From Kinship to Common Descent: Four-Generation Genealogies among the Gusii

Africa ◽  
1965 ◽  
Vol 35 (4) ◽  
pp. 366-384 ◽  
Author(s):  
Iona Mayer
Keyword(s):  
Lake Victoria ◽  
Field Work ◽  
Colonial Administration ◽  
Western Kenya ◽  
Common Descent ◽  
Common Code ◽  
British Colonial ◽  
Opening Paragraph ◽  
Mountain Country

Opening ParagraphThis paper is concerned with the limits to which exact genealogical tracing is JL carried among the Gusii, a Bantu-speaking people of western Kenya.At the time of field-work (1946–9) the Gusii were a moderately prosperous peasant people subsisting by hoe culture and stock raising. They were isolated between non-Bantu peoples (Luo, Kipsigis, Masai) in mountain country near the Kavirondo Gulf of Lake Victoria. They had no central authorities, except those introduced by the British colonial administration, and no central cult; they were not stratified either by rank or by marked differences of wealth. A segmentary descent system, and a common code of law regarding marriage and compensation, held them together as a common society (see P. Mayer, 1949 and 1950).

The Age-Set System of the Pastoral Pokot: The Sapana Initiation Ceremony

Africa ◽  
1951 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 188-206 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. G. Peristiany
Keyword(s):  
Field Work ◽  
Western Kenya ◽  
Nomadic Pastoralists ◽  
The Government ◽  
Opening Paragraph ◽  
The Hill ◽  
Irrigation Agriculture ◽  
North Western ◽  
Ecological Pattern ◽  
Do So

Opening ParagraphThe society to which this paper refers is a Nilo-Hamitic tribe of north-western Kenya among whose people, the Pokot, I carried out field-work for a period of approximately 6 months in 1947. For the opportunity to do so I am indebted to the Government of Kenya.The population of West Suk does not exceed 25,000 but is dispersed over an area of 1,810 square miles. The eastern and western sections of this tribe are composed of semi-nomadic pastoralists, the pi-pa-tich (cattle people) who live in arid and often semi-desert plains. Between the plains rise the Suk Hills, inhabited by the pi-pa-pagh (people of the grain) who, in certain areas, practise intensive irrigation agriculture and in others follow the usual ecological pattern of the mixed-economy Kipsigis and Nandi. The hill people have close cultural affinities with the Nandi group, while the pastoralists have been strongly influenced by their Karamojong and Turkana neighbours.

The Costs of Patronage: Evidence from the British Empire

2018 ◽  
Vol 108 (11) ◽  
pp. 3170-3198 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guo Xu
Keyword(s):  
Public Finance ◽  
Public Sector ◽  
British Empire ◽  
Colonial Administration ◽  
Tax Exemptions ◽  
British Colonial ◽  
And Performance

I combine newly digitized personnel and public finance data from the British colonial administration for the period 1854–1966 to study how patronage affects the promotion and incentives of governors. Governors are more likely to be promoted to higher salaried colonies when connected to their superior during the period of patronage. Once allocated, they provide more tax exemptions, raise less revenue, and invest less. The promotion and performance gaps disappear after the abolition of patronage appointments. Patronage therefore distorts the allocation of public sector positions and reduces the incentives of favored bureaucrats to perform. (JEL D73, F54, H83, J45, M51, N43, N44)

scholarly journals Forced Labour, Roads, and Chiefs: The Implementation of the ILO Forced Labour Convention in the Gold Coast

2018 ◽  
Vol 63 (3) ◽  
pp. 449-476
Author(s):  
Sarah Kunkel
Keyword(s):  
Gold Coast ◽  
Public Works ◽  
Colonial Administration ◽  
British Colonialism ◽  
The North ◽  
British Colonial ◽  
Forced Labour ◽  
Indirect Rule

AbstractThis article analyses the implications of the Forced Labour Convention of 1930 on colonial labour policies for road labour carried out under chiefs in the Gold Coast. The British colonial administration implemented a legal application of the convention that allowed the continuation of the existing system of public works. In the Gold Coast, the issue of road labour was most prominent in the North, where chiefs maintained the majority of roads. Indirect rule became crucial in retaining forced labour in compliance with the convention. This article focuses on “hidden strategies” of British colonialism after 1930, contrasting studies of blatant cases of forced labour. The analysis is based on a close scrutiny of the internal discourse among colonial officials on the question of road labour and the Forced Labour Convention.

scholarly journals Livelihood assessment of avocado growing in western Kenya and its socioeconomic implications using agricultural extension services

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 71-79 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ouma George ◽  
Odhiambo G. Duncan ◽  
Musyimi David ◽  
Kwach Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Practices ◽  
Lake Victoria ◽  
Social Scientist ◽  
Agricultural Extension ◽  
Lake Victoria Basin ◽  
Extension Services ◽  
Western Kenya ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
Level Of Education ◽  
Secondary Sources

Avocado (Persia americana) is an important world crop. In Kenya, it has become a very important crop but its production is limited by several factors. Studies were conducted in the Lake Victoria Basin counties of Bunyala in Busia, Kisumu, Muhoroni, Nyando and Rachuonyo in western Kenya to investigate the socioeconomic factors affecting Avocado production.  Information were collected from focus group discussions, key informants, individual interviews and secondary sources. Statistical Package for Social Scientist was used to analyze data collected interpreted and reported.  The objectives were to assess how Avocado growers in western Kenya using Agricultural extension services affects the Livelihood of farmers considering their level of education and extension services and the implication it has on their decisions making to invest in Avocado production. There was positive relationship within the participating farmers as relates their level of education, income and availability of extension services that led to high adoption of inputs, choice of rootstocks to grow the crop, varieties chosen, planting, cultural practices harvesting, storage and marketing.

