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Introducing Public Administration 9th Edition Ebook PDF
Introducing Public Administration 9th Edition Ebook PDF
8
Public Administration Is an Occupational
Category
Public Administration Is an Essay Contest
Public Administration Is Idealism in Action
Public Administration Is an Academic Field
Public Administration Is a Profession
Keynote: Who Decides Whether the United States Should Wage War?
What Is Public Policy?
Agenda Setting
Decision Making
A Single Calculating Decision Maker—Not!
Implementation
Evaluation
9
Feedback
Pluralism
Group Theory
Organizational Goals
Internal Power Relationships
A Case Study: How Old Bottles Create New Jobs—Both Legal and Not
Summary
Review Questions
Key Concepts
Bibliography
Recommended Books
10
Separation of Powers
State Government
County Government
Municipal Government
Towns and Special Districts
Local Management Machinery
Metropolitan Government
Continuous State and Local Reform
11
Alliances and Confederations
Defining Intergovernmental Relations
The Constitution
The European Union
Dynamic Federalism
Dual Federalism
Cooperative Federalism
Creative Federalism
New Federalism
New, New Federalism
Intergovernmental Management
12
Welfare Reform
The Race to the Bottom
National Honor
Why Honor Precedes Ethics
Dimensions of Honor
Regime Values
Corruption in Government
Bribery
Watergate
Hierarchy of Ethics
Honorable Behavior
Was "Deep Throat's" Behavior Honorable?
Standards of Conduct
Whistleblowing
13
Protecting the Public's Right to Know
Protecting Whistleblowers
Legislative Oversight
Hearings
Casework
14
The Influence of Frederick W. Taylor
Fayol's General Theory of Management
Basic Assumptions
Mechanistic and Organic Systems
Systems Theory
15
Becket's Predicament
A New Archbishop of Canterbury
Miles's Law in Action
Organizational Behavior
Group Dynamics
Organization Development
The Impact of Personality
Bureaucratic Dysfunctions
Bureaucratic Impersonality
Bureaucrat Bashing
The Case for Bureaucracy
Motivation
Postbureaucratic Organizations
Postmodernism and Technocracy
Social Network Analysis
Postmodern Public Administration
A Feminist Perspective
16
A New Managerial Revolution
Policy Entrepreneurs
Reengineering
Empowerment
Empowering Teams
Entrepreneurialism
Productivity Improvement
Productivity Measurement
Barriers to Productivity Improvement
Total Quality Management
Information Technology
Facebook
Twitter
YouTube
Texting
Wired Citizens
One-Stop Government
Technology, Productivity, and Innovation in Government
The Future Course of E-Management
17
A Case Study: Geeks to the Rescue!
Summary
Review Questions
Key Concepts
Bibliography
Recommended Books
Objectives
The Planning Horizon
Capabilities
Game Theory
Best Practices
Benchmarking
Management Scorecards
Occupational Licensing
Zoning
Building Codes
Public Health
A Case Study: Opportunity Lost: The Story of Bernie Madoff and the
Securities and Exchange Commission
Summary
Review Questions
Key Concepts
Bibliography
18
Recommended Books
CHAPTER 10 Leadership
Defining Leadership
Leadership and Management
Trait Theories
Transactional Approaches
Contingency Approaches
Transformational Leadership
The Importance of Optimism
Micromanagement
Overmanagement
Moral Leadership
19
Recruitment
Merit Selection
Position Classification and Pay
Performance Appraisal
Performance Management and Pay for Results
Training
Management Development
Education Levels Make a Difference
Administrative Agencies
Collective Bargaining
Strikes
Unions in Court
Racism
20
The Bitter Heritage of Slavery
From Reconstruction to Second Reconstruction
Nonracial Discrimination
Sex Discrimination
Sexual Harassment
Pregnancy Discrimination
Age Discrimination
Disabilities Discrimination
Sexual Orientation Discrimination
21
Six Principles
Balanced Budgets
The Fiscal Year
Integrated Budgets
Multiyear Budgets
Taxation
The Ability-to-Pay Principle
The Flat Tax
User Charges
Grants
Economic Policy
22
Monetary Policy
Fiscal Policy
Multiple Applications
A History of Auditing
The Government Accountability Office
Types of Audit
Compliance Audit
Performance Audit
Internal Audit
Program Evaluation
23
Bibliography
Recommended Books
Index
24
Preface
This is the now the 9th edition of a text first published in 1997. There’s only one
audience for a book of this nature—practitioners, students and teachers of public
administration. In the original preface to this book we explained that we sought to create
a text that would bridge two worlds, a text that would be informal enough to be
accessible to undergraduates yet comprehensive enough for graduate students. This
continues to be our goal, to create a book that captures the history of governments and
the development of public administration while taking pains to note our successes and
failures, our progress and our challenges.
