across the Indian Ocean from Mombasa to Bombay. [10] The end of the fifteenth century saw Portuguese invasions of the coastal city-states of Kilwa and Mombasa. [11] These invasions heralded the beginning of a rivalry, which was to last for a long time, between the Portuguese and the Shirazi and Oman Arabs. [12] For the Portuguese the main reason for this protracted rivalry was their wish to gain strategic control of the trade between the Middle East, India and South America, and eastern Africa. [13] The Arabs, for their part, as the first foreigners to reach the region, had already gained control of certain areas and had established trade routes that they did not want to lose. It will be useful at this stage to briefly describe the relief features, climate and population distribution of present-day East Africa. East Africa: Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda – Basic Facts As mentioned earlier, the geo-political entity of East Africa embraces Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. East Africa: Relief Features, Climate and Population Distribution East Africa lies on the eastern coast of Equatorial Africa. It stretches between latitudes five degrees north and 12 degrees south of the Equator and between longitudes 29 degrees east and 42 degrees east. The region shares modern borders with Somalia, Ethiopia and Sudan to the north of Kenya, with Sudan to the north of Uganda, with Area (sq. kms.) Pop.(millions) Capital Kenya [14] 580,367 35.1 Nairobi Tanzania [15] 945,087 38.4 Dar-es-Salaam Uganda [16] 241, 139 30.2 Kampala 760 H.S. Ndee Zaire to the west of Uganda and to the west of Tanzania, and with Zambia, Malawi and Mozambique to the south of Tanzania. The Indian Ocean washes the coasts of Kenya and Tanzania. East Africa has a diverse topography. Approximately 15,000,000 years ago, during the Miocene epoch, huge tectonic upheavals raised the forested upland of eastern Africa by about nine hundred metres. [17] From this uplift the highlands of Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania were created. [18] As a result of this vertical thrust, volcanoes erupted causing the earth’s crust to crack and collapse, forming the Great Rift Valley, which extends from the Gulf of Aqaba to south of the Zambezi River in Mozambique. The Rift Valley cuts through East Africa in the form of an inverted V-shape creating two branches, the eastern and western. In broad relief outline, East Africa can be broken down into belts running roughly from north to south. The main belts include the coastal plain, the Nyika plateau and the main plateau. [19] The coastal plain, a narrow coastal fringe, runs from northern Kenya to southern Tanzania. This coastal strip broadens considerably along the Tana River in Kenya. In Tanzania, it widens in the immediate hinterland of Dar-es-Salaam and extends inland along the lower course of the Rufiji delta. The Nyika plateau – the land immediately beyond the coastal fringe – rises gradually to about 450 metres above sea level. [20] It covers much of central and northern Kenya and narrows to the west of Tanga in Tanzania. It widens around Morogoro in Tanzania, from where it extends to include Kilombero and the Great Ruaha valleys. Much of south-eastern Tanzania belongs to this physiographic region. The Main Plateau occupies most of East Africa. This vast region can be divided into the Eastern Highlands, the Central Plateaux and the Western Highlands. The Eastern Highlands roughly form an arch-shaped region covering much of Kenya and Tanzania. The region’s raised eastern ridge, made up of Mount Kenya, Mount Kilimanjaro, the Usambara Mountains, the Iringa Plateaux and the Livingstone Mountains, rises on average to over 2,000 metres above sea level. [21] The volcanically formed Mount Kilimanjaro, (5,895 metres above sea level), is the highest point. The eastern branch of the Rift Valley cuts through the Eastern Highlands from north to south while rivers such as the Tana in Kenya and the Pangani, Wami, Rufiji and Ruvuma in Tanzania flow eastward through these highlands to the Indian Ocean. The eastern branch of the Rift Valley also provides a basin for the long, narrow and deep lakes of Turkana and Naivasha in Kenya and Eyasi and Nyasa in Tanzania. The Central Plateaux cover a broad area between the eastern and western branches of the Rift Valley and stretch from northern Uganda through central and southwestern Kenya to south-western Tanzania. In Uganda, the height of these plateaux decreases gradually towards the north, while in Tanzania, they extend to cover the Serengeti plains and the Masai Steppe. The Central Plateaux are comparatively lower than the rest of the plateaux of East Africa. Lakes Victoria and Kyoga, which lie in the northern half of the Central Plateaux, are conversely broader and shallower than the lakes found on the basins of both branches of the Rift Valley. For example, the Geography, Ethnography and Physical Activity 761 deepest point in Lake Victoria is only 82 metres deep as compared to a depth of 970 metres in Lake Tanganyika. [22] The Western Highlands lie along the rim of the western branch of the Rift Valley. They extend (in an arch form) from Lake Albert through Lake Kivu to Lake Tanganyika. The Western Highlands form a natural border between Zaire and Uganda. Lakes Albert, Kivu and Tanganyika, found in this basin, have the same long, narrow and deep profile as those lakes in the eastern branch of the Rift Valley. Ruwenzori Mountain, found in this area, is the highest (5,120 metres above sea level) non-volcanic mountain in East Africa. [23] The climate of East Africa varies considerably as a consequence of extensive altitudinal ranges, the distribution of landmass and water and air movements. [24] Although the temperatures vary throughout the region, the seasonal variation is small. The mean annual temperatures of most of East Africa are between 25 and 30 degrees Celsius. There are three major geographical factors – relief, location and monsoon winds [25] – that influence the climate of East Africa. While high relief has a moderating effect on the temperature by way of altitudinal variation and land barriers, the geographical location of East Africa exposes it to the influence of the monsoon winds. The monsoon winds are particularly relevant to this study, not only because of their effect on the climate but also because they facilitated the earliest cultural contacts between the indigenous peoples of eastern Africa and foreigners from south-west Asia. The primary winds over East Africa consist of the north-east and south-east monsoon winds resulting from