Crafting Sport History Behind Bars: Wrestling with …...Traveling across the fertile highlands of...

History in Africa httpjournalscambridgeorgHIA

Additional services for History in Africa

Email alerts Click here Subscriptions Click here Commercial reprints Click here Terms of use Click here

Crafting Sport History Behind Bars Wrestlingwith State Patronage and Colonial Connement inKenya

Matthew Carotenuto

History in Africa FirstView Article August 2015 pp 1 - 33DOI 101017hia201526 Published online 24 August 2015

Link to this article httpjournalscambridgeorgabstract_S0361541315000261

How to cite this article Matthew Carotenuto Crafting Sport History Behind Bars Wrestling with StatePatronage and Colonial Connement in Kenya History in Africa Available on CJO2015 doi101017hia201526

Request Permissions Click here

Downloaded from httpjournalscambridgeorgHIA IP address 15217127245 on 24 Aug 2015

Crafting Sport History Behind Bars Wrestling with State Patronage and Colonial Confinement in Kenya Matthew Carotenuto

Abstract This article explores how indigenous games such as wrestling were marshyginalized during the colonial era and the contemporary impact of this legacy Through the sport of wrestlingrsquos neotraditional resurgence I argue that the sportrsquos contemporary iteration which emerged behind the imposing walls of Kenyarsquos penshyitentiaries provides an important window into historic discourse and state control of sport rooted in the colonial past Paying close attention to the methodological challenges and opportunities researchers of indigenous sport face the article also examines the sources available for scholars interested in investigating the social history of indigenous sport in Africa

Reacutesumeacute Cet article explore la maniegravere dont les sports locaux comme la lutte ont eacuteteacute marginaliseacutes pendant la peacuteriode coloniale et lrsquoimpact contemporain de cette relative inattention Grace agrave la reacutesurgence neacuteo-traditionaliste de la lutte je suggegravere que la version contemporaine de ce sport neacutee derriegravere les murs imposants des prisons kenyanes reacutevegravele les racines coloniales du discours historique et du controcircle de lrsquoEtat sur ce sport En examinant au plus pregraves les deacutefis meacutethodologiques et les opportuniteacutes offertes aux chercheurs des sports africains cet article se penche sur les sources disponibles pour les chercheurs inteacuteresseacutes par lrsquohistoire sociale des sports locaux en Afrique

History in Africa (2015) of 33 Matthew Carotenuto is Associate Professor of History and Coordinator of African

Studies at St Lawrence University His research and published work has focused on the social and political constructions of ethnicity in Kenya This article is part of a new project on sport ethnicity and nationalism in colonial and postcolonial Kenya E-mail mcarotenutostlawuedu

copy African Studies Association 2015 doi101017hia201526

1

2 History in Africa

Introduction 1

Traveling across the fertile highlands of Kenyarsquos northern Rift Valley en route to the new administrative capital of Trans Nzoia County any student of African sport history would associate this region as a global center of distance running prowess2 Arriving in Kitale in May 2013 the preemishynence of athletics and other European imports dominated the Friday aftershynoon scene at the Jomo Kenyatta stadium A group of children dribbled a makeshift soccer ball outside the stone walls of the sports ground and around the dirt track aspiring distance runners warmed up for a local meet As one of Kenyarsquos small regional stadiums supporters of athletics slowly filled the stands and as I surveyed the scene with my three Kenyan colleagues a small group of about thirty athletes were visible at the corner of the stadiumrsquos soccer pitch Standing around a makeshift grass circle outshylined with plastic advertising tape from a local bank these athletes did not represent the population of aspiring soccer players and distance runners wandering the stadium grounds that day Ranging from young boys to men in their thirties they had come for another very different sporting event the first annual Trans Nzoia wrestling championships

As the four of us entered the stadium that day some of the young boys quickly rushed to my host Eric Waluchorsquos side Dressed in a crisp Kenyan flag athletic shirt with a whistle and stopwatch slung around his neck Walucho was both the chief architect of the tournament and Kenyarsquos current national wrestling team coach Accompanying Walucho to the Kitale event were two of his Nairobi based athletes Hollis Ochieng and Abdulahi Ibn Khalid Ochieng and Khalid quickly changed into their official national

1 Earlier versions of this article were presented at Sport and Place Sport Identity and Community Mansfield College Oxford 30 Augustndash1 September 2014 and the African Studies Association Annual Meeting in Baltimore 21ndash24 November 2013 The author would like to thank fellow panelists and conference participants for their useful comments on earlier drafts of this article Most of the data for this article was collected during ten weeks of field research in Kenya in MayndashJune 2011 and 2013 Archival research at the Kenya National Archives in Nairobi was mixed with participant observation of wrestling practices at the Ruiru and Naivasha prisons along with interviews with athletes and staff associated with the Kenya Prisons Team Kivuli Bulls and Sports for Youth Development Initiative in Nairobi Additional interviews were conducted in Trans Nzoia Bungoma Kisumu and Kakamega counties Other data draws on my previous research on the construction of ethnicity among the Luo community in western Kenya

2 Trans Nzoia was a district in Rift Valley Province until a new constitution adopted in 2010 did away with the old colonial-based provincial system and created forty-seven counties each with a governor and county legislature Kitale became the new county seat of government during the implementation of the new constitution in 2013

Crafting Sport History Behind Bars 3

Figure 1 Eric Walucho officiates an exhibition match at the first Trans Nzoia Championships 24 May 2013

team singlets and were instructed by Walucho to take the competitors through a routine of drills I had first seen inside the walls of a Nairobi prison As Walucho Ochieng and Khalid introduced the athletes to a hybrid set of rules for this particular tournament an average spectator would have never known that the three were not just wrestlers but also officers within the Kenyan prison department3

As one of several sponsored sports the Kenyan prisons department has been the nationrsquos principle patron for aspiring Freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestlers since the 1980s With a home base at the Ruiru Prison Staff Training College (PSTC) on the outskirts of Nairobi and through other active clubs at several penitentiaries throughout the country a small cadre

3 In an effort to blend the rules from local wrestling styles with those of Olympic Freestyle Walucho instituted a hybrid set of rules for the tournament In local styles the first ldquotakedownrdquo usually ends the match However Walucho employed a best two out of three takedowns or a fall to win the match to encourage longer bouts where younger participants would have a number of chances to win Takedowns were awarded via conventional Freestyle scoring rules with the wrestler having to demonstrate ldquocontrolrdquo in taking the opponent from a standing position to the ground Walucho officiated all matches

4 History in Africa

of roughly forty to sixty prison guards are given release time to train with coaches associated with the Kenya Amateur Wrestling Association (KAWA) 4

Confined behind the imposing walls of the nationrsquos prisons most Kenyans have little exposure to the countryrsquos wrestling program This relative obscushyrity poses some challenges to Waluchorsquos efforts to promote the sport across the country The 2013 Trans Nzoia championships represents a recent grassroots effort to address this issue Since 2011 Walucho has partnered with several local NGOs and wrestling clubs to stage a number of exhibishytions of ldquotraditionalrdquo wrestling in Nairobi Mombasa and parts of western Kenya Mixing the rules of Olympic Freestyle with regional styles from western Kenya and south Sudan Walucho and others support a neotraditional resurgence of indigenous wrestling in Kenya as a way to both preserve the past and market the sport to a new generation of athletes5 From NGOs using wrestling to focus on youth development to Nairobirsquos Nubian comshymunity promoting the sport as a source of ethnicnational pride indigshyenous styles have seen a revival in popularity over the past several years6

These outdoor events need little more than a tuft of soft grass and willing competitors overcoming the significant obstacle that there are only four known official wrestling mats in the country7 From the beach in Mombasa and outdoor cafes in Nairobi to public sports grounds in Kitale these free public events provide Walucho and others a chance to discuss the sport with the wider community highlighting how wrestling was a popular local sport in the past and asking the rhetorical question ldquowhy shouldnrsquot wrestling be popular todayrdquo 8

4 Interviews with Eric Walucho and Anthony Karuiki (Secretary of KAWA) Nairobi June 2011

5 For more on the ways wrestling fits into cultural productions of identity see Matthew Carotenuto ldquoGrappling With the Past Wrestling and Performative Identity in Kenyardquo International Journal of the History of Sport 30ndash16 ( 2013 ) 1889ndash1902 Kenyarsquos neotraditional adaptation of wrestling is in the early stages of development While the scale and scope of these efforts have yet to captivate widespread public attention they do resemble similar efforts to rebrand traditional sport with a commercial and cultural appeal See Birgit Krawietz ldquoPrelude to Victory in Neo-Traditional Turkish Oil Wrestling Sense Perceptions Aesthetics and Performancerdquo The International Journal of the History of Sport 31ndash4 ( 2014 ) 445ndash458

6 See for instance Mwaura Samora ldquoTraditional African Wrestling Gets its Grip Backrdquo Africa Review (19 August 2010) ( httpwwwafricareviewcomArts+an d+Culturendash979194982640ndashmar1fhzndashindexhtml accessed 10 May 2011) Agnes Makhandia ldquoOmumasaba Floors National Wrestling Champion Alegordquo The Star (14 October 2013) Other organizations that support ldquotraditionalrdquo wrestling include The Sports for Youth Development Initiative ( httpwwwsydiorke ) and East African Wrestling Entertainment ( httpswwwfacebookcomeastafricawrestling )

7 Kenya National Team Assistant Coach Linus Masheti Naivasha 27 May 2013 8 Walucho introductory remarks at the Trans Nzoia Wrestling Championships

Kitale 23 May 2013


Often confined behind the walls of Kenyarsquos prisons this small but vibrant wrestling program provides an interesting case study in the ways East Africans re-imagine amateur sporting traditions of the distant past and how they fit within a national sports program focused primarily on garnering medals and cash prizes abroad Offering a contemporary window into the historic state patronage and control of sport informant testimonies and the archival record are filtered through a long standing view of sport prishymarily as a means for social control economic advancement and internashytional prestige Refashioning indigenous martial traditions into a national sports program dominated by soccer politics and distance running expershytise also demonstrates how the Kenyan state has blurred the lines between grassroots amateurism and professional sport within the controlling arm of the nationrsquos security forces Rooted in the colonial marginalization of indigshyenous sports like wrestling the postcolonial control and professionalization of sport within Kenyarsquos prisons department reveals a number of continuities with the colonial past From the use of sport as a pacifying moral force for the youth to the legacy of the colonial education and criminal justice systems the last century of Kenyan sport history can be seen broadly as an effort by the state to centralize and control sporting activities across the country often stifling grassroots efforts to promote activities at the local level

Locating Indigenous Sport Histories

The historiography of indigenous sports in Africa reflects the historic decline in popularity of wrestling in Kenya As Africans have widely embraced coloshynial imports such as soccer scholars have focused much of their attention on the local adaptations of these global games across the continentrsquos colonial and postcolonial past9 Consequently African sport histories are dominated by accounts of soccer rugby and a few other colonial imports Due in part to the significance of the 2010 World Cup studies of South African sport is a major focus of the historiography with sport histories of East Africa represhysenting a small but emerging field of social history10 While indigenous sport

9 For a useful analysis of the recent literature on sport in Africa see Marc Fletcher and Lizelle Bisschoff ldquoAfrican Sport in the Global Arena Contemporary Approaches and Analysesrdquo Critical African Studies 6ndash23 ( 2014 ) 123ndash133

