<論文>植民地的主体形成論のために : 植民地支配確立期における西ケニア社会の歴史民族誌

Abstract

The Tempest' and 'Darkness of Heart' are most popular texts for post-colonial literary critique. One of the most stimulating sociological works in Japan of these texts is 'the nightmare of his choice' written by INOUE Shun, in which he examined a socio-psychological process of self-disintegration of Kurtz, a white colonialist in Congo in the work of Conrad. Hitherto, the issue of the self and subjectification in the colonial Africa has been found almost exclusively in simple discussions, in which the self of African people is always constructed in a process of victimization and therefore regarded as collective subject. To the contrary, the self of white settler is represented as an independent, unshakable modern individuality. INOUE avoided these hypotheses and analyzed the inner distress of a white settler. Stimulated by his unique perspective, this study aims to consider relatively autonomous self-construction of African villagers in Western Kenya during the 1920s, when the colonial machinery was finally established in the British East Africa. Are the local villagers passive victims of the forces of modernisation and institutionalization in the colonial domination? This study does not think so and, by focusing on the initiative and resistance created by ordinary villagers in their everyday lives, this study provides an alternative view to other discussions that basically ignore their everyday as they confront the forces of modernisation. While it is true that modern structures, such as the nation state, capitalist market economy, and organized Christianity, have been imposed in Africa, it is no less true that they are interpreted by people as they live their daily lives. By their actions, guided by the perceptions by which they make sense of the world, people adapt themselves to modern life even while they inexorably chip away at and patch new elements into its institutional formations. Examining the life strategies of villagers in Western Kenya, this study offers a refreshing discussion of the structural transformation of modern East African society.