the movement of air from high to low pressure zones in relation to the movement of the overhead sun between the two tropics and is critical in November and in April. The north-east monsoon wind, a dry air mass from the Asiatic pressure zones, blows over East Africa from November to March. It has a drying influence, particularly over the western parts of East Africa. However, the coastal strip, south of the equator, receives some precipitation from the north-east monsoon winds as they pick up moisture from the Indian Ocean. The wind pattern changes considerably in April, when it comes from the south-east and becomes moisture laden over the ocean and brings rain to most parts of East Africa. It normally blows steadily until it reaches its maximum in July when a lowpressure zone develops in the northern hemisphere. These winds then cross the equator towards the Arabian Peninsula and Indian sub-continent and become the south-west monsoon winds. These monsoon winds have had an important historical significance on East African culture. In particular, the alteration of the winds naturally facilitated early contacts between the people of south west Asia and those of the eastern African coast. [26] The north-east monsoon winds brought Arab and Indian dhows to the eastern African coast between October and March with trade goods such as glass, porcelain and cloth, while from May to October the south-east monsoon winds took the singlesailed vessels back to Asia with their cargoes of gold, ivory, cotton, hides, iron and slaves. [27] As will become apparent, this early contact with south-west Asia was to 762 H.S. Ndee influence the cultures of East Africa, including those directly associated with physical activity. The monsoon winds strongly affect the rainfall distribution of East Africa. This distribution is uneven, with parts of the region having a tropical climate while other parts have an equatorial climate. The rainfall pattern roughly follows the pattern of the relief belts. As a direct influence of monsoon winds, the coastal plain receives an average annual rainfall of over a thousand millimetres. However, the amount of rainfall decreases towards the north from Mombasa. [28] North and north-east Kenya is semi-desert and receives just under 250 millimetres of rainfall annually. [29] The plateaux covering the greater part of the interior of Kenya and Tanzania receive a moderate rainfall – between 750 and 1,000 millimetres annually – with considerable variation. [30] The amount of rain increases in the higher areas of south-west Tanzania. All other plateaux of East Africa receive tropical rainfall with the wet season from November to April. Almost all of Uganda and the areas around Lake Victoria have an equatorial rainfall regime with no marked dry and wet season. The entire area receives an average of over 1,000 millimetres of rainfall annually with some places receiving as much as 2,000 millimetres. [31] Because of the low rainfall over most parts of East Africa, the vegetation is mostly Tropical Savanna Wood. [32] However, the coastal belt (except for the mangrove forests and swamps of the river valleys) is covered by what is known as Coastal Savanna Mosaic. [33] Much of the drier parts of Kenya and Tanzania are covered by dry bush with thorn trees. Scattered rain forests are concentrated in western Uganda. In East Africa, as in many parts of Africa, rainfall distribution, to a large extent, affects population distribution. A demographic map of East Africa shows that areas with ample annual rainfall are densely populated compared to the sparsely populated areas of low rainfall. Areas of high population density are found along the coastal belt south of Mombasa and along the Usambara-Kilimanjaro strip and Mbeya. Others include areas north of Nairobi, around Lake Victoria, the scattered clusters of the highlands of Embu and most parts of Uganda. Today, the populations of Dar-es-Salaam and Nairobi are each over 1.5 million people and the population of Kampala is approximately one million. [34] Urbanization has been on the increase in all three countries since the 1970s. [35] The population of East Africa has been described as steadily growing since the first census was taken in 1948, when the African population was approximately 18.1 m. [36] By the early 1960s, it had risen to 23,224,000, [37] an increase of about 28% and today the population of East Africa is approximately 84 m. [38] Of the three East African countries, Kenya has the highest annual population growth rate (4.0%) and Uganda 3.5%, while Tanzania has the lowest (3.0%). [39] The 1948 census is especially significant in that it was the first such census of East Africa as a whole. In addition, it provided statistical information about the different races that make up the population of East Africa. [40] More detail on this can be Geography, Ethnography and Physical Activity 763 found in Appendix 3. East African society may be described as a pluralist society – culturally heterogeneous and overlapping. East Africa: Ethnic Origins and the Composition of Society The exciting debate about the origin of mankind falls outside the scope of this study but some associated points relevant to eastern Africa need to be raised. Archaeological evidence suggests that East Africa is, in fact, the cradle of humanity. [41] The discoveries made by the Leakey family, from 1959 onwards, of the humanlike hominids – Zinjanthropus boisei (East African man) and Homo habilis (able man) – suggest that both, but particularly the latter, are the most direct ancestors of Homo sapiens. [42] In 1959, Louis and Mary Leakey discovered remains of the Zinjanthropus at Olduvai Gorge on the edge of the Serengeti Plains in northern Tanzania. A few years later, Jonathan Leakey discovered Homo habilis, also at Olduvai Gorge. Both creatures are believed to have lived in eastern Africa during the Lower Pleistocene epoch, between one million and three million years ago. [43] It is also believed that some Australopithecines (the first bipedal creatures) lived in Africa during this period. In his book, Africa in History: Themes and Outlines, B. Davidson bases his reflections on the traces of Australopithecines found and makes three crucial observations: – it was the African continent that gave rise to man as we know him today; it was in Africa, during the late Miocene epoch, that the main branch, which ended up as man, broke away from those leading to apes; and during the eastern African Pleistocene epoch true man separated from his man-like cousins, the Australopithecines. [44] By the 1980s, few had any doubts that the human lineage originated in Africa. [45] The recently discovered Millennium Man in Kenya adds weight to this theory about the origin of man. [46] Millennium Man is believed to have lived six million years ago and is considered to be the most direct ancestor of man. From this, the following statement may be made with confidence: as long as the theory that the fossils of Zinjanthropus belong to the Australopithecines [47] still holds and that Tanzania’s Homo sapiens continues to be regarded as the most direct early ancestor of Homo sapiens, [48] the origin of the indigenous East Africans is most probably in Africa. However, debate still continues over the peopling of eastern Africa. The lack of a direct lineal connection between the ancient hominids of eastern A and there have been varying degrees of cultural association between different traditions.