10 For instance in two recent special issues devoted to African sport Critical African Studies 6ndash23 (2014) and The International Journal of the History of Sport 30ndash16 (2013) ten of the fifteen articles published deal with soccer andor South African sport directly The literature on sport in Kenya is particularly limited outside of themes of soccer politics and development For examples that explores indigenous sporting traditions in East Africa see Hamad S Ndee ldquo(Special Issue) Sport and Africa An East African Perspective ndash Pre-Colonial Origins Colonial Deconstruction Post-Colonial Reconstructionrdquo International Journal of the History of Sport 27ndash5 (2010 ) 733ndash1000 John Bale Imagined Olympians Body Culture and Colonial Representation in Rwanda (Minneapolis University of Minnesota Press 2002 )

6 History in Africa

has not captured wide attention in scholarly literature wrestling has long held a place in the popular imaginations of African writers with oral traditions and early ethnographic studies referencing the popularity of the sport throughout many parts of the continent

Popular accounts and historical memories often crown wrestlers as romanticized moral guardians of patriarchal tradition yet few scholars have adequately explored the sportrsquos social and political history beyond a reverence within ethnographic coverage of the precolonial past11 In Kenya narratives of wrestling and other indigenous games from the past can be found within the local canon of the amateur ldquopatriotic pastrdquo where leisure activities are intimately linked to the performance and preservation of identity Often produced during a time of social upheaval and change in the colonial era indigenous leisure traditions are employed in this literature to document preserve and promote a partisan historical narrative with a specific audience and goal in mind12 Read through this lens indigenous sport histories represent more than a window into romanticized traditions of the ldquoprecolonial pastrdquo and show how indigenous games both infused local adaptations of colonial imports and were employed as a discursive strategy allowing for cultural and individual expression under the controlling gaze of colonial authority 13 These ideas are well established in the historiogshyraphy of ethnicity but scholars have too often refracted indigenous sport

11 For an example from popular literature see Chinua Achebe Things Fall Apart (New York McDowellObolensky 1959 ) A preliminary survey of published work on wrestling in Africa reveals a limited number of citations overall These works focus heavily on West Africa or ancient EgyptSudan with little done on colonial postndashcolonial views of the sport in Eastern Africa See for instance Scott Carroll ldquoWrestling in Ancient Nubiardquo Journal of Sport History 15ndash2 ( 1988 ) 121ndash137 Sigrid Paul ldquoThe Wrestling Tradition and its Social Functionsrdquo in William J Baker and James A Mangan (eds) Sport in Africa Essays in Social History (New York Africana Publishing Company 1987 ) 23ndash46 Bakary K Sidibe and Winifred Galloway ldquoWrestling in the Gambiardquo occasional paper Gambia Cultural Archives (Banjul 1976 ) Ousseynou Faye ldquoSport argent et politique la lutte libre agrave Dakar (1800ndash2000)rdquo in Momar-Coumba Diop (ed) Le Seacuteneacutegal contemporain (Paris Karthala 2002 ) 309ndash340 Mahaman L Seacuteriba ldquoTraditional Wrestling in Niger Between State Voluntarism and Ancestral Symbolismrdquo Tydskrif vir Letterkunde 42ndash2 ( 2005 ) 18ndash32

12 John Lonsdale ldquoEthnic Patriotism and Markets in African Historyrdquo in Hiroyuki Hino John Lonsdale Gustav Ranis and Frances Stewart (eds) Ethnic Diversity and Economic Instability in Africa Interdisciplinary Perspectives (Cambridge Cambridge University Press 2012 ) 19ndash55 For more on the importance of these early amateur histories see Derek Peterson and Giacomo Macola (eds) Recasting the Past (Athens OH Ohio University Press 2009 )

13 Emmanuel Akyeampong ldquoBukom and the Social History of Boxing in Accra Warfare and Citizenship in Precolonial Ga Societyrdquo The International Journal of African Historical Studies 35ndash1 ( 2002 ) 39ndash60 Peter Alegi Laduma Soccer Politics and Society in South Africa (Scottsville University of Natal Press 2004 )


primarily through histories of colonial hegemony and the contemporary supremacy of imported games Consequently nuanced discussion of ldquoindigeneityrdquo has been confined behind work that focuses mainly on the Africanization of soccer and a colonial legacy where wrestling and other local games were frequently marginalized within the historical record

The rules of indigenous styles of wrestling differ widely across the region Informants from western Kenya all noted that wrestling was a comshypetitive and typically male event As a match began wrestlers whose competshyitive careers andor personal memories date back to the 1930s and 1940s recalled that athletes typically worked to take their opponent from a standing position to the ground using a variety of techniques associated with modern Olympic Freestyle or Greco-Roman forms of the sport With the first ldquotakedownrdquo winning the match bouts varied in length and inforshymants often described or even demonstrated with great enthusiasm nuanced techniques from their athletic past From spectacular throws to leg attacks which I first encountered as a youth wrestler in upstate New York the stories and sometimes physical encounters with wrestlingrsquos Kenyan past captivated both my professional and personal attachment to sport history However it was not until an octogenarian informant attempted to literally throw me to the ground while demonstrating a technique outside his rural Western Kenyan home that I realized that my own background and history with wrestling played a precarious role throughout the research process

As a former wrestler and coach I have had the pleasure to both grapple with my Kenyan colleagues and wrestle with the challenge of conducting research on an indigenous tradition pushed to the far periphery of the written historical record Within the official archive indigenous games and leisure activities were either dismissed or more often ignored by colonial authorities After independence officials seemed to wilfully inherit the coloshynial legacy of viewing indigenous sporting tradition as a primitive impediment to notions of Kenyan modernity 14 As a result the official record leaves little room for direct analysis pushing a historian interested primarily in the sportrsquos indigenous past far beyond the archive stacks Where the archival record is lacking glimpses of wrestlingrsquos past can be found within colonial newspapers amateur histories and through the memory of informants who came of age during the sports decline in the late colonial era

Approaching this research as both a cultural ldquooutsiderrdquo but fellow wrestling ldquoinsiderrdquo I often found myself balancing the role of a historian with that of an occasional volunteer coach and struggling athlete By parshyticipating in wrestling practices at the Ruiru prison or helping to coach

14 Similar views were also shared by the Ethiopian state from the 1950s through the 1970s See Katrin Bromber ldquoMuscularity Heavy Athletics and Urban Leisure in Ethiopia 1950sndash1970srdquo The International Journal of the History of Sport 30ndash16 (2013 ) 1915ndash1928

8 History in Africa

at youth a clinic in Kitale my presence was interpreted first and foremost as a that of a playercoach and a researcher as an afterthought at best At first this provided a methodological challenge how can one keep a level of historical objectivity when literally engaged in physical combat with many of your informants However as much as historians of religion might be interpreted locally as theologians or scholars of musicology as musicians crafting contemporary sport histories of Kenya can often blur the methodshyological line between athletic participant observation sports reporting and social history15

The vague lines between being viewed as a scholar and practitioner initially concerned me I came to realize later that Kenyan interpretation of my role on and off the wrestling mat reflected not just the aspirations of athletes but were filtered through a distinct historical framework which has shaped the way both indigenous traditions and global games are intershypreted in contemporary Kenya Through the window of contemporary events this article takes a wide historical look at the impact of colonial marginalization of community based wrestling and explores the impact of a professional version of the sport which re-emerged inside the walls of Kenyarsquos prison system Placing these ldquoprison gamesrdquo within Kenyarsquos contemporary sports landscape reveals that the legacy of over a century of state patronage and control of sport is reflected not only in the archival record but in the memories of four generations of wrestlers from Western Kenya who spoke about the cultural economic and political role of sport in ways that mirrored the evolving colonial and postcolonial state view

Wrestling with State Confinement

Informants from Western Kenya still remember the waning years of wrestlingrsquos popularity during the peak of colonial occupation Joshua Ananygu recalled attending village wrestling matches in Bungoma in the early 1940s where community teams were pitted against each other in front of large crowds during the harvest season where prizes of cattle and great social prestige were at stake16 Others recalled less prolific but equally important encounshyters with the sportrsquos indigenous past James Osogo spoke of long hours spent testing adolescent masculinity in the Lake Victoria hinterland of the

15 The notion of positionality within African sports histories is an underdevelshyoped element in the current historiography For recent studies that more overtly address this issue see for instance Manase Chiweshe ldquoOne of the Boys Female Fansrsquo Responses to the Masculine and Phallocentric Nature of Soccer Stadiums in Zimbabwerdquo Critical African Studies 6ndash23 ( 2014 ) 211ndash222 Marc Fletcher ldquolsquoThese Whites Never Come to Our Game What Do They Know About Our Soccerrsquo Soccer Fandom Race and the Rainbow Nation in South Africardquo PhD dissertation University of Edinburgh (Edinburgh 2012 )

16 Joshua Ananygu Bungoma 26 May 2013


1930s and 1940s By grappling with age mates during his colonial youth spent herding goats and cattle he argued that ldquoI grew into a man from those days spent wrestling (hellip) the older boys would teach us the rules of fighting and how to show respect to your opponent These are rules which I carried with me long after I stopped wrestlingrdquo17 Multiple informants regaled me with vivid stories of the sportrsquos glorious rural past during the first half of the twentieth century while also lamenting the rapid decline in popularity since the 1950s18 Snippets from the colonial record confirm local concerns of wrestling decline in the late colonial era However as documents contained at the Kenya national archive do not elaborate on the rural prominence of indigenous wrestling as in oral testimonies they do reveal a broader history of state patronage and control of sport that spans the colonial and postcolonial era Analyzing the state discourse of sport beginning in the colonial period shows how an unofficial sports policy privshyileged the promotion of European games within a strictly controlled and disciplined national program

Understanding the decline of community based wrestling and shift towards the professionalization of the sport within Kenyarsquos security forces lies in the contested role that sport played in the regionrsquos colonial past Here the well documented ldquodiscipliningrdquo role of sport and other state or mission-sponsored leisure activities throughout colonial Africa applies directly to Kenya and offers a way to understand how local martial traditions such as wrestling did not fit into a sports policy based on social discipline political obedience and notions of ldquomuscular Christianityrdquo 19 Discussed at the very top of the colonial administration the role of sport within the civilizing mission was noted as early as the 1920s to be essential in allaying ldquodiscontent and premature political agitationsrdquo20 As the Chief Native Commissioner continued to argue in his 1923 annual report ldquoIn Africa as elsewhere particularly amongst semi-civilized peoples the development of healthy games has been of first rate political importancerdquo21 The ldquohealthy gamesrdquo mentioned by the Chief Native Commissioner rarely considered

17 James Osogo Nairobi 11 June 2011 18 Wilfred Wanyonyi 11 June 2011 Joshua Marissa Kitale 25 May 2013 Michael

Msungu Bungoma 26 May 2013 19 For an important early example see Phyllis Martin Leisure and Society in

Colonial Brazzaville (Cambridge Cambridge University Press 1995 ) For a useful summary in relation to the colonial expansion of soccer see Peter Alegi African Soccerscapes (Athens OH Ohio University Press 2010 ) 1ndash13 For a recent important study on the connections between missions and sport in colonial Kenya see Tom Cunninghamrsquos contribution in this issue