As we’ve said since the first edition of this text, public administration is an exciting
and fascinating field of study, full of the stuff of fiction, only true. We try to capture this
sense of drama and excitement by beginning each chapter with a good story—what we
call a keynote—that highlights a major aspect of the subject. These accounts deal with a
rich variety of topics, some modern as the response to the attack on the World Trade
Center in New York City or state governors resolving a budget crisis; some classic such
as Thomas Becket’s demise because he disagreed with the administrative policies of
England’s King Henry II or Socrates discovering the universality of management. All of
these keynotes have significant public policy and public management implications that
are developed further in their respective chapters.
Each chapter also ends with a short case study that illustrates important points
previously discussed. We have updated some of these cases – such as those on social
security reform or public unions and pensions. We have added some new cases on
recycling as a wicked problem as well as cases involving major historical figures such as
Thurgood Marshall and Florence Nightingale As before with the keynotes, we have
provided “For Discussion” questions at the end of each case, which can be used to
stimulate discussions in class.
The organization of the book is, we think, very straightforward, beginning with
definitions, external environment and matters of governance through organizational
theories, management, human resources, budget and evaluation. There are three very
important chapters that move above the “what” and “how” of public administration—
chapters on honor and ethics, on social equity and law, and on leadership. These all
focus on the “why” and “why not” of public administration. We expect that some
instructors will want to move chapters around to accommodate their own course
outlines and time constraints.
There is also logic to our use of terms and concepts. Unfortunately, most modern
disciplines have a fair amount of jargon or use terminology that has unique meanings.
We have put terms that may need explanation or historical notes or names that might
require introduction on the side of each page of each chapter. So when a word or name
appears in red in the text, it’s defined or explained at the side of its page.
25
There are other terms and names,-what we refer to as key concepts, that appear in
bold face and are generally discussed in some depth in the chapter. These are all listed at
the end of each chapter. These concepts, really a listing of key terms, subjects, important
persons in public administration, and even some acronyms don’t duplicate the red-letter
terms. In this format they are a summary of ideas and names that are critical to
understanding each chapter and a good checklist for the student to ensure they
understand the essence of the chapter
Readers also will find an annotated list of recommended books. These have been
included as guides to further information on chapter topics for any interested reader—
student or instructor.
Every effort has been made to keep the material as current as possible. Thus there is
extensive coverage of movements to transform government, marketization, new social
equity issues and environmental sustainability, and ever increasingly globalization.
Because American public administration is increasingly influenced by technological
innovations, we pay increased attention to advancements in communications and
information management that are reshaping the practice of public administration and
the relationships between government and its citizens
26
A Note on Notes
There are no traditional footnotes in this book, although most of the quotations are fully
referenced. Generally, if a work or author is referred to in a chapter, the corresponding
full citation will be found in that chapter’s bibliography. The major exceptions are works
or statements so famous and existing in so many formats—such as excerpts from the
Bible and Shakespeare’s plays—that further bibliographic information was deemed
unnecessary. Most long quotations are kept in boxes separate from the main body and
rhythm of the text.
27
Acknowledgments
No book is born without debts. And with each edition of this book, the list of reviewers,
helpful colleagues, and students with comments and questions has grown. In this 9th
edition we thought to take a different tack; to accept the fact that listing 100 plus names
in a long paragraph doesn’t do justice to the help we received over the past twenty years.