[51] Additionally, some formerly significant languages and cultures have either become submerged or have vanished in the evolutionary process of the East African peoples. [52] Shorter deplores the prejudice of European writers for their Eurocentric interpretation of the peopling of Africa as a whole. [53] For example, he argues that early European scholars such as C.G. Seligman worked on the assumption that Europe and the ‘Near East’ were points of diffusion of culture, language and race in Africa. [54] These writers explained the peopling of Africa in terms of successive waves of invasion from the north-east. [55] Subsequently, they invented terms such as ‘the brown race’ or Hamites, whose ‘civilisation’, they claimed, belonged to Europe and Western civilization. [56] Furthermore, they maintained that the cultural achievements of Negro peoples were attributed to this ‘superior race’. Shorter also notes however, that early African writers such as Anta Diop, laboured too long on counter-claims, creating a Hamitic Myth in reverse. [57] Given the complexity of this issue – a product of ethnocentricity, lack of hard evidence and audacious speculation – an accurate revisionist approach, requiring the goodwill of both European and African writers, is still a long way off. There are varying theories about the original peopling of East Africa. Despite differences in the interpretation of this process in terms of Africa as a whole, many writers – anthropologists, linguists, ethnographers and historians – agree that there are Bantu, Nilotic, Cushitic and Khoisan-speaking populations in East Africa. [58] Accordingly, the indigenous people of East Africa can be grouped into these clear linguistic categories. [59] Common criteria used for such categorization include similarities in the prefixes of the class of nouns found across certain tribes. For example, the Bantu-speaking tribes are distinguished from other tribes by the pronunciation and writing of the word referring to a human being – muntu or umuntu (singular) and vantu or abantu (plural). The Khoisan-speaking people, on the other hand, are distinguished by the clicking sounds they make when they speak. It should be noted, however, that sophisticated linguists are hesitant about such superficial comparisons. [60] In this study, linguistic categorization is used as a classification of the people of East Africa for the purpose of identifying similar cultural traits. J. E. G. Sutton has suggested that the original inhabitants of East Africa were probably the Bushmanoid stock of the late Stone Age hunters and gatherers. [61] He described them as short people who spoke with a clicking sound and suggested that the descendants of these people are the Bushmen and Hottentots at present found in the Kalahari Desert and the present-day Sandawe and Hadza of central Tanzania. The gradual disappearance of these people, Sutton argues, was largely due to changes in the basic economy with the substitution of settled life for nomadic life. There was a gradual change from hunting and gathering to food producing. However, the Bushmanoid have not disappeared completely but have either been absorbed into other groups through intermarriage or have been forced deep into the forests by other food producers. These late Stone Age people are talked of in some East African Geography, Ethnography and Physical Activity 765 traditions as ‘the short hunters’ who have now vanished. Tales such as wambonera hai (at what distance did you see me) have been told about these short people. According to this tale, whenever they met people taller than themselves, the first question they asked was ‘at what distance did you see me’? The answer had to be ‘I saw you from miles away’, if one didn’t want trouble from them. To answer, ‘I saw you from close by’ would have been considered an insult and would result in a fight, which, according to the tale, the short people always won. According to Sutton’s theory, these Bushmen were ‘invaded’ by Cushitic and Nilotic- speaking people from the north and Bantu-speaking people from the west and south. The Cushitic-speaking people, who were hunters and pastoralists, are said to have moved southwards from present-day Ethiopia to the highlands of Kenya and northern Tanzania. [62] Archaeological evidence of their early existence has been found in areas around Kilimanjaro and Ngorongoro. [63] Today the Cushitic languages are found among the Kalenjin in Kenya and the Iraqw in Tanzania. The Nilotes, who came from the north and north-east of East Africa, can be divided into three main branches: the Highland Nilotes, the Plains Nilotes and the River-lake Nilotes. [64] The Highland Nilotes were hunter-gatherers as well as pastoralists and descendants of these people are found among the Kalenjin of Kenya and the Tatonga (Mang’ati) and the Taturu of northern and central Tanzania. Although some of the Tatonga have maintained their identity in Mbulu and Singida, others have become integrated with the Cushitic-speaking Iraqw and others have been assimilated into Bantu-speaking people. The Masai are said to have descended from the Plains Nilotes and the Luo are said to have descended from the River-lake Nilotes. [65] It is believed that the Bantu-speaking people entered East Africa from the west, through the corridor between Lake Kivu and Lake Tanganyika, and from the south, between Lakes Tanganyika and Nyasa. These people were mainly agriculturists using tools they made from iron. Today a majority of East African people are Bantuspeaking. Sutton estimates that over 90% of Tanzanians also speak that language. [66] C.G. Seligman took racial characteristics as his starting point in mapping the peopling of East Africa and identified three ‘pure’ races: the Hamites, the Bushmen and the Negroes. [67] He suggested that the original inhabitants were Bushmen and also suggested that inter-marriage between these three groups produced the Bantu, Nilote and Nilo-Hamite-speaking peoples. He concluded that the Bantu were derived from a mixture of Hamite and Negro where the Negro dominated, while the Nilote came out of the same mixture, but with Hamite dominance. The Nilo-Hamite peoples were the product of a mixture of Nilotes and Hamites. Like Seligman, H. Baumann took racial characteristics as his starting point and argued that there were four original races for Africa as a whole: Pygmy, BushmenHottentot, Eurasian and Negro. [68] He held that the mixture of Eurasian and Negro produced Ethiopians, Negro, Ethiopians and Bushmen-Hottentot produced the Bantu and Negro and Ethiopian produced the Nilote. 