20 Kenya National Archives Government of Kenya Native Affairs Department Report 1923


10 History in Africa

discussions of sports suitable for the African masses outside of British styles of soccer and athletics with little reference to wrestling as one of the imported colonial traditions aimed at African audiences

Prior to the 1920s professional versions of wrestling were popular throughout Europe and there is some evidence in the colonial record to suggest the white settler population carried this interest to East Africa22

In the settler dominated East African Standard there are several references to professional wrestling events in Nairobi as well as reporting on popular international matches in Europe and the United States23 In a 1912 display of European indigenous styles the Caledonian Society of Nairobi put on a rare segregated display of Cumberland wrestling from the Scottish borderlands24 Other references in the colonial press note the popularity of wrestling among the South Asian population in East Africarsquos urban censhyters Descriptions of ldquoIndian Wrestlingrdquo in the media fell on the same page as other white settler events noting large crowds of nearly 1000 spectators and the intercultural appeal of wrestling among the immigrant colonial settler population25

As important sites of intercultural exchange and performance of Caledonian or South Asian cultural identity in a growing cosmopolitan colonial capital there is little evidence to show how African audiences may have interacted with wrestlingrsquos imported traditions There is also no indishycation to suggest any meaningful intercultural competitions or exchanges between imported and African styles of the sport in the early colonial era Within the colonial record local indigenous sports such as wrestling either

22 Matthew Lindaman ldquoWrestlingrsquos Hold on the Western World before the Great Warrdquo Historian 62ndash4 ( 2000 ) 779ndash797

23 These brief references include discussions of both professional ldquoCatch-Wrestlingrdquo and Olympic styles

24 ldquoThe Coming Sportsrdquo The East African Standard (27 June 1912) It should be noted that wrestling (beyond the professional theatrical variety) was not a very popular game in early twentieth century Britain as scholars have noted that the peak of interest in competitive wrestling was the early nineteenth century Thus it is quite plausible that the vast majority of colonial officials had little experience or interest with the competitive styles of sport from the British Iles Some scholars have noted a regional popularity of Cumberland Westmorland and Cornish styles of the sport in interwar Britain See for instance Christopher Johns Cheer Like Mad for Cornwall The Story of Cornish Wrestling (St Austen Johns 1995 ) Guy Jaouen ldquoTransforming Cornish and Devon Wrestling (Britain) and Gouren (Brittany-France) Through Sportificationrdquo The International Journal of the History of Sport 31ndash4 ( 2014 ) 474ndash491

25 See for instance ldquoIndian Sportsrdquo The Indian Voice (28 June 1911) ldquoWrestling in Nairobirdquo The East African Standard (29 March 1913) For more on the importance of wrestling in sport histories of India see James Mills ldquoA Historiography of South Asian Sportrdquo Contemporary South Asia 10ndash2 ( 2001 ) 207ndash221


did not interest colonial officials or more importantly were not sites where foreign expertise could reinforce colonial hegemony over inexperienced African athletes26 Relegated to ldquoside showsrdquo during official celebrations such as Empire Day exhibitions of indigenous games were sometimes displayed as curious displays of native primitivism in ways that reinforced the rigid and often violent racial hierarchy of colonial Kenya27 For example in 1911 the schedule of events for the coronation celebrations of King George V in Mombasa included an exhibition of Baganda Wrestling alongside other racially segregated competitions for African adults which included a ldquofancy dress paraderdquo and ldquopillow fightingrdquo28 Even by the 1930s Empire Day celebrations still included segregated sports competitions for European ArabAfrican and Indian athletes with the latter two competing in events such as ldquotug of warrdquo ldquosack racesrdquo and ldquobow and arrowrdquo competitions 29

Outside of the subordinate events at official celebrations of colonial hegemony indigenous sports are virtually absent from the Kenyan colonial record However the enthusiasm and popularity for wrestling in the region is confirmed in amateur histories penned by African authors chronicling the patriotic past of their imagined ethnic communities as early as the late 1930s30 For instance in Jomo Kenyattarsquos famous 1938 political ethnography Facing Mount Kenya he places local sport within a description of gendered

26 On notions of sport and colonial hegemony see for instance Laura Fair ldquolsquoKickinrsquo It Leisure Politics and Soccer in Colonial Zanzibar 1900sndash1950srdquo Africa 67ndash2 ( 1997 ) 224ndash251 Grant Jarvie Class Race and Sport in South Africarsquos Political Economy (London Routledge 1985 )

27 For more on settler society see Brett Shadle The Souls of White Folk White Settlers in Kenya 1900ndash1920s (Manchester Manchester University Press 2015 )

28 Kenya National Archives PCCoast134 ndash Mombasa Sports Club ldquoCoroshynation Day Sports Programmerdquo 22 June 1911 ldquoBaganda Wrestlingrdquo was also listed among the ldquoNative Sportsrdquo contested during the coronation celebrations in Kampala See ldquoCoronation Day in Ugandardquo East African Standard (22 June 1911) Some early references to Baganda wrestling briefly note its popularity in Uganda especially among the elite circles of the royal court of Buganda See for instance Edgar G Lardner Soldiering and Sport in Uganda 1910ndash1911 (London Walter Scott 1912 ) 16 88 Richard Reid ldquoImages of an African Ruler Kabaka Mutesa of Buganda ca 1857ndash1884rdquo History in Africa 26 ( 1999 ) 269ndash298 277

29 Kenya National Archives PCCOAST21325 ndash Public Functions Empire Day Celebrations 1934ndash1936 For more on the role of events like Empire Day see Terence Ranger ldquoThe Invention of Tradition in Colonial Africardquo in Terence Ranger and Eric Hobsbawm (eds) The Invention of Tradition (Cambridge Cambridge University Press 1983 ) 211ndash263

30 For western Kenya see for instance Paul Mboya Luo Kitigi gi Timbegi (Nairobi East African Standard Ltd 1938 ) For an English translation of Mboyarsquos Dholuo discussion of wrestling see Jane Achieng Paul Mboyarsquos Luo Kitgi Gi Timbegi (Nairobi Atai Joint Limited 2001 ) 139ndash140 John Osogo Life in Kenya in the Olden Days The Baluyia (London Oxford University Press 1965 )


education and initiation In a clear effort to fashion Kikuyu as a traditionally moral yet modern political identity he defines youth sport as a generational ldquorehearsal prior to the performance of activities which are the serious busishyness of all members of the Gikuyu Tribe Running and wrestling are very common and the best performer in these activities is marked out for leadshyershiprdquo31 Brief ethnographic descriptions such as this can be viewed as evidence of the importance of sport within precolonial social and politshyical systems They also represent the ways leisure traditions were employed in African constructions of ethnicity during the colonial era 32

Even as African authors like Kenyatta wrote of the prevalence of indigshyenous games the official governing bodies for sport within colonial Kenya never recognized or promoted local traditions such as wrestling Formed in the 1920s the Arab and African Sports Association (AASA) was the principle government body charged with promoting and controlling sport for Kenyarsquos colonial subjects33 As an association dominated by European settlers and missionaries AASA exclusively worked to expand athletics soccer and other European sports in ways that ldquopromoted physical and social well-beingrdquo where actual competitions and sporting events were ldquoonly incidental to the main objectrdquo34 Summarizing the discourse of decades of debate on the value of European sports for Africans officials frequently encouraged the development of African sports mainly for the purposes of promoting social and political discipline As one district welfare officer noted in 1948 ldquoit must be remembered that street corner politicians are rarely (except mentally) long jumpers These [sports] clubs band the better types of youngster togetherrdquo 35

Wrestlingrsquos decline is linked in part to its exclusion within the official colonial sports program It is also tied to the tense political climate of the struggle for independence in the 1940s and 1950s For many within the colonial bureaucracy African sport in the post-war era continued to be viewed somewhat naively as a pacifying force used to combat political resisshytance In 1948 the Chief Native Commissioner stressed ldquo[I]t is necessary

31 Jomo Kenyatta Facing Mount Kenya (London Secker and Warburg 1938 ) 98 32 Carotenuto ldquoGrappling with the Pastrdquo Bruce J Berman ldquoEthnography as

Politics Politics as Ethnography Kenyatta Malinowski and the Making of Facing Mount Kenyardquo Canadian Journal of African Studies 30ndash3 ( 1996 ) 313ndash344

33 John Bale ldquoKenyan Running Before the 1968 Mexico Olympicsrdquo in Yanis Pistiladis John Bale Craig Sharp and Timothy Noakes (eds) East African Running (New York Routledge 2007 ) 11ndash24

34 Kenya National Archives PCCoast238 ldquoChief Native Commissioner to PC Coastrdquo 30 July 1930 Kenya National Archives DCLAM282 ldquoChief Native Commissioner to AASArdquo 28 July 1930

35 Kenya National Archives DCKYI36116 ldquoDistrict Welfare Officer W Thompson Fort Hall to PC Central Province lsquoSports in the Provincersquordquo 19 November 1948


to make every effort particularly at present time to occupy the minds and bodies of young Africans otherwise they tend to become involved in undeshysirable activities which are often termed political but which really spring from lack of suitable spare-time activitiesrdquo36 Discussions such as these were linked to ideas of even stricter control over African leisure time in the postshywar era Perhaps fearful of the potential danger of indigenous martial trashyditions such as wrestling posed Joshua Ananygu recalled being severely scolded by his European headmaster when attempting to stage a traditional wrestling match at his Western Kenyan primary school in the early 1950s As he argued the headmaster did not like the ldquorebelliousness wrestling instilledrdquo during the tense political climate of the post-war era37

By the 1950s colonial sports officers were in place throughout the country promoting sport as a way to combat the political upheavals caused by the violence of Mau Mau and Kenyarsquos growing struggle for independence Officials noted that soccer had emerged as the most popular sport among Africans particularly for migrant workers who formed clubs in towns and on settler farms throughout the country As the Provincial Commissioner for Coast Province noted during Kenyarsquos state of emergency in 1957 soccer has filled the ldquovacuum left by the abandonment of many traditional forms of entertainment (hellip) there is little doubt that this has helped to dispel boredom and to foster an active interest in healthy recreationrdquo38 While a full investigation of sport and the struggle for Kenyan independence has yet to be explored by scholars informants confirm that the tense years of the state of emergency and the growing strategy of labor migration for young men simply left ldquofew wrestlers to be foundrdquo in the traditional rural sports grounds of Western Kenya 39

Wrestling and other indigenous games by the late 1950s were certainly not encouraged by the colonial state and were overtaken in popularity by the Africanization of soccer 40 Not all Africans fully embraced this change as ethnic associations such as the Luo Union saw the exclusion of wrestling in the colonial sports program as a threat to notions of cultural identity and represented a population that supported indigenous games during a period of colonial decline However their efforts towards the end of coloshynial rule reflect the intergenerational decline in wrestlingrsquos popularity Given that ethnic associations like the Luo Union were often encouraged

36 Kenya National Archives AK136 ndash Sports and Games 1948ndash1953 ldquoChief Native Commissioner quoted by Director of Agriculture Circular to Agricultural Staffrdquo 21 January 1948

