Fear and mockery: the story of Osale and Paulo in Tanganyika

Abstract

This article analyses the popular story of the two ‘social bandits’ Osale and Paulo who caused insecurity and fear in Tanganyika’s Usambara Mountains during the 1950s. By comparing various oral accounts of the story and supplementing the sparse archival material available, the paper reveals a narrative of multiple anxieties haboured by the residents of Shambaai during a time of rapid transformation under late colonial rule. As they reworked the racialized colonial hierarchy through their narratives, African story-tellers dealt with anxieties concerning settler colonialism, Mau Mau, land scarcity and the colonial administration’s disastrous soil conservation policy. The article demonstrates the importance of taking seriously oral histories for our understanding of African responses to the anxieties of the late colonial period. Furthermore, it sheds new light on the relations between white settlers and Africans in the Usambara Mountains in the light of the administration’s rigorous intervention into African agriculture.