766 H.S. Ndee It seems, therefore, that the present African population of East Africa has evolved from the stock of the original inhabitants and immigrants from other parts of Africa. The original inhabitants have been described as short with a yellow-brown complexion. [69] In the course of time, this stock has intermingled with immigrants resulting in changes to physical appearance, culture and language. Direct descendants of these original inhabitants can be found in the Sandawe and Hadza in Tanzania and the Pygmies along the border between Uganda and Zaire. [70] In short, many groups of people moved into East Africa at different times and from various parts of Africa. Commentators all agree that these immigrants had a huge influence on the evolution of the people of East Africa. [71] Over time these different groups have intermingled both with each other and with the original inhabitants – both peacefully and forcibly. They have assimilated, absorbed and influenced one another. Most writers have preferred to classify these immigrants into the linguistic groups: Bantu, Nilotic and Cushitic. [72] The most recent movements into East Africa were those of the Zimba, the Tutsi and the Ngoni. [73] At the end of the sixteenth century, the Zimba moved northwards from Mozambique ruthlessly attacking, killing and eating people as they advanced along the coast. [74] While they are remembered for their savagery, their actual impact on the peopling of East Africa is insignificant and they vanished as mysteriously as they arrived. [75] About the middle of the eighteenth century, the Tutsi moved from present-day Rwanda and Burundi to south-west Tanzania and remained there until the 1840s. [76] Finally, the Ngoni moved northwards from South Africa in great numbers in what is commonly known as The Great North Trek. [77] They entered present-day Tanzania in two columns, on the western and eastern sides respectively of Lake Nyasa. The western column reached Lake Victoria in the 1850s and was gradually absorbed by the other tribes in the area, while the eastern column reached Ruvuma around the same time, and remains there to this day. In brief, four major assumptions can be made concerning the peopling of East Africa. First, from palaeontological evidence, it appears that early man lived in East Africa. [78] It can therefore be argued that the original inhabitants of East Africa are derived from this early man. Second, it is clear that before the eighth century, there were movements of groups of people into East Africa from the south, the west, the north and the north-east. [79] The Bantu-speaking people entered from the south and the west [80] while the Nilotic speakers are believed to have followed the Nile from the north into present-day Uganda and the highlands of Kenya. [81] The Cushitic-speaking people entered East Africa from the north-east first into northern Kenya and then into northern Tanzania. [82] The incoming people found the original inhabitants in place. These original inhabitants have been varyingly described as Pygmies, [83] Bushmen or Khoisan and are believed to have been found over large areas of Africa. [84] The third assumption is based on the fact that from at least the eighth century onwards, Asiatic traders – mainly Arabs from south-west Asia – came and settled along the coast and in Zanzibar. [85] Finally, from the nineteenth century onwards many Europeans settled on the highlands of Kenya. The last two groups, the Geography, Ethnography and Physical Activity 767 Arabs and the Europeans, will be discussed in detail in later chapters. Underlying the peopling of East Africa was the formation of ethnic groups commonly known as tribes. As given later, a tribe may be defined as a group of people of the same race, language and customs, including physical activity with specific purposes and in specific circumstances. In the following pages some eastern African tribes are considered in relation to their use of various physical activities in traditional initiation ceremonies. East African Tribes, Physical Activity and Rite of Passage The Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English defines a ‘tribe’ as a group of people of the same race and sharing the same language, religion and customs and often led by a chief. [86] The Kiswahili dictionary, Kamusi ya Maana na Matumizi, defines a ‘tribe’ as a group of people with the same language, culture and environment. [87] P. H. Gulliver traces the roots of the term ‘tribe’ and suggests that it has long been used in English to refer to the biblical people of Israel and certain divisions of the ancient Roman Empire. However, he also notes that since its appearance in Middle English it has acquired both the vagueness of everyday speech and a plurality of meanings that are often contradictory, dogmatic, pejorative and emotive. [88] For these reasons, the term can mean, and has meant, many things to many individuals. The term is widely used in East Africa by both East Africans and outsiders with varying connotations but in most cases it has been taken to mean a collection of people sharing the same language, culture and customs. This definition is adopted here. Present-day East African society is made up of many tribes together with Asian immigrants and European settlers. Each of the estimated 185 tribes – approximately 35 in Kenya, over 120 in Tanzania and 30 in Uganda – belong to one of the main linguistic groupings discussed earlier. [89] Appendix 4 illustrates the main linguistic groupings of the peoples of East Africa and the different tribes within these groups, while Appendix 5 shows the geographical location of the major tribes of East Africa. See appendices 3, 4 and 5. It is clear from the groupings that a majority of the tribes are Bantu-speaking. Despite