scholarly journals Potential Toxicity of Some Traditional Leafy Vegetables Consumed in Nyang’oma Division, Western Kenya

2005 ◽  
Vol 5 (8) ◽  
pp. 01-13
Author(s):  
Orech FO ◽  
◽  
Treza Akenga ◽  
J Ochora ◽  
H Friis ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Nutritional Value ◽  
Lake Victoria ◽  
Leafy Vegetables ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Laboratory Procedure ◽  
Amaranthus Hybridus ◽  
Western Kenya ◽  
Sida Acuta ◽  
Long Span ◽  
Aerial Parts

Traditional leafy vegetables are those plants leaves or aerial parts have been integrated in a community’s culture for use as food over a long span of time. These vegetables are highly recommended due to their relatively high nutritional value compared to the introduced varieties, and are also important in food security. Qualitative phytochemical screening, using standard laboratory procedure, was carried out for alkaloids, saponins, cardenolides, flavonoids and polyphenols on traditional leafy vegetables consumed amongst the Luo, an agro-pastoral community living along the shores of lake Victoria, Western Kenya. The vegetables included: Amaranthus hybridus L. (subsp.hybridus), Asystasia mysorensis T. Anderson, Coccinia grandis (L) Voigt, Crotalaria ochroleuca (Kotschy) Polhill, Cucurbita maxima Duchesne ex Lam, Portulaca quadrifida L., Sesamum calycimum Welw. var. angustifolium (Oliv.) Ihlenf. and Siedenst., Senna occidentalis L. and Sida acuta Burm. F. All the vegetables were found to contain polyphenols and flavanoids while other classes of phytochemicals varied from species to species. Brine shrimp lethality tests revealed that S. calycimum var. angustifolium (LC50 84.8 g/ml), S. occidentalis (LC50 99.5 g/ml), S. acuta (LC50 99.4 g/ml), C. grandis (LC50 100.6 g/ml) and A. mysorensis (LC50 207.7 g/ml) exhibited marked levels of toxicity. C. ochroleuca (Sunnhemp) contained all the five classes of phytochemicals, but proved less toxic (LC50 4511.3 g/ml). This vegetable is highly utilized in Nyang’oma, and seventy per cent of the respondents consume this species. Though A. hybridus (African spinach, or Amaranth) was found to be the least toxic (LC50 6233.6 g/ml) and this vegetable is recommended for consumption. From the results, five vegetables contain possible agents that can cause acute or chronic toxicities when consumed in large quantities or over a long period of time. Hence some vegetables should be consumed with great care. Further studies are recommended to determine which of the phytochemicals are lethal to mammals, especially human beings.

W. R. Bascom and the Ife bronzes

Africa ◽  
1990 ◽  
Vol 60 (3) ◽  
pp. 425-434 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert L. Tignor
Keyword(s):  
American Anthropologist ◽  
Department Of State ◽  
The Us ◽  
Eventual Return ◽  
British Colonial ◽  
Opening Paragraph ◽  
The Third World ◽  
Colonial Government ◽  
The City ◽  
Small Museum

Opening ParagraphIn 1938 an African building a house in the city of Ife, the cultural capital of the Yorubas and the mythical cradle of Yoruba civilisation, came upon an extraordinary cache of ancient Nigerian bronzes. In all, at least fifteen bronzes were uncovered in 1938 in a compound only 100 yards from the palace of the Oni of Ife. These bronzes were to prove of great historical and artistic significance. Until that time only two other bronzes had been unearthed in the Yoruba area, and one of those had disappeared, leaving Nigeria only a single original and a replica. In the disposition of the priceless new finds there ensued a tale of intrigue, prevarication, outraged nationalism, and narrow-minded ethnocentricism that drew into its maelstrom the British colonial government of Nigeria, the US Consulate in Lagos, and the USA's Department of State. Although the Ife bronzes, which today reside in a handsome if small museum in the city of Ife, are not so well known as, for example, the Elgin marbles or certain other antiquities taken from the Third World, the controversy surrounding their removal from Nigeria and their eventual return was filled with the same emotion and employed the same arguments heard today over the rightful location of national cultural treasures. The Nigerian dispute is made all the more poignant in that one of the major protagonists was not a money-seeking antiquities dealer, but a young American anthropologist destined to be one of the most astute and sympathetic interpreters of Yoruba culture.

The Christians of Jerusalem during the British Mandate, 1917–48

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 118-137
Author(s):  
Fawaz Awdat Alnaimatt
Keyword(s):  
Colonial Administration ◽  
British Mandate ◽  
Weekly Newspapers ◽  
History Of ◽  
British Colonial ◽  
Foreign Ministry ◽  
British Colonies

This study sheds a light on the history of the Christians of Jerusalem during the period of occupation and the British Mandate, 1917–48. It relies on a set of sources and references, among the most important of which are reports, telegrams, messages and letters exchanged between the British leadership in Palestine and the British Foreign Ministry as well as the Ministry of British Colonies (British Colonial Administration); in addition to Palestinian daily and weekly newspapers; as well as modern sources, studies and memoirs.

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