Rather, we simply acknowledge the obvious, our continued indebtedness to old and new
colleagues and past and present students in our courses that have commented or made
suggestions.
There is one contributor that we do wish to thank in a special note. Prof Breena
Coates at California State University, San Bernardino- has prepared the student and
instructor’s study materials that parallel this textbook and are available on the
companion website. She has graciously agreed to let us update her materials for this 9th
edition- but her original authorship and updates through past editions needs to be
acknowledged. We greatly appreciate her work and the value she has added to this
textbook.
Finally, it is our hope that in reading this book, discussing Issues, and working with
the ideas presented within, that you might be motivated to communicate with us to offer
your ideas and contributions for the next edition. A textbook, especially one on a field of
study in a dynamic, challenging environment, must be a work in progress. Thus,
suggestions for innovations and enhancements will always be welcome.
JAY M. SHAFRITZ
PROFESSOR EMERITUS
UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH
shafritz@yahoo.com
E. W. RUSSELL
LA TROBE UNIVERSITY
ewrussell@hotmail.com
CHRISTOPHER P. BORICK
MUHLENBERG COLLEGE
cborick@muhlenberg.edu
ALBERT C HYDE
AMERICAN UNIVERSITY
ahyde@american.edu
28
Key Events in Public Administration
1776 • Declaration of Independence is signed.
Adam Smith in The Wealth of Nations advocates "the ability to pay" principle of
•
taxation.
1781 • Articles of Confederation adopted.
Northwest Ordinance provides for future states to enter the union and for federal
1787 •
aid to local public schools.
• Constitutional Convention convenes in Philadelphia.
1789 • US Constitution adopted.
Congress establishes the first federal administrative agencies (the Departments of
•
State, War, Treasury, and the Office of the Attorney General).
• The Federal Judiciary Act creates the Supreme Court.
• New York City becomes the first capital of the United States.
1790 • First census sets US population at 4 million.
• US capital moved from New York to Philadelphia.
1791 • Bill of Rights (the first ten amendments) added to the Constitution.
• Congress passes the first internal revenue law; a tax on alcohol.
1800 • US capital moved from Philadelphia to Washington, DC
The Supreme Court first asserts the right of judicial review in Marbury v.
1803 •
Madison.
The Supreme Court in McCulloch v. Maryland establishes the doctrine of implied
1819 • constitutional powers and the immunity of the federal government from state
taxation.
1829 • Andrew Jackson becomes president.
Senator William L. Marcy gives title to the spoils system when he asserts in a
1832 • Senate debate that politicians "see nothing wrong in the rule, that to the victor
belongs the spoils of the enemy."
Alexis de Tocqueville publishes Democracy in America, his classic study of
1836 •
American political institutions and political culture.
President Martin Van Buren establishes the ten-hour day for most federal
1840 •
employees.
1844 • The New York City Police Department is established.
1849 • The US Department of the Interior is created.
Massachusetts enacts the first law permitting towns to use tax revenues to support
1851 •
free libraries.
1861 • Abraham Lincoln becomes president; the Civil War begins.
1862 • The Morill Land Grant Act endows state colleges of agriculture and industry.
1863 • President Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation.
1865 • New York City establishes the first fire department with full-time paid firefighters.
• Civil War ends; Reconstruction begins.
29
• The Thirteenth Amendment abolishes slavery.
President Andrew Johnson is impeached by the House, but tried and acquitted by
1868 •
the Senate.
Congress mandates an eight-hour workday for federally employed laborers and
•
mechanics.
1881 • President James Garfield is assassinated by deranged office seeker.
1883 • The Pendleton Act creates the US Civil Service Commission.
Henry R. Towne's paper "The Engineer as an Economist" encourages the scientific
1886 •
management movement.
• American Federation of Labor formed.
Congress creates the Interstate Commerce Commission, the first federal regulatory
1887 •
commission.
Woodrow Wilson's "The Study of Administration" is published in Political Science
•
Quarterly.
1901 • Galveston, Texas, is the first city to install the commission form of government.