this linguistic homogeneity, the geographical locations of different tribes have influenced their activities and cultures. For example, while the activities of the coastal Bantu-speaking Pokomo and Zaramo include fishing, the Gogo and Nyamwezi of central and western Tanzania, respectively, who speak the same language, are pastoralists. Nevertheless, many tribes in East Africa had one thing in common, the rites of passage rituals. As in societies elsewhere, many East African tribes initiated their young into adulthood through ‘initiation schools’, which combined initiation rites and circumcision. [90] Many tribes used physical activity in their ‘initiation schools’ to pass on basic societal values to their young, to train boys for warfare and to identify potential leaders. By way of specific illustration, some of the recorded aspects of the initiation 768 H.S. Ndee ceremonies of three of the tribes of East Africa – the Kikuyu of Kenya, the Gisu of Uganda and the Rangi of Tanzania are considered later. In Facing Mount Kenya: The Traditional Life of the Kikuyu published in 1938, Jomo Kenyatta describes the Kikuyu’s initiation ceremony for girls and boys. The tribe held a competitive form of walking for girls and running for boys during their initiation ceremonies. These competitions were held before the surgical circumcision took place. The girls had to walk to a sacred tree while the boys had to race to it. [91] A ceremonial horn as a signal for the girls to begin walking and when the first girl was within a certain distance of the tree the boys’ race was started. The first girl to reach the tree would become the leader of her group and would be much sought after as a wife in later years. The first boy to reach the tree would also become the leader of his group and would be spokesman of that group for life. Such competitions were instrumental in establishing status within the society and as such had much symbolic value for the Kikuyu. [92] It was believed that such leaders were chosen by the will of the ancestral spirits in communication with their God and they were therefore highly respected. By using this method of selection, the possibility of peers having to fight among themselves to establish a pecking order was eliminated. More significantly, the competitions were considered contests between the spirits of childhood and adulthood – part of the rite of passage. [93] The Gisu of Uganda circumcised their boys after the main harvest, usually between June and September. [94] As part of the preparation leading up to these initiation ceremonies the Gisu performed various preliminary rituals. Based on his personal experience, J. S. La Fontaine divided these preliminary rituals into four main phases. [95] The first phase was performed prior to the main agricultural work of sowing seeds and consisted of singing and dancing. The initiates – all boys – dressed up in traditional costume and danced on the village greens led by an elder, who instructed them in the songs and dances. The duration of this phase was not fixed, but it must have lasted long enough to allow the initiates to learn the songs and absorb the instruction, as they were expected to lead themselves – in singing and dancing – in the next phase. The second phase began soon after the weeding of the crops. The initiates visited all their relatives, both maternal and paternal, and informed them of their imminent circumcision. Led by one of their own, the initiates walked from house to house while singing and dancing, accompanied by their sisters. The third phase began a few days before the actual circumcision. It was characterized by intensified dancing in which almost the whole community took part. Older people joined the dance at this stage, which continued late into the night. The final phase consisted of the cleansing of the groves, the rebuilding of the shrines and the offering of sacrifices by the elders. At this stage, the initiates sought blessings and ‘formal permission’ to be circumcised from their maternal ancestors. They were given two short twigs symbolizing that permission had been granted and were believed to bring courage to the initiates who were then ready for the physical Geography, Ethnography and Physical Activity 769 circumcision. This phase was again accompanied by dancing until late into the night. A period of convalescence followed the surgical operation of circumcision, after which came the day of ‘graduation’. Dancing dominated this important ceremony of admitting the newly circumcised to the status of adulthood. Almost everyone present at the ceremony joined the dancing, which continued for two to three days. The Gisu people combined dancing and walking exercises in their initiation ceremonies. In the early stages, it was mainly the novices themselves who danced. Tribal Elders and others joined the dances at the later stages and on the day of ‘graduation’ almost everybody danced. The inclusion of dances in all phases of the ceremony accentuates the fact that dance constituted one of the strongest forms of cultural expressions among the Gisu, as was the case in many other tribes both in East Africa and elsewhere on that continent. In the settled area of the Rangi of Central Tanzania, initiation (circumcision) sites were easily recognized. Usually they were a group of trees or a grove. Traditional laws strictly forbade the felling of trees in these sacred sites. When such a site was being used for the first time, a blessing ritual was held a day before the actual circumcision ceremony. Observing such a circumcision ceremony in December 1953, H.A. Fosbrooke described the blessing as being symbolized by the lighting of a ceremonial fire and a circumambulation of the site. [96] The novices assembled at the homestead of the master of ceremony, who then led the initiates from his house to the circumcision site for the blessing ritual. [97] In his capacity as the master of ceremony, he wore hide sandals (rubber or any other type of shoes were not allowed) and carried a ceremonial axe and a green twig from the castor oil plant. [98] The wearing of hide sandals reflected the relationship between the ceremony and the Rangi’s traditional wealth of domestic animals – cattle, sheep and goats. Blessing the circumcision site and the ‘country’ at large was synonymous with blessing the grazing land for the animals, thus ensuring the survival of this wealth. The axe symbolically represented the means with which the community sustained itself – in terms of food, shelter and defence. With an axe, the Rangi cleared forests for cultivation and felled timber for building