The legacy of Japheti Kirillo and the Meru land case, politics
I was driving by Makumira, now a famous educational centre on the outskirts of Arusha along the Moshi-Arusha highway, earlier this week, when I recalled that about 26 years ago I used to visit the area at least twice a week.
This was because I was carrying some errands on behalf of two prominent Meru titans, Ambassador Major General (rtd) Mirisho Sarakikya and the late Ambassador Peter Pallangyo - he of the Dying in the Sun book-fame, the first of such books from Bongoland to be included in the African Writers Series novels.
It was during one such a visit - up the Nkoaranga Road amidst the lush green plantains, coffee farms and tropical forests - that they introduced me to one charming elderly man. They said that it was important that I, being a scribe, talk to him because the man embodies the history of the Meru and their protracted struggle against colonial rule.
Indeed I was not to be disappointed. The man Japheti Kirillo, took me to a small local pub along the Nkoaranga Road where we sat sipping local ‘mbege’ brew as he narrated his experience in Meru politics. It so happens that between the 1930s and 40s there was a surge in population growth in Meru and this put pressure on land. At the same time many white settlers had set up large and profitable coffee plantations forming a circle around the Meru. This prevented the Meru from expanding down the mountain, and from taking their herds to the low pastures and watering points. Tanganyika, by then was a mandated territory of the British empire after the defeat of Germany at the end of the 2nd WW. It was therefore being administered by the UK under loose supervision of the then League of Nations. Mzee Kirillo went on to explain that the British, in efforts defuse this time bomb, tried to carry out a new policy under which the former tribal authorities were transformed into modern local governments, combining local practices with modern principles.
The Meru refused to collaborate with the colonial administration and boycotted ‘Mangi’ because they felt the local ruler was assisting the colonial administration to gain them tribal lands and thus demanded his resignation.
The British then tried to suppress the rebellion by deporting most of its leaders. But unintentionally made matters worse, many Merus joined the Kilimanjaro Citizens Union (KCU), that had been set up by the Chagga to erode powers of local traditional chiefs.
Meanwhile, there was at the same time a nationalist movement, the Tanganyika African Association (TAA) which united people of different ethnic origin under the slogan of national liberation.
The Meru representatives, Mzee Kirillo explained, were involved in this party. But they still concentrated on the defence of their ethnic group’s historic rights in tribal land. That is why on January 1, 1951 the Meru set up a separate political party, the Meru Citizens Union (MCU) separating from the KCU and on February 24, 1951 they elected their first Paramount Chief Nshilli Nnini - a top leader, headed by Mzee Japheti Kirillo himself.
This leader who was initially trained as a teacher and later worked as a Medical Assistant, immediately came into grips with the Meru land issue ending up with the famous Meru Land Case.
The conflict was the result of the illegal eviction of 3,000 farmers from their ancestral lands in the area of Engare Nanyuki and the transfer of these fertile lands to ownership of European farmers.
Protest at local level yielded no results. The Meru did not resign. They instead sent Japheti Kirillo to the United Nations in New York where the case of infringement of the rights of indigenous was heard. The UN concurred and issued a resolution in favour of the Meru. However, as expected, the British did not honour the resolution.
Subsequently Kirilo consulted with other leaders of the TAA including Jilius Nyerere and S. Kandoro who supported him to go through the whole country exposing the evils of colonial rule and citing the Land Case in particular.
In no time this case became the rallying point of the nationalist movement in Tanganyika. And the Meru considered Krillo their hero.
It was almost daylight when I wobbled out of that Nkoaranga road local pub, promising Mzee Kirillo it was important that we conduct more interviews in the near future with a goal of writing a book. It was never to be, Mzee Kirillo died two years later in 1997.
A major loss to the rich history of this nation.
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The author is a veteran journalist and communication expert based in Arusha.