• Oregon becomes the first state to adopt the initiative and referendum.
1903 • The American Political Science Association founded.
• US Department of Commerce and Labor is established.
The Boston police are the first to use an automobile, a Stanley Steamer, for regular
•
patrol.
Lincoln Steffen's muckraking book Shame of the Cities finds Philadelphia to be
1904 •
"corrupt and contented" and arouses sentiment for municipal reform.
1905 • New York City starts the first police motorcycle patrol.
Bureau of Municipal Research founded in New York City to further the
1906 •
management movement in government.
• Pure Food and Drug Act passed.
1908 • Staunton, Virginia, appoints the first city manager.
Ohio is the first state to empower its governor to prepare an executive budget for
1910 •
legislature review.
1911 • Frederick W. Taylor publishes The Principles of Scientific Management.
1912 • Taft Commission calls for a national executive budget.
• Position classification first adopted at the municipal level in the city of Chicago.
Sumter, South Carolina, is first to install a council-manager form of city
•
government.
• Congress approves an eight-hour day for all federal employees.
Hugo Munsterberg's Psychology and Industrial Efficiency calls for the application
1913 •
of psychology to industry.
• Woodrow Wilson becomes president.
The Sixteenth Amendment to the Constitution creates the first permanent federal
•
income tax.
• The Federal Reserve Act creates a central bank responsible for monetary policy.
The US Department of Commerce and Labor is divided into two separate
• departments.
30
1914 • The City Manager's Association is formed.
The University of Michigan creates the first master's program in municipal
•
administration.
• Dayton, Ohio, is the first major city to have a city manager.
• World War I begins.
1918 • World War I ends.
The failure of the Boston police strike sets back municipal unionization and makes
1919 •
Calvin Coolidge, the governor of Massachusetts, a national hero.
1920 • The Retirement Act creates the first federal civil service pension system.
• The Nineteenth Amendment gives women the right to vote.
The Budget and Accounting Act establishes (1) the Bureau of the Budget in the
1921 • Department of the Treasury and (2) the General Accounting Office as an agency
of the Congress.
1922 • Max Weber's structural definition of bureaucracy is published posthumously.
The Classification Act brings position classification to Washington-based federal
1923 •
employees and establishes the principle of equal pay for equal work.
Hawthorne studies begin at the Hawthorne Works of the Western Electric
1924 • Company in Chicago; they will last until 1932 and lead to new thinking about the
relationship of work environment to productivity.
Leonard D. White's Introduction to the Study of Public Administration is the first
1926 •
text in public administration.
Mary Parker Follett, in calling for "power with" as opposed to "power over,"
•
anticipates the movement toward more participatory management styles.
The University of Southern California establishes the first independent
1929 •
professional school of public administration.
• Stock market crashes; Great Depression begins.
Durham County, South Carolina, is first to install county-manager form of county
1930 •
government.
1933 • President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal begins.
Francis Perkins, the first woman in a president's cabinet, is appointed Secretary of
•
Labor.
The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is established by Congress as an
•
independent public corporation.
The National Labor Relations (Wagner) Act establishes the right of private sector
1935 •
employees to organize and bargain collectively.
• Social Security program created.
J. Donald Kingsley and William E. Mosher's Public Personnel Administration
1936 •
becomes the first text in this field.
John Maynard Keynes publishes his General Theory of Employment, Interest, and
• Money, which calls for using a government's fiscal and monetary policies to
positively influence a capitalistic economy.
E. Pendleton Herring in Public Administration and the Public Interest asserts that
•
bureaucrats, by default, must often be the arbiters of the public interest.
The Brownlow Committee's report says that the "President needs help" and calls
31
1937 • for the reorganization of the executive branch.
Luther Gulick calls attention to the various functional elements of the work of an
•
executive with his mnemonic device POSDCORB.
The Fair Labor Standards Act provides for minimum wages, overtime pay, and
1938 •
limits on child labor.
Chester I. Barnard's The Functions of the Executive foreshadows the postwar
•
revolution in thinking about organizational behavior.