houses and in times of war an axe was used as a weapon. The green twig represented green fertile crops (a sign of wishing for a bumper harvest). Castor oil plants are among the few plants that can survive droughts. Their leaves remain green all year round, even in the semi-arid areas of Irangi, and thus the castor oil plant was the main cash crop of the Rangi. Holding fire-sticks taken from the ceremonial fire, the initiates were led around the site by an elder pushing a ewe and a lamb. Another elder carried a hen. [99] The next step was the sprinkling of the area with leafy twigs and a mixture of white clay, water and beer. While sprinkling this mixture, the party chanted the words of blessing ‘E Varimu vito lali’ (let our spirits sleep). [100] The slaughtering of a sacrificial ram, which had remained in the centre of the site during the ceremony, concluded proceedings. The ram was then skinned, dissected and the contents of its stomach were thrown north, south, east and west. 770 H.S. Ndee In the Rangi tradition, a ram was considered a sacred animal; so, using it to conclude the blessing ceremony signified that the site was now ready for the circumcision ceremony. Once this ritual had been conducted, it was not necessary for it to be repeated prior to future circumcisions. However, further cleansing of the ‘country’ was necessary if there had been any fighting that had resulted in the spilling of human blood. If this were the case, the offender(s) had to provide a special sheep for the additional cleansing. This sheep was slaughtered in the same manner as the ram and the contents of its stomach were thrown around the site. Once this had been done, the land was ‘declared’ pure and peaceful. The performance of this extra purification demonstrated that the circumcision ceremonies also provided opportunities for members of the community to reconcile differences among themselves. These ceremonies, therefore, may be considered not only as rite of passage rituals but also as forums for propagating peace in its society. The Rangi circumcised girls too. The girls’ site for circumcision was normally next to that of the boys. The blessing ceremony of this site took place simultaneously with that of the boys, with a similar ritual conducted solely by women. During the whole ceremony, women were not allowed on the men’s site and vice versa. When the blessing ceremony was completed, all the novices (boys and girls) and the other members of the tribe walked back to the master of ceremony’s house. The initiates spent the night at his house awaiting the surgical operation the following morning. Singing and dancing accompanied the journeys to and from the circumcision sites. The dancing consisted of various forms of jumping and running exercises. On the day of the physical operation, a procession of initiates (boys only), led by the master of ceremony and a couple of elders, left the house for the circumcision site. The master of ceremony carried the ceremonial axe. The singing of heroic songs accompanied the procession. The initiates were flanked by their sponsors and relatives. The girls were collected one at a time by the women, brought to their circumcision site and carried back to the house once they had been circumcised. The dancing intensified during the operations and songs of praise and warning were sung. One common warning song was aimed at reminding the initiates of their prime responsibility as future adults – to feed society. The song went: Hunger is bad Hunger is like a lion Hunger is bad Hunger makes us eat locusts. [101] One principal dance, the Ikoma, took place at this time on a ‘neutral ground’ between the two circumcision sites. [102] Women stood in a line on their side, facing the men who stood on the opposite side forming a human wall. Both men and women sang songs teasing and mocking each other about their genitalia. [103] While dancing, both sides advanced towards each other attempting to invade the other’s ‘territory’, with each side repelling such incursions. The Ikoma and accompanying Geography, Ethnography and Physical Activity 771 songs lasted as long as the operations. It is worth noting here that, according to the Rangi tradition, the kind of songs and the type of body movements performed in the Ikoma dance were confined only to this part of the ceremony and were ‘forbidden’ at any other times. When the circumcision was completed, people gradually dispersed, leaving the initiates (boys only) behind to spend the night at the circumcision site under the supervision of the master of ceremony and other experienced elders. The following day, the initiates moved to a specially built hut on the premises of the master of ceremony and remained there until they had completely recovered. During their convalescence, the initiates lived apart from the rest of the community. It was during this period that the Rangi combined running and throwing exercises as a means of training boys for the transition into adulthood. The boys were made to run and were taught spear throwing, as these exercises were deemed necessary skills for hunting and warfare. At the end of the healing period, as part of the ‘graduation’ into adulthood, the boys competed in running and spear throwing competitions. The latter had far-reaching social implications. A large mortar was placed about 50 metres away from the boys and each of the initiates took his turn to try and hit it with his spear. [104] The target symbolized food for the family and society at large. This was a crucial moment for the initiate; as to miss the target branded him a poor hunter and provider. [105] From the earlier exposition, it is evident that physical activity played an important part in the initiation ceremonies of the Rangi. Aspects of physical activity, especially dance, accompanied almost all the activities that took place in these ceremonies. Running exercises and throwing competitions were used not only as a means of training the boys physically but also as symbolic representations of some of the more important values of society. The spear-throwing competition on the day of ‘graduation is evidence of this’. From the earlier description, it is clear that physical activities were a vital part of the initiation rites of these tribes, and indeed of many others. They formed an integral part of the physical education and psychological preparation of the children of East Africa. Conclusion In summary, the term East Africa is both geographical and political and refers to Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. It lies on the eastern side of the continent of Africa. The geographical position of eastern Africa facilitated the earliest commercial and cultural contacts between it and other parts of the world. For centuries, eastern Africa was an entrepoˆt for commerce from the Indian Ocean. East Africa can be broken down into a number of relief belts running roughly from north to south. This diversified topography hugely influences the climate of the region. The climate, in turn, is largely responsible for the pattern of rainfall over the area, the distribution of which has a direct relationship with economic activities. 