37 Joshua Ananygu Bungoma 26 May 2013 38 Kenya National Archives DCLAMU21110 ldquoPC Coast to DC Lamurdquo

18 April 1957 39 Joshua Marissa Kitale 25 May 2013 40 Wycliffe W Simiyu Njororai ldquoColonial Legacy Minorities and Association

Soccer in Kenyardquo Soccer amp Society 10ndash6 ( 2009 ) 866ndash882


due to their efforts to control youth and curb ldquoimmoralrdquo behavior they provided one of the few forums in colonial discourse where indigenous sport was openly debated41 For instance in 1958 the Luo Union put on a display of traditional wrestling in Kisumu with the backing of the provincial commissioner because as they argued ldquoyoung people tend to dislike these tribal games and dances and therefore the underlying element is to revive themrdquo42

Colonial records and contemporary memories point to a number of factors in explaining the decline of indigenous sports like wrestling in colonial Kenya While the fear of wrestling as a ldquodangerousrdquo element may have been fostered during the Mau Mau State of Emergency there is little definitive documentary evidence to suggest a conclusive reason for wresshytlingrsquos fade from public popularity Efforts such as the Luo Unionrsquos cultural festivals of the 1950s were part of community based wrestlingrsquos waning attempts to cultivate grassroots support in the late colonial period After 1958 wrestling virtually vanished in the official record before re-emerging through the Olympic styles of sport within the Kenyan security forces and postcolonial sports apparatus in the 1970s By emphasising strict centralized control the postcolonial Kenyan state prioritized the development of intershynational Olympic and professional prowess in popular European sports with the patriotic cultural renaissance many felt for indigenous games left out of official policy Thus the transition from community based wrestling to state sponsored confinement within the prison department reflects a number of continuities between colonial and postcolonial sports policy in Kenya posing a challenge for contemporary efforts to promote the sport at the local level

Sport History Behind Bars

Eric Waluchorsquos path from his rural western Kenyan youth to become Kenyarsquos current head national team coach reflects the deeper history of the prison departmentrsquos focus on physical aptitude and patronage of sport rooted in the colonial past When Walucho entered the prison department as a recruit in 1995 he was one of the few selected out of hundreds of applicants during a regional competition for the coveted government post He remembered competing in a series of physical tests against a number of other finalists during a daylong selection processes in Busia and argues that it was his speed strength and raw athletic ability that gave him the

41 Matthew Carotenuto ldquoRiwruok e Teko Cultivating Identity in Colonial and Post-Colonial Kenyardquo Africa Today 53ndash2 ( 2006 ) 53ndash73 Matthew Carotenuto ldquoRepatriation in Colonial Kenya African Institutions and Gendered Violencerdquo International Journal of African Historical Studies 45ndash1 ( 2012 ) 9ndash29

42 Kenya National Archives PCNZA31316 ldquoLuo Union to PC Nyanzardquo December 1958 See also Carotenuto ldquoGrappling with the Pastrdquo 1890ndash1892


edge during the recruiting process Upon enrolling at the PSTC in Ruiru he was then introduced to Olympic Freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestling as part of the physical training regime within the nine month training proshygram for new prison warders Since Walucho had grown up in a former hotbed of wrestling in western Kenya he was exposed to a local traditional style of wrestling by his father and uncles during his youth in the 1970s and 1980s However when he spoke of his early origins in the sport he admitted that he did not initially share same reverence for the traditional competishytions as recounted to him by his father and grandfather and reiterated by informants from older generations

Given his athletic prowess and roots in the indigenous styles he quickly excelled in Freestyle and Greco-Roman eventually competing for Kenya at international competitions such as the All-Africa and Commonwealth Games Upon graduation Walucho moved into what was by then a well-established system of patronage within the prison department and other branches of Kenyarsquos security forces Elite athletes in sports such as (track and field) athletics volleyball soccer boxing and wrestling are given release time for their official duties as prison warders to train in their given sport while still collecting their salaries as prison warders police andor members of the military Promoted to be the National team coach in 2006 Walucho has risen to the rank of Sergeant in the prison department and now runs the most active Olympic style wrestling club in the country at the PSTC in Ruiru43

Waluchorsquos experience with wrestling inside the prison department reflects a deeper historic connection with colonial policy and the prefershyence to place martial arts under the patronage of the state and viewed as a form of ldquomilitary sportrdquo For instance as early as 1905 ldquowrestling on horsebackrdquo was referred to in colonial discourse as a ldquomilitary sportrdquo during Gymkhana exhibitions for the settler community throughout the Eastern and Southern Africa44 ldquoWrestling on horsebackrdquo became a popular part of military training for British troops during the First World War and there is some evidence to suggest that African teams from the Kings African Rifles took part in displays of ldquonative (Baganda) wrestlingrdquo during celebrations of the end of the war in Kampala45 These early references suggest an intimate connection between sport and military service However scholars have noted that by the Second World War British colonial armies throughout the continent

43 Eric Walucho May 2011 and May 2013 44 ldquoHome Sportsrdquo Bulawayo Chronicle (24 June 1905) 45 For a visual example of ldquowrestling on horsebackrdquo see British Pathe ldquoKing

Edwardrsquos Horserdquo c 1919 ( httpwwwbritishpathecomvideoking-edwards-horse querywrestling ) See also ldquoProgramme of Peace Celebrationsrdquo Uganda Herald (19 July 1919) The latter is one of at least nineteen articles about wrestling (often Baganda wrestling) to appear in the Uganda Herald between 1912 and 1922


helped to spread popular British games but did not officially incorporate indigenous traditions such as wrestling46

Within the Kenya Prisons Department by the 1930s sport was noted to be part of the training regimes of both European and African staff members with inmates included in sports activities by the early 1940s47 Initially it was argued that sport had a positive impact on the work of prison employees with the commissioner of the prisons JL Willcocks noting in his 1935 annual report that

(hellip) a desirable esprit de corps is fostered by the European staff of the larger prisons especially in the matter of soccer The Nairobi Prison wardersrsquo team at the time of writing holds second place in the Police Shield League (hellip) and all matches have been well attended by the warder staff The institution of warders recreations rooms at Nairobi and Kisumu Prisons during the year has proved a great success48

Reports throughout the 1930s and 1940s continued to praise the expansion of sport and leisure activities for prison warders49 And by the late 1950s participation by prison employees in soccer golf snooker boxing and tennis was often noted in annual reports and other prison publications As Tim Stapleton demonstrates among African police officers in colonial Southern Rhodesia prison warders in Kenya were also avid sports enthusishyasts with several pages of the Kenya Prison Staff Magazine devoted to sports reporting highlighting the accomplishments of prison officers across the colony 50

Sports were initially promoted for only the prison staff as early discussions of inmate rehabilitation through leisure activities were deemed peripheral in a system that frequently employed corporal punishment withheld food

46 Anthony Clayton ldquoSport and African Soldiers The Military Diffusion of Western Sport Throughout Sub-Saharan Africardquo in William J Baker and James A Mangan (eds) Sport in Africa Essays in Social History (London Frank Cass 1987 ) 114ndash137 Tony Mason and Eliza Riedi Sport and the Military The British Armed Forces 1880ndash1960 (Cambridge Cambridge University Press 2010 )

47 Kenya National Archives Rosendo Abreo Historical Review of The Kenya Prisons Service 1911ndash1970 (Naivasha Prison Industries 1972)

48 Kenya National Archives The Kenya Prisons Annual Report 1935 (Nairobi Government Printer 1936) 24

49 Kenya National Archives The Kenya Prisons Annual Reports 1936ndash1945 50 See for instance Kenya National Archives Kenya Prison Staff Magazine 1ndash1

(1957) 9ndash12 26ndash28 For a comparison in Southern Africa see Tim Stapleton ldquolsquoA Naughty Child with a Penrsquo Gahadzikwa Albert Chaza as an African Policeman and Author in Colonial Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) 1936ndash1963rdquo History in Africa 37 (2010) 159ndash187


and shackled inmates for minor offences51 In a system which also sought to exploit inmate labor for commercialstrategic gain sports were introshyduced first to simply help ldquoproductivityrdquo For instance the 1940 department annual report argued that

Owing to the increased demands for prison labor on work of national importance it has not yet been possible to organize any system under this heading except for those prisoners continuously employed in the tailorsrsquo workshop These men now enjoy half an hourrsquos soccer on working days and the results have been entirely satisfactory Output has increased and discipline has improved52

Throughout the 1940s and 1950s sport and leisure opportunities for inmates increased and were expanded to juvenile homes and detention camps By 1960 the prison annual report noted ldquoSoccer volleyball and other outdoor games were encouraged (hellip) with obvious improvement in prisonersrsquo moralerdquo53 And in 1961 a report even highlighted a combined prisonerstaff soccer team that managed fourth place in the Kisumu municipal league54

Sports discourse focused primarily on the accolades of prison officers which points to the origins of the professionalization of sport within the prison department For instance by the late 1950s boxing was one of the principle sports the Kenya Prisons Department sponsored which provides a colonial link to the martial traditions of contemporary training and patronage of other martial arts such as wrestling First mentioned as an activity promoted among juvenile remand prisoners the 1959 annual report noted that Wamumu a detention camp opened for juvenile Mau Mau detainees had ldquospecialized in boxingrdquo bringing home three first place and two runner up trophies in the colony wide championships55

51 Kenya National Archives The Kenya Prisons Annual Report 1927 (Nairobi Government Printer 1928) For more on the wider colonial prison system see Daniel Branch ldquoImprisonment and Colonialism in Kenya c1930ndash1952 Escaping the Carceral Archipelagordquo The International Journal of African Historical Studies 38ndash2 ( 2005 ) 239ndash265

52 Kenya National Archives Prisons Department Annual Report 1940 (Abridged) (Nairobi Government Printer 1941)

53 Kenya National Archives Treatment of Offenders Annual Report 1960 (Nairobi Government Printer 1961)

54 Kenya National Archives Treatment of Offenders Annual Report 1961 (Nairobi Government Printer 1962) 15

55 Treatment of Offenders Annual Report 1959 (Nairobi Government Printer 1960) For more on Wamumu see also Caroline Elkins Imperial Reckoning The Untold Story of Britainrsquos Gulag in Kenya (New York Henry Holt 2005 ) 289ndash290 Paul Ocobock ldquoComing of Age in a Colony Youth Lawlessness and Colonial Authority in Kenya 1898ndash1963rdquo PhD dissertation Princeton University (Princeton 2010 )


As a point of pride among prison officials the Kenya Prisons Department supported a number of professional boxers employed as prison warders including Mwangi Mugo who represented Kenya in the 1962 Commonwealth Games56

During the transition to independence there was a great deal of discusshysion about the need to reform the prison department generally most notashybly after the harsh detainment and deplorable conditions of the Mau Mau camps57 However postcolonial control of Kenyarsquos penitentiaries reflect more continuity than change with officials arguing for instance that doing away with such techniques as using corporal punishment to inflict a ldquosharp and salutary shock to young louts would be a most retrograde and ill-advised steprdquo58 While some punitive measures of corporal punishment were mainshytained the postcolonial state did invest in the training of prison warders establishing the Prison Staff Training College in 1964 to both physically train warders but also instill them with a ldquoknowledge of the basic principles of the behavioral sciencesrdquo59