1939 • American Society for Public Administration is founded.
The Reorganization Act enables the creation of the Executive Office of the
• President and the transfer of the Bureau of the Budget from the Treasury to the
White House.
• The Hatch Act is passed to inhibit political activities by federal employees.
The federal government first requires the states to have merit systems for
•
employees in programs aided by federal funds.
1940 • Public Administration Review is first published.
James Burnham's The Managerial Revolution asserts that as the control of large
1941 • organizations passes from the hands of the owners into the hands of professional
administrators, the society's new governing class will be the possessors not of
wealth, but of technical expertise.
• Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor brings the United States into World War II.
1943 • Abraham Maslow's "needs hierarchy" first appears in Psychological Review.
• Withholding for federal income tax begins as a temporary wartime measure.
J. Donald Kingsley's Representative Bureaucracy develops the concept that all
1944 • social groups have a right to participate in their governing institutions in
proportion to their numbers in the population.
With the dropping of the atomic bomb and the end of World War II, the suddenly
1945 • public Manhattan Project marks the federal government's first major involvement
with science in a policymaking role.
Paul Appleby leads the postwar attack on the politics/administration dichotomy
• by insisting in Big Democracy that apolitical governmental processes went against
the grain of the American experience.
The Employment Act creates the Council of Economic Advisors and asserts that it
1946 •
is the policy of the federal government to maintain full employment.
The Administrative Procedure Act standardized many federal government
•
administrative practices across agencies.
Herbert A. Simon's "The Proverbs of Administration" attacks the principles
•
approach to management for being inconsistent and often inapplicable.
1947 • President Harry S. Truman announces his namesake doctrine.
The First Hoover Commission recommends increased managerial capacity in the
1949 •
Executive Office of the President.
• The National Security Act creates the Department of Defense.
David Truman's The Governmental Process calls for viewing interest groups as the
1951 •
real determinant of, and focal point of study on, public policy.
32
• phases, "unfreezing, change, refreezing" in his Field Theory in Social Science.
33
unionization of federal workers.
During the "March on Washington," Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his "I Have a
1963 •
Dream" speech.
President John F. Kennedy is assassinated; Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson
•
becomes president.
The Civil Rights Act prohibits discrimination in private sector employment and
1964 •
public accommodation.
Aaron Wildavsky publishes The Politics of the Budgetary Process, which becomes
•
the classic analysis of the tactics public managers use to get budgets passed.
The Economic Opportunity Act becomes the anchor of President Lyndon B.
•
Johnson's "war on poverty" and other Great Society programs.
1965 • PPBS made mandatory for all federal agencies.
• The Department of Housing and Urban Development is established.
• Medicare is created through amendments to the Social Security Act.
1966 • The Freedom of Information Act allows greater access to federal agency files.
Morton Grodzins in The American System asserts that the federal system is more
•
like a marble cake than a layer cake.
1967 • The Age Discrimination in Employment Act is passed.
The National Academy of Public Administration is organized; its first members
• will be all of the living past presidents of the American Society for Public
Administration.
Edward A. Suchman's Evaluation Research asserts that evaluation is a generic
•
field of study.
Terry Sanford in Storm over the States develops the concept of "picket-fence
• federalism," which holds that bureaucratic specialists at the various governmental
levels exercise considerable power over the nature of intergovernmental programs.
"Younger" public administration scholars meeting at Syracuse University's
1968 • Minnowbrook Conference site call for a "new public administration" that would
emphasize social equity.
• Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated.
• Robert F. Kennedy is assassinated.
• Richard M. Nixon is elected president.
Laurence J. Peter promulgates his principle that "in a hierarchy every employee
1969 •
tends to rise to his level of incompetence."
Theodore Lowi's The End of Liberalism attacks interest group pluralism for
•
paralyzing the policymaking process.
Neil Armstrong, an American astronaut, becomes the first man to walk on the
•
moon.
The Bureau of the Budget is given more responsibility for managerial oversight
1970 •
and renamed the Office of Management and Budget.
The Postal Reorganization Act creates the US Postal Service as a public
•
corporation within the executive branch.