772 H.S. Ndee Low rainfall has meant that the vegetation of East Africa is mostly Tropical Savanna Wood. Population density is also closely linked to the pattern of rainfall distribution: areas with sufficient rainfall being densely populated. These areas include the coastal belt, the highland areas and the areas around Lake Victoria. The population of East Africa is said to be growing rapidly with an average annual growth rate of over 3%. Archaeological evidence suggests that East Africa is the cradle of humanity. This follows the discoveries made by the Leakey family, from 1959 onwards, of the ancestors of Homo sapiens, Homo habilis. Over time there have been movements of different groups of peoples from other parts of the continent into East Africa. This leads to the conclusion that the peopling of East Africa is as a result of three main factors: the suggestion that East Africa is the cradle of humanity, the movements of groups of people into East Africa and the intermingling and assimilation of these people. Although East African society is culturally heterogeneous, it can conveniently be categorized into four main linguistic groups: Bantu, Nilotic, Cushitic and Khoisan, irrespective of the various tribes found within these groups. Physical activity played an important role in the pre-colonial society of eastern Africa as a means of training for warfare and hunting and was widely used during tribal initiation ceremonies to establish status and to prepare boys and girls for the transition into adulthood. While the preceding account paints a general picture of the pre-colonial life of the indigenous people of eastern Africa, the life and culture of those people of the land now known as Tanzania and the affect of physical activity on their daily life will now be considered. Notes [1] The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea: Travel and trade in the Indian Ocean by a merchant of the first century, passim. [2] See Freeman-Grenville, The East African Coast: Selected Documents from the First Century to the Earlier Nineteenth Century, Document No. 2, 3. [3] See Freeman-Grenville, The East African Coast: Selected Documents from the First Century to the Earlier Nineteenth Century, Document No. 4, 8. See also Davidson, Old Africa Rediscovered: A Story of Africa’s forgotten past, 155–63. [4] See Freeman-Grenville, The East African Coast: Selected Documents from the First Century to the Earlier Nineteenth Century, Document No. 5, 8. [5] See, for example, Chittick, ‘The Coast before the Arrival of the Portuguese’, 100–18; Freeman-Grenville, The East African Coast: Selected Documents from the First to the Earlier Nineteenth Century, passim. [6] For the early writers see, for example, The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, c.100 A.D.; Claudius Ptolemy, Geographia c.150 A.D.; Al-Mas’ud, The Ivory Trade, c.915 A.D.; Ibn Battuta, ‘A Visit to Zeila, Mogadishu, Mombasa and Kilwa Kisiwani’ in 1331, in, G. S. P. Freeman-Grenville, The East African Coast: Selected Documents from the First to the Earlier Nineteenth Century. For the modern writers see, for example, Chittick, ‘The Coast before the Arrival of the Portuguese’, 100–18; and Berg, ‘The Coast from the Portuguese Invasion to the Rise of the Zanzibar Sultanate’, 119–41. [7] See, for example, Chittick, ‘The Coast before the Arrival of the Portuguese’, 100–18. Geography, Ethnography and Physical Activity 773 [8] The present boundaries were drawn in 1890. See Fage and Verity, Atlas of African History, 49. [9] See the Prologue. Also, Freeman-Grenville, The Medieval History of the Coast of Tanganyika: With Special Reference to Recent Archaeological, passim; Coupland, East Africa and Its Invaders: From the earliest time to the death of Seyyid Said in 1856, 15. [10] Coupland, East Africa and Its Invaders: From the earliest time to the death of Seyyid Said in 1856, Chapter II. [11] See Freeman-Grenville, The East African Coast: Selected Documents from the first to the earlier nineteenth century, Document No. 21, 80 and Document 22, 104. [12] See Berg, ‘The Coast from the Portuguese Invasion to the Rise of the Zanzibar Sultanate’, 119. [13] See Freeman-Grenville, The Medieval History of the Coast of Tanganyika: with Special Reference to Recent Archaeological Discoveries, 9. ‘Portugal sought no more than to control the outlets of trade and to establish safe watering places on the tedious routes to Goa’. [14] Available online at http://www.citypopulation.de/Kenya.htm, accessed 30 July 2008. [15] Available online at http://www.wfp.org/country_brief, 2008, accessed 30 July 2008. [16] Available online at http://encarta.msn.com/fact, 2008, accessed 30 July 2008. [17] See Posnansky, ‘The Prehistory of East Africa’, 49–68. [18] Yeager, Tanzania: An African Experiment, 5. [19] Nyika is the Swahili word for wilderness. [20] Morgan, East Africa, 35. [21] Jarrett, Africa: The New Certificate Geography Series, 348. [22] Ibid., 349. [23] Ibid. [24] Ojany, ‘The Geography of East Africa’, 32. [25] Jarrett, Africa: The New Certificate Geography Series, 350. [26] Ojany, ‘The Geography of East Africa’, 32. [27] Ibid. [28] Morgan, East Africa, 46. [29] Ibid., 44. [30] Ibid., 46. [31] Ibid. [32] Ojany, ‘The Geography of East Africa’, 38. [33] Ibid., 38. [34] Graham and Baker (eds.) The Changing Geography of Africa and the Middle East, 118. [35] Ibid. [36] Ojany, ‘The Geography of East Africa’, 43. [37] Ibid. [38] Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda Profile, http://www.newafrica.com, June 2001. [39] United Nations Statistical Yearbook, New York, 1995, 35–36. [40] Today the population of East Africa is almost African (Kenya: African population 98%, others – Asian, European and Arab 2%; Tanzania: African population 99%, others – Asian, Arab and European 1%; Uganda: African population 98%, others – Asian, Arab and European 2%). See Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda Profile http://www.newafrica.com, June 2001. [41] Leakey, Adam’s Ancestors: An Up-to-date Outline of the Old Stone Age (Palaeolithic) and what is known about Man’s Origin and Evolution, xviii; World Travel Guide,.461; Yeager, Tanzania: An African Experiment, 6; B.A. Ogot and J.A. Kieran (eds.), Zamani: A Survey of East African History, 50; Davidson with Mhina, The Growth of African Civilisation: East Africa to the Late Nineteenth Century, 3; Oliver and Fage, A Short History of Africa, 16. 