Courses at the PTSC included martial arts training with judo and boxing introduced into the formal curriculum by 1970 The Kenya Prison Sports Association was also formed in 1970 to ldquopromote the coordination and conshytrol of all amateur sports and athletics within the Kenya Prison Service and to provide recreational facilities for members of the Associationrdquo60 Like their colonial counterparts Kenyan officials continued to promote sport for prison staff and to a lesser extent among the inmate population Continuing a trend towards rewarding success and focusing on creating a class of professhysional athletes within the prison department officials boasted openly about sport and even devoted roughly 10-15 percent of the departmentrsquos annual reports to sports reporting throughout the 1970s

The professionalization of sport within the prison department was also expanded and fit well with Kenyarsquos vision to use sport in establishshying a global reputation after independence By 1966 the National Sports Council (NSC) emerged as the postcolonial counterpart to the former AASA inheriting much of the same focus on controlling sport through centralized

56 Treatment of Offenders Annual Report 1962 3 57 For more on Mau Mau see Elkins Imperial Reckonings David Anderson

Histories of the Hanged The Dirty War in Kenya and the End of Empire (New York WW Norton 2005 )

58 Kenya National Archives Supreme Court of Kenya to Permanent Secretary Office of the Leader of the House 19 January 1962 ldquoReport of the Working Party on the Prison Population 1961rdquo 45

59 Kenya National Archives Annual Report of the Administration of Prisons in Kenya 1968 and 1969 (Nairobi Government Printer 1971) 7

60 Kenya National Archives Andrew K Saikwa (Commissioner of Prisons) Annual Report of the Administration of Prisons in Kenya 1971 (Nairobi Government Printer 1972) 6ndash7


government channels61 As the NCS advocated for centralized control the newly independent government was keen to establish itself on the global stage In a speech given at the first meeting of Kenyarsquos new sport governing body a representative from the Kenyatta government argued ldquoThe liberation of the continent of Africa has created a new dimension in world affairs And this is as true in sport as it is in international politics or economic institutionsrdquo62 For the newly independent government this idea translated into a focus on international success in established European sporting trashyditions such as soccer and athletics with large portions of government revshyenue reserved for just a few chosen imports from the colonial era 63

With emphasis placed on international success in athletics boxing volshyleyball and soccer the prison department continued a colonial tradition of supporting the expansion and commodification of imported games by the state By the early 1980s other martial arts were formally adopted within the prison department during a boom in sports expansion as Kenya prepared to host the 1987 All-Africa games in Nairobi With large investments made to expand sports infrastructure such as Nairobirsquos Kasarani Sports complex there was a national push to ensure that Kenya performed well at the 1987 games This translated into increased funding for more peripheral sports such as wrestling64 A number of former wrestlers within the prison departshyment noted that this was a high-point for wrestling in the country as new mats were procured from Europe and clubs were sponsored at several army barracks and at the headquarters of the National Youth Service in Nairobi 65

However unlike colonial organizations such as the Luo Union which called for a return to ldquotraditionalrdquo sports and games during Kenyarsquos struggle for independence wrestling only received official support through the global Olympic styles of Freestyle and Greco-Roman with Romanian coaches brought in to conduct clinics for wrestlers within the prison department66 By 1987 the investment in wrestlingrsquos expansion paid off with Kenya winning one silver and three bronze medals during the 1987 All-Africa games in Nairobi

61 Carotenuto ldquoGrappling with the Pastrdquo 1895ndash1896 62 Kenya National Archives QB2015 ndash WN Munoko Assistant Minister of

Housing and Social Services (7 January 1966) 63 For instance within the records of the National Sports Council nearly frac34 of

all expenditures were devoted to soccer by the early 1970s See for instance Kenya National Archives AAT58 ldquoNational Sports Council 1970ndash1974rdquo

64 For instance the National Sports council began issuing a series of ldquospecial expense grantsrdquo to various sports associations in the run up to the All-Africa Games however the dominance of athletics and soccer persisted For instance in 1984 to wrestling received 43165 KSh whereas Athletics received 881584 and Soccer 725036 out of a total of 2925588 KSh given to various governing bodies See Kenya National Archives AAT511 ldquoKenya National Sports Council 1983ndash1986rdquo

65 Linus Masheti Naivasha May 2013 66 Eric Walucho MayndashJune 2011


With most of the national team drawn from the Kenya prisons staff this success solidified the place of wrestling within the Kenya prisons sports program67

Kenyarsquos prison department remains today as one of the principle patrons of Kenyan sport on a global stage and continues to boast of its historic role with the chairman noting on the associationrsquos website

Kenya Prisons Service is a power house in sports since the times of indeshypendence having produced World and Olympic sports personalities in different fields ranging from Athletics volleyball boxing Judo and Karate among others Great names like Catherine Ndereba Ben Jipcho Amos Biwott Lukas Kibet Hellen Chepngeno and even Isaiah Kiplagat the current AK President and IAAF council member have all been members of the Kenya Prisons Service The Kenya prisons women volleyball team is the only club in the world to feature in the world volleyball club championship in three consecutive times68

Supported in part by a two hundred shilling monthly contribution from all staff members the prisons sports program serves to not only support elite athletes but also train warders for the physical skills needed in their day to day work behind the walls of the nationrsquos penitentiaries When asked why wrestling was part of the official training program for new recruits the commandant of the PSTC argued that wrestling and other martial arts equips warders with valuable skills in physical restraint and self-defence often needed in a prison system known for its high levels of violence and history as a sight of both judicial confinement and political detention and torture69

Focused primarily on prison officers sports are also part of the notion of rehabilitation for prisoners Several of the wrestlers training at the PSTC who work at the neighboring Kamiti maximum security prison noted that opportunities for inmates to occasionally play soccer and volleyball helped calm tensions and worked to mediate personal disputes without violence The prison department even occasionally sponsors inter-prison competishytions among several of Nairobirsquos penitentiaries 70 However when I asked

67 Niket Bhushan Cheza Kenya The First Sports Factbook (Nairobi Newspread International 1988 ) 20ndash22 103

68 Kenya Prisons Sports Association ldquoMessage from Chairmanrdquo httpwww kenyaprisonssportscommessage-from-chairman (accessed 3 September 2013)

69 PSTC Commandant Daniel Mutua Ruiru 23 June 2011 For more of the role of the prison department in Kenyarsquos history of political detainment and torture see Republic of Kenya Report of the Truth Justice and Reconciliation Commission Volume IndashIV (Nairobi Truth Justice and Reconciliation Commission 2013 ) 506 This six volume report is available for download at httpwwwtjrckenyaorg

70 Abdul Ibn Khalid and John Mburu Ruiru May 2013


the commandant of one of Nairobirsquos prisons if wrestling was among the activities promoted within the inmate population he dismissed this posshysibility with a cautionary remark In a prison system often criticized for its widespread use of corporal punishment and poor living conditions for inmates the commandant noted that inmates were incarcerated for punitive purposes and should not undergo martial arts training as they might ldquofeel empowered to try out their new skills on the wardersrdquo 71

Prison Games Local Championships and Neotraditional Sport

As a historian of Kenyarsquos colonial past visiting prisons such as Naivasha and Ruiru offered a rare glimpse into a part of Kenyarsquos government appashyratus few researchers venture into Admittedly I entered with a biased view of Kenyarsquos prison culture which focused on its connection to a hisshytory of political repression dating back to the colonial era Thus I was surprised to pass through the gates of the Ruiru Prison outside of Nairobi to see children on their way to a primary school within the prison walls and inmates in striped uniforms working independently on the manishycured grounds of the sprawling facility complete with sports grounds and a large commercial farm Getting research clearance as a historian intershyested in the more nefarious past of Kenyarsquos penal system would have been difficult yet through the lens of sport I was welcomed through the gates of several of Kenyarsquos prisons Interacting with Kenyarsquos prison warders in 2011 and 2013 was initially a chance to simply witness the wrestling proshygram first hand I came to realize later that the way I was received and how my role was interpreted reflected not just a healthy scepticism of the agenda of foreign researcher but was filtered through the ways Kenyans have been historically socialized to view sport With a historic state emphashysis on promoting international success in Olympic styles Ruirursquos young prison athletes were initially indifferent about the sportrsquos indigenous past Their focus was on representing Kenya abroad with little connection to the traditional styles or cultural importance remembered and imagined far beyond the prison walls

In a converted classroom at the PSTC the wrestling team practices in the same facility as other martial arts programmes such as judo and karate When I entered the facility changed into my wrestling shoes and stepped on the mat wrestlers were initially hesitant to interact with me even as an official guest of their coach However once I began going through the drills and practicing techniques with my Kenyan countershyparts the shared experience of our athletic backgrounds allowed for discussions on a number of important issues On the wrestling mat my gender and athletic background in this very male space trumped the

71 PSTC Commandant Daniel Mutua Ruiru 23 June 2011


cultural difference sparked by nationality and race as the intimate experience of martial arts training helped to quickly break down cultural barriers72

In 2011 and 2013 none of the twenty plus athletes training full-time in Ruiru had experience with ldquotraditionalrdquo forms of wrestling in their youth Even Walucho noted that wrestling was rare when he was growing up in the 1970s and 1980s and few wrestlers knew about traditional forms of the sport as young athletes with most being introduced to wrestling for the first time during their training as recruits at the PSTC For Kenyarsquos current generation of elite wrestlers the sport did not initially represent some way to resurrect a nostalgic indigenous past Unlike informants from older generations their thoughts and aspirations were more pragmatic and focused on how the state has historically viewed sport since the coloshynial era For these prison guards gaining a spot in the departmentrsquos elite athlete program offers a chance for professional advancement Like other elite athlete programs in the Kenyan police and armed forces that include many of Kenyarsquos most successful professional athletes the Kenya prisons wrestlers are focused on working to represent Kenya abroad at internashytional competitions While the cash prizes for international wrestling competitions pale in comparison to the lucrative circuit for long distance runners simply gaining a spot on the national team often comes with lucrative allowances and cash incentives for winning performances proshyvided by the state73

This historic institutional and state focus on international success and prestige in established global traditions influenced Kenyarsquos current genershyation of wrestlers to see my role first as a foreign ldquoexpertrdquo who might be able to help them advance Wrestlers often asked me about techniques embodied by American champion wrestlers and if their counterparts in the US were as wealthy as professional basketball players I was clear to let them know I was certainly no ldquoexpertrdquo and that US amateur wrestling resembled nothing of the flamboyance or lucrative pay checks of the more theatrical ldquopro-wrestlingrdquo I was nevertheless viewed first as a coachathlete perhaps second as a sports reporter and a distant third as a historian It is not surprising that the nuances of academic research into the social history of sport were of only marginal interest to these prison warders

72 Even though there were a few female wrestlers at the PSTC it was still a male dominated space and as other scholars have noted the positionality of certain sport constituents can greatly impact the research process See Richard Giulianotti ldquoParticipant Observation and Research into Football Hooliganism Reflections on the Problems of Entree and Everyday Risksrdquo Sociology of Sport 12ndash1 ( 1995 ) 1ndash20

73 For instance at the 2014 Commonwealth Games each of Kenyarsquos 195 athletes reportedly received US$ 6000 or 522000 KSh for the twenty-four day competition in Glasgow Scotland See Ayumba Ayodi ldquoAngry Athletes Threaten Commonwealth Games Boycottrdquo Daily Nation (13 July 2014)