Hawaii becomes the first state to give state and local government employees the
• right to strike.
34
right to strike.
• Environmental Protection Agency is established.
The Supreme Court attacks restrictive credentialism in Griggs v. Duke Power
1971 •
Company.
PPBS is formally abandoned in the federal government by the Nixon
•
administration.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Act amends Title VII of the Civil Rights Act
1972 •
to include prohibitions on discrimination by public sector employers.
The Watergate scandal erupts when men associated with the Committee to
• Reelect the President are caught breaking into the campaign headquarters of the
Democratic opposition, located in the Watergate hotel-office-apartment complex.
The Equal Rights Amendment is passed by Congress; it never becomes law
•
because too few states will ratify it.
Revenue sharing is introduced with the passage of the State and Local Fiscal
•
Assistance Act (it will expire in 1986).
Vice President Spiro Agnew resigns after pleading "no contest" to a charge of tax
1973 •
evasion; Gerald R. Ford becomes vice president.
Pressman and Wildavsky publish Implementation and create a new subfield of
•
public administration and policy analysis.
The Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act revises the
1974 •
congressional budget process and creates the Congressional Budget Office.
The Supreme Court in United States v. Nixon denies President Nixon's claim of
• absolute executive privilege; Nixon is forced to resign in the face of certain
impeachment because of Watergate.
Gerald R. Ford becomes president and grants former president Nixon a full pardon
•
for all possible crimes.
An amendment to the Social Security Act provides for automatic cost-of-living
•
adjustments in Social Security payments.
Colorado is the first state to enact "sunset laws" as a method of program review
1976 •
and evaluation.
Zero-based budgeting is required of all federal agencies by the new Carter
1977 •
administration.
The Presidential Management Intern Program is established as a special means of
•
bringing public administration masters' graduates into the federal bureaucracy.
The Government in the Sunshine Act requires all multi-headed federal agencies to
•
have their business sessions open to the public.
• The Department of Energy is created.
The Civil Service Reform Act abolishes the US Civil Service Commission and
1978 •
replaces it with
(1) the Office of Personnel Management,
(2) the Merit Systems Protection Board, and
(3) the Federal Labor Relations Authority.
The Ethics in Government Act seeks to deal with possible conflicts of interest by
• former federal employees by imposing postemployment restrictions on their
35
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
DANCE ON STILTS AT THE GIRLS’ UNYAGO, NIUCHI
I see increasing reason to believe that the view formed some time
back as to the origin of the Makonde bush is the correct one. I have
no doubt that it is not a natural product, but the result of human
occupation. Those parts of the high country where man—as a very
slight amount of practice enables the eye to perceive at once—has not
yet penetrated with axe and hoe, are still occupied by a splendid
timber forest quite able to sustain a comparison with our mixed
forests in Germany. But wherever man has once built his hut or tilled
his field, this horrible bush springs up. Every phase of this process
may be seen in the course of a couple of hours’ walk along the main
road. From the bush to right or left, one hears the sound of the axe—
not from one spot only, but from several directions at once. A few
steps further on, we can see what is taking place. The brush has been
cut down and piled up in heaps to the height of a yard or more,
between which the trunks of the large trees stand up like the last
pillars of a magnificent ruined building. These, too, present a
melancholy spectacle: the destructive Makonde have ringed them—
cut a broad strip of bark all round to ensure their dying off—and also
piled up pyramids of brush round them. Father and son, mother and
son-in-law, are chopping away perseveringly in the background—too
busy, almost, to look round at the white stranger, who usually excites
so much interest. If you pass by the same place a week later, the piles
of brushwood have disappeared and a thick layer of ashes has taken
the place of the green forest. The large trees stretch their
smouldering trunks and branches in dumb accusation to heaven—if
they have not already fallen and been more or less reduced to ashes,
perhaps only showing as a white stripe on the dark ground.
This work of destruction is carried out by the Makonde alike on the
virgin forest and on the bush which has sprung up on sites already
cultivated and deserted. In the second case they are saved the trouble
of burning the large trees, these being entirely absent in the
secondary bush.
