ABSTRACT
This chapter explores a number of possible connexions between 'the last-ditch resisters' and the 'earliest organizers of armed risings', and leaders of opposition to colonial rule in East and Central Africa. It argues that African 'primary' resistance shaped the environment in which the politics developed and that resistance had profound effects upon white policies and attitudes. The chapter also argues that there was a complicated interplay between manifestations of 'primary' and of 'secondary' opposition, which often overlapped with and were conscious of each other. The most direct connexions, of course, are provided by examples like that of Nyabingi, which provided the basis both of 'primary resistance' and of persistent twentieth-century millenarian manifestations. Next come movements like that of the Mumbo cult in Nyanza province, Kenya. Dr J. M. Lonsdale's comments on the history of politics in Nyanza Province—the home of both the Mumbo cult and of Dini Ya Msambwa—are pertinent.