However I realized later that the interpretation of my role helped to confirm a generational shift in thinking from the patriotic notions of wrestlingrsquos precolonial and colonial past to the economic and perhaps political applications of sport in contemporary Kenya

As a minor sport compared to athletics and volleyball the goal of the wrestling program within the Kenya Prisons Department has the same world and Olympic focus as Kenyarsquos new governing body Sports Kenya and the broader Kenyan state74 Coaches within the wrestling program note that the continued national focus almost exclusively on success abroad hinders their efforts to promote wrestling at the local level with little funding and support for practice facilities and local competitions For instance next to the PSTC in Nairobi the most sucshycessful club in Kenya is the Naivasha prisons team Headed by Linus Masheti a former teammate of Walucho this club of prison guards at one of Kenyarsquos most notorious maximum security prisons practices on a thirty year old tattered mat in a small room behind the officerrsquos canteen and rarely gets a chance to compete outside the walls of the Naivasha prison

The hierarchical nature of the prison system further hinders these efforts with coaches like Walucho and Masheti constantly needing to ask their superiors for permission to do anything outside the confines of the prison walls Travelling around the prisons with them in 2013 we constantly stopped to salute and greet superiors in ways that reflected the hierarchical military tradition of the prison department culture In 2011 when Walucho began partnering with local NGOs to stage exhibishytions of traditional wrestling in Nairobi and then Mombasa and Kitale he was first met with scepticism and limited financial support Walucho saw these events as an important way to both market the sport outside the prison walls and get his athletes some much needed local competition However officials with the prison department and Kenya wrestlingrsquos govshyerning body KAWA were initially doubtful about the benefits of these types of events With no cash prizes or international prestige at stake exhibition bouts with local clubs promoting indigenous forms of the sport simply did not fit into the national goals of Kenyarsquos contemporary sports discourse

Returning to where this paper began the 2013 Trans Nzoia wrestling championships were one of the rare occasions where Walucho had permisshysion to take a couple of his prison athletes beyond the gates and promote the sport among the wider public Sponsoring a free public event for both

74 In 2013 a new Sports Act was adopted by the Kenyan legislature replacing the remnants of the National Sports Council with a governing body rebranded ldquoSports Kenyardquo Republic of Kenya ldquoThe Sports Actrdquo Kenya Gazette Supplement 39 (Acts No 25) (25 January 2013 ) 673ndash718


Figure 2 Naivasha prisons team training facilities 27 May 2013

athletes and spectators however was an investment of time and resources 75

Hoping for clubs from Nairobi and Naivasha to join the event Walucho was faced with the historic lack of institutional support for local competitions With little more than a T-shirt and local pride at stake for the winners in Kitale prison officials and KAWA showed little interest in providing financial support for wrestlers to make the two-day trip to Kitale Thus Walucho had to supplement funding for the event with his own money 76 With a lack of elite clubs like the PSTC and Naivasha competing the Trans Nzoia championships turned into a very local affair with Walucho and his two prison athletes running it as both an outreach clinic for the youth and

75 In exchange for help with translation and field research for this article I contributed 8000 KSh (just under 100 US $) to purchase the T-shirts to support the event with Walucho providing the rest Walucho paid an estimated additional 8000-10000 KSh to secure access to the Jomo Kenyatta sports ground and proshyvide food lodging and transportation for his two Nairobi based athletes He also bought lunch for ten to fifteen of the young athletes after the competition ended

76 KAWA Secretary Anthony Kariuki has advocated for seeking private sponshysorship for wrestling in Kenya However as of 2013 the association relies entirely on funding from the NSC and the prison department See Anthony Kariuki ldquoStrategy to Enhance Financial Partnership Through Accountability of Sports Organization in Kenyardquo unpublished manuscript Universiteacute de Poitiers ( 2008 )


competitive regional tournament Mixing Olympic Freestyle techniques with rules from local indigenous styles from the past Walucho promoted the tournament as an opportunity to both compete and learn about the sports historic glory among the local Luhya community 77

Talking with athletes who participated in the first annual Trans Nzoia wrestling championships many had never heard of the sportrsquos popularity in the past To them sport in Kenya was embodied by the soccer pitch and through distance running champions who are sometimes seen training in the highlands of Trans Nzoia County Like their fellow wrestlers within the prison department they did not see the event as primarily a connection to the sportrsquos indigenous past but more as an entrepreneurial economic endeavour 78 When competitors found out that Walucho was a prison officer a number of athletes saw this tournament as a potential audition for a job with the prisons department or viewed wrestling as an activity to sharpen their ldquostreet skillsrdquo to gain employment as guards in Kenyarsquos growing private security industry79 With unemployment rates for youth as high as sixty per cent in some regions the interpretation of the Trans Nzoia championships as a chance to increase employment prospects was a logical conclusion for many Further emphasizing the contemporary view of the value of the sport in relation to economic development a 2013 editorial in the The Standard questioned why ldquo(hellip) can we not make a penny from our wrestling by making it commercial Certainly we are not doing enough to promote the wrestling goldmine As a country we cannot survive on athletics and soccer alone yet we hope to create 500000 jobs every year Come onrdquo 80

Since the two day event coincided with a local professional soccer match and track meet the hierarchy of wrestling in Kenyarsquos sports landscape became clear On day one when mere practices for a local track meet were underway Walucho was able to use the soccer pitch to stage his opening clinic and initial rounds of the tournament When the main competition commenced on Saturday the tournament was relegated to a far corner of the stadium complex as a local professional soccer match and regional track meet pushed wrestling to the periphery of local importance

77 The tournament was broken down into two weight divisions (one over and one under 74 kgs) and two age categories (seniors and juniors) A winner was declared when one wrestler won the best two out of three takedownspushouts or one wrestler threw his opponent from his feet to his back for a fall T-shirts were given to the finalists and champions in both weightage divisions with soda and a small snack provided to all competitors

78 Michelle Sikes and Grant Jarvie ldquoRunning as a Resource of Hope Voices from Eldoretrdquo Review of African Political Economy 134 ( 2012 ) 629ndash644

79 Informal discussions with athletes at Trans Nzoia Wrestling Championships Kitale 24ndash25 May 2013 For a comparison of the appropriation of wrestling among urban youth in Kishasha see Katrien Pype ldquoFighting Boys Strong Men and Gorillas Notes on the Imagination of Masculinities in Kinshasardquo Africa 77ndash2 ( 2007 ) 250ndash271

80 ldquoSitting on a Wrestling Goldminerdquo The Standard (3 November 2013)


The spectators who came to watch the event first represented mainly friends of the competitors and curious onlookers perched on the stadium wall to avoid paying an entry fee to the soccer match Even though wrestling was seen again as a curious ldquoside showrdquo to the dayrsquos main events on the soccer pitch and the track eventually a few dozen additional spectators from the main stands did venture over to see the wrestling competition Some of the older spectators at the sports grounds were drawn from these events due to Waluchorsquos emphasis on promoting his hybrid style as a neotraditional resurgence of ldquotraditionalrdquo wrestling Seeing some of the younger boys learn techniques from current national team members sparked several older men to come and address the group informally Resembling the views of informants remembering the colonial past they emphasized not the economic benefits of sports but how they thought wrestling was a healthy activity and that the sport had traditionally taught young men discipline and the skills to defend their community in the past

These intergenerational discussions and interpretations of the event reminded me of the colonial efforts of the Luo Union to promote ldquotribal games and dancerdquo among the youth in the 1950s as well as state efforts to promote and control sport as primarily a venture to excel in imported games from the colonial era Relegated to side-show status similar to ldquonative sportsrdquo exhibitions from the colonial past the historic confinement of wrestling within Kenyarsquos security forces provided a stark generational conshytrast in the interpretation of this 2013 event For the older generations their view of using sport as a way to promote both cultural pride but also youthful discipline put them in a precarious partnership with both their colonial forebears and historic state discourse Like their colonial countershyparts these older spectators rejoiced in a chance to highlight the sport as a point of local cultural pride while also agreeing with the colonial state view of using sport to contain and control sometimes ldquorebellious youthrdquo81

Moving from generational attitudes to state views martial arts coaches such as Walucho express concerns that the history of confinement behind Kenyarsquos prison walls limit their access to the wider public through events like the Trans Nzoia championships For instance lamenting this notion of history confined under the wing of Kenyarsquos security forces Duncan Chemiryo of Kenyarsquos Judo governing body argued that ldquoJudo is mainly entrenched in the discipline forces as opposed to it being a civilian sport But if we introduced it to young people say at eight years by fourteen they would be championsrdquo82 Even with these historic challenges optimism was high in 2013 that the Kenyan statersquos patronage and control of sport

81 Richard Waller ldquoRebellious Youth in Colonial Africardquo Journal of African History 47ndash1 ( 2006 ) 77ndash92

82 William Ruthi ldquoJudo Thrown Off the Mat as Officials Jostle for Powerrdquo Daily Nation (27 September 2014)


would trickle down to the local level with the passing of the ldquoSports Actrdquo which argues that sport should ldquoinculcate the sense of patriotism and national priderdquo develop the tourist industry and establish a sports academy to ldquoserve as an international centre for excellencerdquo 83 Given that sport was listed among the pillars of Kenyarsquos grand Vision 2030 development plan the connections between the entrepreneurial spirit displayed by young wrestlers in Kitale and official government policy was more than simply about youth unemployment or cultural tradition This discourse also points to the tendency for the Kenyan public to look primarily to governshyment funding and initiative to promote amateur sport at the local level For instance Walucho hoped to use this new state emphasis on sport to lobby for more support for wrestling from government coffers yet the expansion of sports activities since 2013 has reinforced the historic focus on European imported traditions84

Towards a Social History of Wrestling

The Trans Nzoia wrestling championships signifies how Kenyarsquos sporting past and present have historically clashed with grassroots efforts to change contemporary discourse preserve indigenous tradition and challenge state practice From behind the imposing walls of Kenyarsquos prisons grappling with the contemporary challenges of the countryrsquos wrestling program provides an interesting angle to explore the broader history of Kenyarsquos prison system with similar opportunities available through the elite athlete programs in the police and military The tensions between the past and present clearly impact informant testimonies but help to uncover how indigenous sport histories are often hidden by the archival record and state patronage of martial traditions For scholars of African history crafting a narrative of wrestling in Kenya shows the constraints and opportunities for using sport as a lens to study social history and the need to utilize a wide variety of sources outside of the traditional archive While a definitive social history of sport in Kenya has yet to be written the challenge of examining wrestlingrsquos indigenous past offers further insight into the oral written and visual sources historians can use to examine local sporting traditions throughout much of the continent

For scholars of colonial Africa the patriotic narratives embodied by Kenyatta and other amateur historians offer rich alternative insight into local discourse in ways that both fill the gaps in the official record and show

83 Republic of Kenya ldquoThe Sports Actrdquo and ldquoYouth and Sportsrdquo Vision 2030 httpwwwvision2030goke (accessed 1 December 2014)

