WARRIORS IN HEART OF DARKNESS : THE NANDI
RESISTANCE 1850 1897
Part 2 The Combatants
by Dennis Bishop
THE NANDI
The total population of the Nandi tribes is estimated
in the 1890s to have
been between
20,000 and 30,000 people. The tribes never mustered more
than 8,000 warriors,
but were
able to impose themselves upon their much more numerous
neighbors and
invaders. This
was due to two factors.
TRIBAL ORGANIZATION
The fundamental feature of the Nandi tribal
organization was the control
exercised by
the koret, or local council. These small councils
controlled the activities
of small
communities and had a voice in the pororiet consisting of
representatives of
kokwet and
two leading warriors. The kokwet provided a type of
court to settle disputes.
The
pororiet conducted defensive and offensive military
decisions and conducted
treaty
negotiations. These bodies fostered unity among the
Nandi tribes. The Laibon
(Anglicized Masai L-oibonok) consisted ritual experts and
Okoik
(medicine-man).
MILITARY ORGANIZATION
The military organization was based upon the pororiet
system with warriors
of
adjoining korotinwek (smallest social unit) joined a
siritiet (company) under
a kiptainik
(leading warrior) elected by the warriors of the company.
Several siritiet
might join
together in a kiptaiyat (raiding party). This would
consist of able bodied
young warriors,
but could include junior elders and young boys seeking
experience. Usually
independently minded in civil affairs, the warriors were
very disciplined at
war.
Warriors who disobeyed their kiptainik were beaten by
their fellow warriors
and denied
their share of the loot.
The Nandi carried Masai-type stabbing spears, and
various throwing
spears. For
secondary weapons, the Nandi carried short swords, heavy
wooden clubs
(knobkerries),
and occasionally rocks or stones. Bows and poison arrows
were commonly used
with the
arrows smeared with Acokanthera poison. Light, large
shields patterned with
heraldic
emblems like the Masai were also carried.
THE BRITISH
The first British company to acquire access to the
Uganda Protectorate was
the
Imperial British East Africa Company. The region of
Uganda was ceded to
Britain by
the Anglo-German Treaty of 1890 after the IBEAC sent an
expedition under F. J.
Jackson
in 1889 and another under Captain F. J. Lugard in 1890.
Both expeditions had
armed
escorts from the company's Sudanese mercenaries. Both
contained 600 askaris,
including 75 Sudanese recruited from the Egyptian Sudan.
The askaris were
armed with
Snider rifles at this time. The askaris under Jackson
were probably uniformed
as
variously as other IBEAC mercenaries. Lugard improvised
a uniform for his
askaris
consisting of a white loin-cloth and short jacket, the
jacket with either blue
or red cuffs
and a foot square patch of the same color between the
shoulders. The
headdress is
unknown, but the Zanzibaris (Swahili) probably wore white
turbans and the
Sudanese
probably wore a red fez.
The Sudanese uniform consisted of a red fez, a white
or khaki drill tunic
and trousers,
a blue jersey, and puttees, and black boots in 1891. In
1893, Lugard received
permission
to provide the Sudanese with a "best uniform" of red fez,
blue jersey and
white trousers
and the "white" officers were issued khaki tunics and
breeches. The Sudanese
units
complained in 1893 and "white" officers were issued two
white or two khaki
outfits with
fez and boots each year and the askaris were to receive
either "clothes" or
"Americani"
cloth (greyish cotton cloth) and five buttons. However,
this was inconsistent
at best in
arriving in Uganda. The result was that all the
different colors faded and
blended into an
earth color. While many askaris attempted to maintain at
least the blue
jersey and white
trousers, others wore kilts or waistcloths or cloth,
leather or skin, or knee
length cotton
smocks. The fez was worn, also a ragged turban, but the
most common headdress
was a
straw hat. Equipment mainly consisted of leather belts
with flaps to protect
the cartridges
from which were hung a variety of charms, amulets, and
pouches. They were
armed with
Remington rifles.
When the crown took over responsibilities for the
protectorate from the
IBEAC in
1895, things did not improve much. The military was
redesignated the Uganda
Rifles
and totaled 800 askaris organized on a company basis.
The only improvement
was that
the Remington rifle was replaced with the Henry-Martini
rifle in some of the
companies.
Conditions were so bad that the overused I, II, III, IV,
and VII Companies
mutinied in
1897. It is significant to note that a number of these
companies had fought
in both
demoralizing invasions of Nandi.
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