774 H.S. Ndee [42] Yeager, Tanzania: An African Experiment, 6. [43] Ibid. [44] Ibid., 7. [45] Tattersall, The Fossils Trail: How We Know What We Think We Know About Evolution, 187. [46] On 25 October 2000 a team of scientists from College de France and the Community Museum of Kenya discovered fossilized remains of a hominoid, believed to belong to the earliest direct ancestor to man. The French and Kenyan scientists nicknamed this creature Millennium Man. See Irish Times, Tuesday, 5 December 2000. [47] See, for example, Ogot and Kieran (eds.), Zamani: A Survey of East African History, 51; Oliver and Fage, A Short History of Africa, 14; See also see Leakey, Adam’s Ancestors, 1953, passim. [48] Yeager, Tanzania; An African Experiment, 6; Tattersall, The Fossils Trail: How we know we think we know about evolution, 117. As recently as 1995 Ian Tattersall, wrote: . . .‘it is hardly surprising, then, that it took some fifteen years and the discovery of a variety of new fossils for paleoanthropologists to become at all comfortable with the idea of Homo habilis . . . nonetheless it is possible in retrospect to see that, largely through the efforts of the Leakeys, the human fossil record had begun, by the mid 1960s, to take the outline that is familiar today’. [49] Shorter, East African Societies, 18. [50] Ibid. [51] Ibid.,19. [52] Ibid., 18. [53] Ibid. [54] Ibid. [55] Ibid. See also, for example, Seligman, The Races of Africa. [56] Seligman, The Races of Africa, Oxford, 1930; Shorter, East African Societies, 18. [57] See, for example, Diop, Nations Negres et Culture, 290; Trevor, ‘Races Crossing’; Shorter, East African Societies,18. [58] See, for example, Sutton, ‘The Settlement of East Africa’, 66–99; Cohen, ‘The River-Lake Nilote from the Fifteenth to the Nineteenth Century’, 142–57; Ehret, ‘Cushites and the Highland and Plains Nilotes’, 158–76; Were, ‘The Western Bantu Peoples from A.D. 1300 to 1800’, 177–97 and McIntosh, ‘The Eastern Bantu Peoples’, 198–215. [59] Ehret, ‘Cushites and the Highland and Plains Nilotes’, 158; Abrahams, ‘The Political Incorporation of Non-Nyamwezi Immigrants in Tanzania’, 99. See also Greenberg, ‘Linguistic Evidence Regarding Bantu Origins’, 189–216. [60] Shorter, East African Societies, 21. [61] Sutton, ‘The Peopling of Tanzania’, 8. [62] Ehret, ‘Cushites and the Highland and Plains Nilotes’, 160–61. [63] Ibid.,160–61. [64] Shorter, East African Societies, 18–24. [65] Ibid. [66] Sutton, ‘The Peopling of Tanzania’, 8. [67] Ibid., 19. [68] Ibid. [69] Ibid., 23. [70] Sutton, ‘The Peopling of East Africa’ 86. [71] See, for example, Kimambo, ‘The Interior Before 1800’, passim; Sutton, ‘The Peopling of Tanzania’, 14–6; Shorter, East African Societies. [72] See, for example, Greenberg, ‘Linguistic Evidence Regarding Bantu Origins’, 189–216; Guthrie, ‘Some Developments in the Pre-history of the Bantu Languages’,.273–82; Shorter, East African Societies, Chapter Three. Geography, Ethnography and Physical Activity 775 [73] Alpers, ‘The Nineteenth Century: Prelude to Colonialism’, 240–44. [74] Freeman-Grenville, The East African Coast: Selected documents from the first to the earlier nineteenth century, Document No. 30, 146. [75] Ibid.,147. [76] Shorter, The East African Societies, 24. [77] See, for example, Freeman-Grenville, The East African Coast: Selected documents from the first to the earlier nineteenth century, Document No. 30, 146–51; Alpers, ‘The Nineteenth Century: Prelude to Colonialism’, 240–44. [78] Leakey, Adam’s Ancestors: An Up-to-date Outline of the Old Stone Age (Palaeolithic) and What is known about Man’s Origin and Evolution, xviii; Tattersall, The Fossil Trail: How we know what we think we know about Human Evolution, 105–17. [79] See, for example, McIntosh, ‘The Eastern Bantu Peoples’, 198–215; Sutton, ‘The Settlement of East Africa’, 69–99 and Were, ‘The Western Bantu Peoples from A.D. 1300’, 177–98. [80] See, for example, Hiernaux, ‘Bantu Expansion: The Evidence from Physical Anthropology’, 505–16; Guthrie, ‘Some Development in the Pre-History of the Bantu Languages’, 273–82; Greenberg, ‘Linguistic Evidence Regarding Bantu Origins’, 189–216. [81] Cohen, ‘The River-Lake Nilotes from the Fifteenth to the Nineteenth Century’, 142–44. [82] Ehret, ‘Cushites and the Highland and Plains Nilotes’, 160–61. [83] Baumann and Westermann, Les Pueples et les Civilisations de l’Afrique: Suivi de Les Langues et L’education, 20–28. [84] Seligman, The Races of Africa, passim. [85] Oliver and Fage, A Short History of Africa, 97–101. [86] Hornby, Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary of Current English, 1275. [87] Bakhressa, Kamusi ya Maana na Matumizi, 130. [88] Gulliver (ed.), Tradition and Transition in East Africa: Studies of the Tribal Element in Modern Era, 7. [89] World Travel Guide, 908. [90] Many tribes practice circumcision in their initiation rites. Among the Bantu-speaking they include the Kikuyu, Gisu, Rangi, and the Gogo. The Cushitic-speaking Iraqw and the Nilotic Masai also circumcise and as do the Khoisan-speaking Sandawe. [91] Kenyatta, Facing Mount Kenya: The Traditional Life of the Gikuyu, 140–41. [92] Ibid.,141 [93] Ibid.,140. [94] La Fontaine, East Central Africa Part X: The Gisu of Uganda, 42. [95] Ibid., 42. [96] Fosbrooke, ‘A Rangi circumcision Ceremony: Blessing a New Grove’, 32. [97] A Master of Ceremony was any elder who enjoyed the confidence of the community at that time and was capable of running the circumcision ceremony. [98] Fosbrooke, ‘A Rangi circumcision Ceremony: Blessing a New Grove’, 31. [99] Ibid., 32. [100] Ibid. [101] Ibid., 35. [102] Ibid., 33. [103] The author is grateful to Selemani Iboni, who explained that such songs were sung only when the actual surgical operation was in progress and not at any other time, certainly not at home nor at any other ceremonies. [104] A mortar is a piece of carved wood used for pounding grains of sorghum, bulrush, millet and finger millet out from husks. The mortar was also used (and is still used today) to pound certain grains into flour. 776 H.S. Ndee [105] The author is grateful to the Rangi elders, Muhindi Isaka and Selemani Iboni, who explained the symbolic meaning of using the mortar as a target and its implication.

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