84 For instance Deputy President William Ruto was recently quoted in the Kenyan press that funds would be used to support expansion of swimming and tennis facilities throughout the country See Elias Makori ldquoRuto State Pledge on Stadia on Trackrdquo Daily Nation (26 December 2014)


how African authors fashioned indigenous sport to fit with the changing social landscape under colonial rule For instance seeing Jomo Kenyatta as both a rising politician and amateur ethnographer represents the variety of ways African intermediaries interpreted sport as valued ldquotraditionrdquo in the context of both national political resistance and local struggles over the contested moral boundaries of ethnic citizenship85 Beyond the written works of famous political ethnographies such as Facing Mount Kenya scholars have yet to adequately mine the wide variety of vernacular publicashytions (from newspapers to amateur histories) for the ways sport and leisure filtered into debates about ethnicity gender and other forms of social identity 86 Offering a different perspective to the imperial descriptions of ldquonative sportrdquo in the settler dominated press vernacular publications such as Muigwithania and Ramogi provided both a political voice to their respecshytive ethnic communities but were also important forums for debating a variety of social issues from the 1920s through the 1950s87

Outside of these Kenyan examples digital collections offer further insight into the potential sources available to investigate wrestlingrsquos colonial past beyond East Africa For instance searching the new African collection in the Readex World Newspaper Archive which offers ldquoonline access to more than sixty African newspapers published in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuriesrdquo reveals over one hundred articles mentioning the sport of wrestling in Anglophone publications in East West and Southern Africa88 From discussions of indigenous forms of the sport in Nigeria and the Gold Coast to the Olympic and professional-theatrical versions among white settler populations in Rhodesia and South Africa these sources proshyvide an important arena for mapping the broader discourse on indigenous sport and imperialism during the initial years of colonial occupation Complementing the written record with visual evidence the Basel Mission archives for instance contains at least a dozen digitized photos of wrestling events in Cameroon and the Gold Coast which speak to the broader ways indigenous sport was incorporated into state sponsored festivals and intershypreted by a variety of colonial actors These images reveal both athletes in

85 Bruce J Berman and John M Lonsdale ldquoThe Labors of lsquoMuigwithaniarsquo Jomo Kenyatta as Author 1928ndash45rdquo Research in African Literatures 29ndash1 ( 1998 ) 16ndash42

86 Bodil Frederiksen ldquoPrint Newspapers and Audiences in Colonial Kenya African and Indian Improvement Protest and Connectionsrdquo Africa 81ndash1 ( 2011 ) 155ndash172 Shiraz Durrani Never Be Silent Publishing and Imperialism in Kenya 1884ndash1963 (London Vita Books 2006 ) Fay Gadsden ldquoThe African Press in Kenya 1945ndash1952rdquo Journal of African History 21ndash4 ( 1980 ) 515ndash535

87 Berman and Lonsdale ldquoLabors of lsquoMuigwithaniarsquordquo James Ogude ldquoThe Vernacular Press and the Articulation of Luo Ethnic Citizenship The Case of Achieng Onekorsquos Ramogirdquo Current Writing 13ndash1 ( 2001 ) 42ndash56

88 ldquoAfrican Newspapers 1800ndash1922rdquo httpwwwreadexcomcontentafricanshynewspapers-1800-1922 (accessed 15 February 2015)


local regalia and African officials refereeing events dressed in white suits complete with pith helmets Thus as sights to both reinforce colonial hegeshymony and combat cultural change photographic archives offer an important window for scholars of African sport to view the ways indigenous traditions clashed publically with imperial concerns89

Moving from the colonial record to more contemporary sources African newspapers provide an important link to the ways the sporting past was rememshybered and reimagined after independence While Kenyan news outlets have overwhelmingly maintained the colonial preference for sports reporting on dominant imported traditions and global games alternative media outlets and the growing availability of open access television and social media groups offer ripe terrain for scholars interested in more contemporary debates about indigshyenous sport and their neotraditional adaptations90 Particularly rich data is available in the Senegambia regions of West Africa where indigenous styles of wrestling draw stadium size crowds in Dakar and Banjul and athletes compete for lucrative cash prizes91 Outside of the regions of West Africa where local styles of wrestling still enjoy widespread popularity several examples of the sportrsquos neotraditional resurgence in East Africa draw historic comparisons to the patriotic narratives produced by Kenyatta and other amateur historians of the colonial past As these ldquohomespunrdquo histories found a market in the local colonial printing presses in the early twentieth century amateur historians and indigenous sport entrepreneurs in the twenty-first century are taking to social media and staging festival style celebrations of the sportrsquos indigenous past that are now packaged for television and online audiences92

89 These digitized images of the Basel Mission can be found at httpwww bmarchivesorg For more on the use of photographs and its application to sport history see Christraud M Geary ldquoPhotographs as Materials for African History Some Methodological Considerationsrdquo History in Africa 13 ( 1986 ) 89ndash116 John Bale ldquoCapturing lsquoThe Africanrsquo Body Visual Images and Imaginative Sportsrdquo Journal of Sport History 25ndash2 ( 1998 ) 234ndash251

90 Michelle Sikes ldquoThe Standard A Repository of African Sports Historyrdquo African Research amp Documentation 116 ( 2012 ) 61ndash70

91 The popularity of Senegalese and Gambian Wrestling has even drawn the attention of the mainstream western press but surprising little scholarly analysis except Sidibe and Galloway ldquoWrestling in the Gambiardquo See Nicholas Lumas ldquoPro Wrestling Senegal Stylerdquo New York Times (24 May 2012) For Senegalese and Gambian examples of sports reporting on wrestling see ldquoToute lrsquoactu de la lutte Seacuteneacutegalaiserdquo http wwwarenebicom (accessed 5 February 2015) Oko Drammeh ldquoGambia Legends ndash Great Gambian Wrestlersrdquo Daily Observer (Banjul) (20 September 2013)

92 Peterson and Macola (eds) Recasting the Past For examples of how neotrashyditional forms of the sport are being imagined in the context of contemporary East Africa see Bamuturaki Musinguzi ldquoReviving Traditional Wrestling in the Buganda Kingdomrdquo The East African (9 October 2011) Nehemiah Okwembah ldquoCultural Festival Marks End of Easterrdquo Daily Nation (22 April 2014) Other visual representations are widely available via online video platforms such as youtubecom


Even a brief survey of the wide variety of sources available on wresshytling clearly indicates that scholars of sport and social history in Africa have ample opportunities to expand beyond the historiographical focus on the adaptations of global games and colonial imports across the conshytinent Indigenous sport histories do not need to be confined behind the historic rise in popularity of the soccer pitch or the global focus on corporate mega events like the World Cup African forms of wrestling and other indigenous sports are on the periphery of this historiography but are finding a contemporary niche in the corporate global world of sport governance and event production For instance in 2004 United World Wrestling (UWW) ndash Olympic style wrestlingrsquos global governing body ndash introduced ldquobeach wrestlingrdquo to ldquobring together all the different traditional wrestling styles practiced on sand and to make them more popular worldwiderdquo93 This new style has yet to rival Freestyle and Greco-Roman on the world stage Yet in 2013 the UWW sanctioned African Championships in NrsquoDjamena (Chad) included a ldquoTraditional Stylesrdquo division Teams from North Africa dominated the Freestyle and Greco-Roman competitions on mat but the outdoor stadium and sand filled wrestling grounds reportedly drew the largest crowds and highshylighted local styles from West and Central Africa 94 At the intersection of global sport governance and indigenous ldquotraditionrdquo events such as these are rarely examined by scholars but represent a significant point of contemporary convergence in the literature on sport and social history in Africa As indigenous games are reimagined in the corporate world of global sport governance both local examples from small reshygional events in Kenya to continental ldquoAfrican Championshipsrdquo provide an important opportunity to interpret historical memories of the past95

Both fans and athletes interpret and debate the ldquoindigeneityrdquo of these events sparking discourse about the past which can uncover both conshytinuities and change in the ways local sporting traditions have been remembered and reimagined within the hierarchical legacy of the coloshynial past

93 UWW ldquoBeach Wrestlingrdquo httpunitedworldwrestlingorgdisciplines (accessed 10 February 2015)

94 ldquoFILArsquos African Traditional Wrestlingrdquo NrsquoDjamena 6 May 2013 ( https wwwyoutubecomwatchv=Zh8fBcvKTNo ) For an account of the championships from the perspective of a popular amateur wrestling sports reporter see TR Foley ldquoInto the African Sands ndash Wrestling in Chadrdquo FIGHT Magazine (July 2013) ( httpwwwfightmagazinecommma-magazineinto-the-african-sands-wrestlingshyin-chad-6811 )

95 Chris Hallinan and Barry Judd (eds) Native Games Indigenous Peoples and Sports in the Post-Colonial World (Bingley Emerald Group Publishing 2013 )


References

Achebe Chinua Things Fall Apart ( New York McDowellObolensky 1959 ) Achieng Jane Paul Mboyarsquos Luo Kitgi Gi Timbegi ( Nairobi Atai Joint Limited 2001 ) Akyeampong Emmanuel ldquoBukom and the Social History of Boxing in Accra

Warfare and Citizenship in Precolonial Ga Societyrdquo The International Journal of African Historical Studies 35ndash1 ( 2002 ) 39 ndash 60

Alegi Peter Laduma Soccer Politics and Society in South Africa ( Scottsville University of Natal Press 2004 )

mdashmdashmdash African Soccerscapes ( Athens OH Ohio University Press 2010 ) Anderson David Histories of the Hanged The Dirty War in Kenya and the End of Empire

(New York WW Norton 2005 ) Bale John ldquoCapturing lsquoThe Africanrsquo Body Visual Images and Imaginative Sportsrdquo

Journal of Sport History 25 ndash 2 ( 1998 ) 234 ndash 251 mdashmdashmdash Imagined Olympians Body Culture and Colonial Representation in Rwanda

( Minneapolis University of Minnesota Press 2002 ) mdashmdashmdash ldquoKenyan Running Before the 1968 Mexico Olympicsrdquo in Yanis Pistiladis

John Bale Craig Sharp and Timothy Noakes (eds) East African Running ( New York Routledge 2007 ) 11 ndash 24

Berman Bruce J ldquoEthnography as Politics Politics as Ethnography Kenyatta Malinowski and the Making of Facing Mount Kenyardquo Canadian Journal of African Studies 30 ndash 3 ( 1996 ) 313 ndash 344

Berman Bruce J and John M Lonsdale ldquoThe Labors of lsquoMuigwithaniarsquo Jomo Kenyatta as Author 1928ndash45rdquo Research in African Literatures 29 ndash 1 ( 1998 ) 16 ndash 42

Bhushan Niket Cheza Kenya The First Sports Factbook ( Nairobi Newspread International 1988 )

Branch Daniel ldquoImprisonment and Colonialism in Kenya c1930ndash1952 Escaping the Carceral Archipelagordquo The International Journal of African Historical Studies 38 ndash 2 ( 2005 ) 239 ndash 265

Bromber Katrin ldquoMuscularity Heavy Athletics and Urban Leisure in Ethiopia 1950sndash1970srdquo The International Journal of the History of Sport 30 ndash 16 ( 2013 ) 1915 ndash 1928