After burning this piece of forest ground and loosening it with the
hoe, the native sows his corn and plants his vegetables. All over the
country, he goes in for bed-culture, which requires, and, in fact,
receives, the most careful attention. Weeds are nowhere tolerated in
the south of German East Africa. The crops may fail on the plains,
where droughts are frequent, but never on the plateau with its
abundant rains and heavy dews. Its fortunate inhabitants even have
the satisfaction of seeing the proud Wayao and Wamakua working
for them as labourers, driven by hunger to serve where they were
accustomed to rule.
But the light, sandy soil is soon exhausted, and would yield no
harvest the second year if cultivated twice running. This fact has
been familiar to the native for ages; consequently he provides in
time, and, while his crop is growing, prepares the next plot with axe
and firebrand. Next year he plants this with his various crops and
lets the first piece lie fallow. For a short time it remains waste and
desolate; then nature steps in to repair the destruction wrought by
man; a thousand new growths spring out of the exhausted soil, and
even the old stumps put forth fresh shoots. Next year the new growth
is up to one’s knees, and in a few years more it is that terrible,
impenetrable bush, which maintains its position till the black
occupier of the land has made the round of all the available sites and
come back to his starting point.
The Makonde are, body and soul, so to speak, one with this bush.
According to my Yao informants, indeed, their name means nothing
else but “bush people.” Their own tradition says that they have been
settled up here for a very long time, but to my surprise they laid great
stress on an original immigration. Their old homes were in the
south-east, near Mikindani and the mouth of the Rovuma, whence
their peaceful forefathers were driven by the continual raids of the
Sakalavas from Madagascar and the warlike Shirazis[47] of the coast,
to take refuge on the almost inaccessible plateau. I have studied
African ethnology for twenty years, but the fact that changes of
population in this apparently quiet and peaceable corner of the earth
could have been occasioned by outside enterprises taking place on
the high seas, was completely new to me. It is, no doubt, however,
correct.
The charming tribal legend of the Makonde—besides informing us
of other interesting matters—explains why they have to live in the
thickest of the bush and a long way from the edge of the plateau,
instead of making their permanent homes beside the purling brooks
and springs of the low country.
“The place where the tribe originated is Mahuta, on the southern
side of the plateau towards the Rovuma, where of old time there was
nothing but thick bush. Out of this bush came a man who never
washed himself or shaved his head, and who ate and drank but little.
He went out and made a human figure from the wood of a tree
growing in the open country, which he took home to his abode in the
bush and there set it upright. In the night this image came to life and
was a woman. The man and woman went down together to the
Rovuma to wash themselves. Here the woman gave birth to a still-
born child. They left that place and passed over the high land into the
valley of the Mbemkuru, where the woman had another child, which
was also born dead. Then they returned to the high bush country of
Mahuta, where the third child was born, which lived and grew up. In
course of time, the couple had many more children, and called
themselves Wamatanda. These were the ancestral stock of the
Makonde, also called Wamakonde,[48] i.e., aborigines. Their
forefather, the man from the bush, gave his children the command to
bury their dead upright, in memory of the mother of their race who
was cut out of wood and awoke to life when standing upright. He also
warned them against settling in the valleys and near large streams,
for sickness and death dwelt there. They were to make it a rule to
have their huts at least an hour’s walk from the nearest watering-
place; then their children would thrive and escape illness.”
The explanation of the name Makonde given by my informants is
somewhat different from that contained in the above legend, which I
extract from a little book (small, but packed with information), by
Pater Adams, entitled Lindi und sein Hinterland. Otherwise, my
results agree exactly with the statements of the legend. Washing?
