ABSTRACT
In the 1980s, a Kuria village in the far northwestern region of Tanzania, near the Kenya border, declared its secession from the state and hoisted the skin of its totem animal, the leopard, as a flag.* This act of defiance remains emblematic. Yet, it is remembered not as a time when the state was overthrown, but as a time when the thieves “ruled.” This was no peasant rebellion in the normal sense, but the outcome of simple plunder, fueled by the returning militias after the Tanzania/Uganda war of 1979. The violence that was then set in train did, however, prompt peasant reaction and the formation of
Introduction 57 War Without to War Within 59 Kubiha: Man and Myth 66 The Second Iritongo: “We Have Found the Medicine for Thieves” 69 The Quiet Revolution 74 References 78
a movement, which was to have long-term consequences. From 1982 onward in central Tanzania, Sukuma, and Nyamwesi, villagers began to organize their own form of community policing, which became known throughout Tanzania as sungusungu. Over time, these groups, which initially bypassed the official organs of state, far from being rejected, became an integral part of the administrative structures of vast areas of rural Tanzania.