Carotenuto Matthew ldquoRiwruok e Teko Cultivating Identity in Colonial and Post-Colonial Kenyardquo Africa Today 53 ndash 2 ( 2006 ) 53 ndash 73

mdashmdashmdash ldquoRepatriation in Colonial Kenya African Institutions and Gendered Violencerdquo International Journal of African Historical Studies 45 ndash 1 ( 2012 ) 9 ndash 29

mdashmdashmdash ldquoGrappling With the Past Wrestling and Performative Identity in Kenyardquo International Journal of the History of Sport 30 ndash 16 ( 2013 ) 1889 ndash 1902

Carroll Scott ldquoWrestling in Ancient Nubiardquo Journal of Sport History 15 ndash 2 ( 1988 ) 121 ndash 137

Chiweshe Manase ldquoOne of the Boys Female Fansrsquo Responses to the Masculine and Phallocentric Nature of Soccer Stadiums in Zimbabwerdquo Critical African Studies 6 ndash 23 ( 2014 ) 211 ndash 222

Clayton Anthony ldquoSport and African Soldiers The Military Diffusion of Western Sport Throughout Sub-Saharan Africardquo in William J Baker and James A Mangan (eds) Sport in Africa Essays in Social History ( London Frank Cass 1987 ) 114 ndash 137

Durrani Shiraz Never Be Silent Publishing and Imperialism in Kenya 1884ndash1963 ( London Vita Books 2006 )


Elkins Caroline Imperial Reckoning The Untold Story of Britainrsquos Gulag in Kenya ( New York Henry Holt 2005 )

Fair Laura ldquolsquoKickinrsquo It Leisure Politics and Soccer in Colonial Zanzibar 1900sndash1950srdquo Africa 67 ndash 2 ( 1997 ) 224 ndash 251

Faye Ousseynou ldquoSport argent et politique la lutte libre agrave Dakar (1800ndash2000)rdquo in Momar-Coumba Diop (ed) Le Seacuteneacutegal contemporain ( Paris Karthala 2002 ) 309 ndash 340

Fletcher Marc ldquolsquoThese Whites Never Come to Our Game What Do They Know About Our Soccerrsquo Soccer Fandom Race and the Rainbow Nation in South Africardquo PhD dissertation University of Edinburgh (Edinburgh 2012)

Fletcher Marc and Lizelle Bisschoff ldquoAfrican Sport in the Global Arena Contemporary Approaches and Analysesrdquo Critical African Studies 6 ndash 23 ( 2014 ) 123 ndash 133

Frederiksen Bodil ldquoPrint Newspapers and Audiences in Colonial Kenya African and Indian Improvement Protest and Connectionsrdquo Africa 81 ndash 1 ( 2011 ) 155 ndash 172

Gadsden Fay ldquoThe African Press in Kenya 1945ndash1952rdquo Journal of African History 21 ndash 4 ( 1980 ) 515 ndash 535

Geary Christraud M ldquoPhotographs as Materials for African History Some Methodological Considerationsrdquo History in Africa 13 ( 1986 ) 89 ndash 116

Giulianotti Richard ldquoParticipant Observation and Research into Football Hooliganism Reflections on the Problems of Entree and Everyday Risksrdquo Sociology of Sport 12 ndash 1 ( 1995 ) 1 ndash 20

Hallinan Chris and Barry Judd (eds) Native Games Indigenous Peoples and Sports in the Post-Colonial World ( Bingley Emerald Group Publishing 2013 )

Jaouen Guy ldquoTransforming Cornish and Devon Wrestling (Britain) and Gouren (Brittany-France) Through Sportificationrdquo The International Journal of the History of Sport 31 ndash 4 ( 2014 ) 474 ndash 491

Jarvie Grant Class Race and Sport in South Africarsquos Political Economy ( London Routledge 1985 )

Johns Christopher Cheer Like Mad for Cornwall The Story of Cornish Wrestling ( St Austen Johns 1995 )

Kariuki Anthony ldquoStrategy to Enhance Financial Partnership Through Accountability of Sports Organization in Kenyardquo unpublished manuscript Universiteacute de Poitiers (2008)

Kenyatta Jomo Facing Mount Kenya ( London Secker and Warburg 1938 ) Krawietz Birgit ldquoPrelude to Victory in Neo-Traditional Turkish Oil Wrestling

Sense Perceptions Aesthetics and Performancerdquo The International Journal of the History of Sport 31 ndash 4 ( 2014 ) 445 ndash 458

Lardner Edgar G Soldiering and Sport in Uganda 1910ndash1911 ( London Walter Scott 1912 )

Lindaman Matthew ldquoWrestlingrsquos Hold on the Western World before the Great Warrdquo Historian 62 ndash 4 ( 2000 ) 779 ndash 797

Lonsdale John ldquoEthnic Patriotism and Markets in African Historyrdquo in Hiroyuki Hino John Lonsdale Gustav Ranis and Frances Stewart (eds) Ethnic Diversity and Economic Instability in Africa Interdisciplinary Perspectives ( Cambridge Cambridge University Press 2012 ) 19 ndash 55

Martin Phyllis Leisure and Society in Colonial Brazzaville ( Cambridge Cambridge University Press 1995 )

Mason Tony and Eliza Riedi Sport and the Military The British Armed Forces 1880ndash1960 ( Cambridge Cambridge University Press 2010 )


Mboya Paul Luo Kitigi gi Timbegi ( Nairobi East African Standard Ltd 1938 ) Mills James ldquoA Historiography of South Asian Sportrdquo Contemporary South Asia 10 ndash 2

( 2001 ) 207 ndash 221 Ndee Hamad S ldquo(Special Issue) Sport and Africa An East African Perspective ndash

Pre-Colonial Origins Colonial Deconstruction Post-Colonial Reconstructionrdquo International Journal of the History of Sport 27 ndash 5 ( 2010 ) 733 ndash 1000

Ocobock Paul ldquoComing of Age in a Colony Youth Lawlessness and Colonial Authority in Kenya 1898ndash1963rdquo PhD dissertation Princeton University (Princeton 2010)

Ogude James ldquoThe Vernacular Press and the Articulation of Luo Ethnic Citizenship The Case of Achieng Onekorsquos Ramogirdquo Current Writing 13 ndash 1 ( 2001 ) 42 ndash 56

Osogo John Life in Kenya in the Olden Days The Baluyia ( London Oxford University Press 1965 )

Paul Sigrid ldquoThe Wrestling Tradition and its Social Functionsrdquo in William J Baker and James A Mangan (eds) Sport in Africa Essays in Social History ( New York Africana Publishing Company 1987 ) 23 ndash 46

Peterson Derek and Giacomo Macola (eds) Recasting the Past ( Athens OH Ohio University Press 2009 )

Pype Katrien ldquoFighting Boys Strong Men and Gorillas Notes on the Imagination of Masculinities in Kinshasardquo Africa 77 ndash 2 ( 2007 ) 250 ndash 271

Ranger Terence ldquoThe Invention of Tradition in Colonial Africardquo in Terence Ranger and Eric Hobsbawm (eds) The Invention of Tradition ( Cambridge Cambridge University Press 1983 ) 211 ndash 263

Reid Richard ldquoImages of an African Ruler Kabaka Mutesa of Buganda ca 1857ndash 1884rdquo History in Africa 26 ( 1999 ) 269 ndash 298

Republic of Kenya Report of the Truth Justice and Reconciliation Commission Volume IndashIV ( Nairobi Truth Justice and Reconciliation Commission 2013 )

Seacuteriba Mahaman L ldquoTraditional Wrestling in Niger Between State Voluntarism and Ancestral Symbolismrdquo Tydskrif vir Letterkunde 42 ndash 2 ( 2005 ) 18 ndash 32

Shadle Brett The Souls of White Folk White Settlers in Kenya 1900ndash1920s ( Manchester Manchester University Press 2015 )

Sidibe Bakary K and Winifred Galloway ldquoWrestling in the Gambiardquo occasional paper Gambia Cultural Archives (Banjul 1976)

Sikes Michelle ldquoThe Standard A Repository of African Sports Historyrdquo African Research amp Documentation 116 ( 2012 ) 61 ndash 70

Sikes Michelle and Grant Jarvie ldquoRunning as a Resource of Hope Voices from Eldoretrdquo Review of African Political Economy 134 ( 2012 ) 629 ndash 644

Simiyu Njororai Wycliffe W ldquoColonial Legacy Minorities and Association Soccer in Kenyardquo Soccer amp Society 10 ndash 6 ( 2009 ) 866 ndash 882

Stapleton Tim ldquolsquoA Naughty Child with a Penrsquo Gahadzikwa Albert Chaza as an African Policeman and Author in Colonial Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) 1936ndash1963rdquo History in Africa 37 ( 2010 ) 159 ndash 187

Waller Richard ldquoRebellious Youth in Colonial Africardquo Journal of African History 47 ndash 1 ( 2006 ) 77 ndash 92

Crafting Sport History Behind Bars Wrestling with State Patronage and Colonial Confinement in Kenya Matthew Carotenuto

Abstract This article explores how indigenous games such as wrestling were marshyginalized during the colonial era and the contemporary impact of this legacy Through the sport of wrestlingrsquos neotraditional resurgence I argue that the sportrsquos contemporary iteration which emerged behind the imposing walls of Kenyarsquos penshyitentiaries provides an important window into historic discourse and state control of sport rooted in the colonial past Paying close attention to the methodological challenges and opportunities researchers of indigenous sport face the article also examines the sources available for scholars interested in investigating the social history of indigenous sport in Africa

Reacutesumeacute Cet article explore la maniegravere dont les sports locaux comme la lutte ont eacuteteacute marginaliseacutes pendant la peacuteriode coloniale et lrsquoimpact contemporain de cette relative inattention Grace agrave la reacutesurgence neacuteo-traditionaliste de la lutte je suggegravere que la version contemporaine de ce sport neacutee derriegravere les murs imposants des prisons kenyanes reacutevegravele les racines coloniales du discours historique et du controcircle de lrsquoEtat sur ce sport En examinant au plus pregraves les deacutefis meacutethodologiques et les opportuniteacutes offertes aux chercheurs des sports africains cet article se penche sur les sources disponibles pour les chercheurs inteacuteresseacutes par lrsquohistoire sociale des sports locaux en Afrique

History in Africa (2015) Page 1 of 33 Matthew Carotenuto is Associate Professor of History and Coordinator of African

Studies at St Lawrence University His research and published work has focused on the social and political constructions of ethnicity in Kenya This article is part of a new project on sport ethnicity and nationalism in colonial and postcolonial Kenya E-mail mcarotenutostlawuedu

copy African Studies Association 2015 doi101017hia201526

1

2 History in Africa

Introduction 1










4 History in Africa








Kitale 23 May 2013







6 History in Africa












8 History in Africa


















































































































































































References
































































2 History in Africa

Introduction 1










4 History in Africa








Kitale 23 May 2013







6 History in Africa












8 History in Africa


















































































































































































References





































































4 History in Africa








Kitale 23 May 2013







6 History in Africa












8 History in Africa


















































































































































































References






































































6 History in Africa












8 History in Africa


















































































































































































References






































































8 History in Africa


















































































































































































References











































































































































































































































References
































































Crafting Sport History Behind Bars: Wrestling with …...Traveling across the fertile highlands of...

Documents

Transcript of Crafting Sport History Behind Bars: Wrestling with …...Traveling across the fertile highlands of...