Hapana—there is no such thing. Why should they do so? As it is, the
supply of water scarcely suffices for cooking and drinking; other
people do not wash, so why should the Makonde distinguish himself
by such needless eccentricity? As for shaving the head, the short,
woolly crop scarcely needs it,[49] so the second ancestral precept is
likewise easy enough to follow. Beyond this, however, there is
nothing ridiculous in the ancestor’s advice. I have obtained from
various local artists a fairly large number of figures carved in wood,
ranging from fifteen to twenty-three inches in height, and
representing women belonging to the great group of the Mavia,
Makonde, and Matambwe tribes. The carving is remarkably well
done and renders the female type with great accuracy, especially the
keloid ornamentation, to be described later on. As to the object and
meaning of their works the sculptors either could or (more probably)
would tell me nothing, and I was forced to content myself with the
scanty information vouchsafed by one man, who said that the figures
were merely intended to represent the nembo—the artificial
deformations of pelele, ear-discs, and keloids. The legend recorded
by Pater Adams places these figures in a new light. They must surely
be more than mere dolls; and we may even venture to assume that
they are—though the majority of present-day Makonde are probably
unaware of the fact—representations of the tribal ancestress.
The references in the legend to the descent from Mahuta to the
Rovuma, and to a journey across the highlands into the Mbekuru
valley, undoubtedly indicate the previous history of the tribe, the
travels of the ancestral pair typifying the migrations of their
descendants. The descent to the neighbouring Rovuma valley, with
its extraordinary fertility and great abundance of game, is intelligible
at a glance—but the crossing of the Lukuledi depression, the ascent
to the Rondo Plateau and the descent to the Mbemkuru, also lie
within the bounds of probability, for all these districts have exactly
the same character as the extreme south. Now, however, comes a
point of especial interest for our bacteriological age. The primitive
Makonde did not enjoy their lives in the marshy river-valleys.
Disease raged among them, and many died. It was only after they
had returned to their original home near Mahuta, that the health
conditions of these people improved. We are very apt to think of the
African as a stupid person whose ignorance of nature is only equalled
by his fear of it, and who looks on all mishaps as caused by evil
spirits and malignant natural powers. It is much more correct to
assume in this case that the people very early learnt to distinguish
districts infested with malaria from those where it is absent.
This knowledge is crystallized in the
ancestral warning against settling in the
valleys and near the great waters, the
dwelling-places of disease and death. At the
same time, for security against the hostile
Mavia south of the Rovuma, it was enacted
that every settlement must be not less than a
certain distance from the southern edge of the
plateau. Such in fact is their mode of life at the
present day. It is not such a bad one, and
certainly they are both safer and more
comfortable than the Makua, the recent
intruders from the south, who have made USUAL METHOD OF
good their footing on the western edge of the CLOSING HUT-DOOR
plateau, extending over a fairly wide belt of
country. Neither Makua nor Makonde show in their dwellings
anything of the size and comeliness of the Yao houses in the plain,
especially at Masasi, Chingulungulu and Zuza’s. Jumbe Chauro, a
Makonde hamlet not far from Newala, on the road to Mahuta, is the
most important settlement of the tribe I have yet seen, and has fairly
spacious huts. But how slovenly is their construction compared with
the palatial residences of the elephant-hunters living in the plain.
The roofs are still more untidy than in the general run of huts during
the dry season, the walls show here and there the scanty beginnings
or the lamentable remains of the mud plastering, and the interior is a
veritable dog-kennel; dirt, dust and disorder everywhere. A few huts
only show any attempt at division into rooms, and this consists
merely of very roughly-made bamboo partitions. In one point alone
have I noticed any indication of progress—in the method of fastening
the door. Houses all over the south are secured in a simple but
ingenious manner. The door consists of a set of stout pieces of wood
or bamboo, tied with bark-string to two cross-pieces, and moving in
two grooves round one of the door-posts, so as to open inwards. If
the owner wishes to leave home, he takes two logs as thick as a man’s
upper arm and about a yard long. One of these is placed obliquely
against the middle of the door from the inside, so as to form an angle
of from 60° to 75° with the ground. He then places the second piece
horizontally across the first, pressing it downward with all his might.
It is kept in place by two strong posts planted in the ground a few
inches inside the door. This fastening is absolutely safe, but of course
cannot be applied to both doors at once, otherwise how could the
owner leave or enter his house? I have not yet succeeded in finding
out how the back door is fastened.