Combating crime among the Sukuma and Nyamwezi of West-Central Tanzania

Some time not very long ago the state was thought to be the provider of all services and its subjects were recipients. Today this view seems to have changed somewhat. The change is partly because the state has neither been able to do what it professed nor has it ever been able to do it effectively. It is also partly due to the fact that the world view has changed to acknowledge the strong part played by subjects in the making of their own history and in the fulfilment of their own potential. Different kinds of voluntary organizations are known to exist which fill the gaps caused by the absence of the state or its total failure. Very rarely, however, do we hear about voluntary organizations for the provision of order and security. This is still largely considered to be a monopoly of the state. This paper is about the Sungusungu vigilante groups among the Sukuma and Nyamwezi of rural Tanzania which came into existence in the early 1980s. These groups deal with order and security in their localities which the state sponsored criminal justice system has failed to provide. The groups are organized at the initiative of male elders and rely on rituals and divination for the performance of their activities. They have been in operation for more than a decade and the rural community gives them credit for the restoration of order.