Historical anthropological study on colonial construction of socio-cultural reality in Kenya Coast

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British colonial administration's attitudes towards local socio-cultural institutions and customs were not always consistent, varied according to specific local situations and probblems through which colonial administrators had to work out their colonizing projects. Inconsistent and ambivalent negotiations with local institutions and customs, through mutual understanding and misunderstanding over their meanings, sometimes resulted in the creation of new socio-cultural realities, hybrid colonial cultural realities, which still has strong influences over present day socio-cultural formations. The purpose of this study is to elucidate the process of construction of colonial socio-cultural realities, with specific focus on two local institutions, witchcraft belief and inheritance rule, among the Duruma people of the Coast Province of Kenya, through an anthropological rereading of colonial materials in National Archive, Nairobi, and through detailed interviews with local people. The result will appear in my forthcoming book ("spellbinding beliefs") and in an article I am presently working on.