The Chiga of UgandaThis book is an enlarged and amplified edition of the "The Chiga of Western Uganda," originally published in 1957. The volume provides a special insight into a culture at that time (1933) still intact under the British protectorate. Where significant changes were already taking place, the various changes are discussed in the contexts in which they seemed relevant-in social structure, kinship, marriage, economies, social control, religion and education, and material culture. What makes this edition unique is a new segment on material culture, previously unpublished. Edel's concrete yet wide-ranging descriptions provide an irreplaceable insight into a people and a culture at a unique point in world and colonial history. |
Contents
INTRODUCTION | 1 |
SOCIAL STRUCTURE | 8 |
KINSHIP | 29 |
MARRIAGE | 50 |
ECONOMICS | 79 |
SOCIAL CONTROL | 112 |
RELIGION | 129 |
EDUCATION | 173 |
COPING WITH THE ENVIRONMENT | 221 |
PHYSICAL SKILLS AND MOTOR HABITS | 241 |
AFRICAN TRIBALISM SOME REFLECTIONS ON UGANDA | 254 |
AbaJiisl Lands | 269 |
All are of the Abajura | 270 |
among some of the living adult male population in Bufuka village lineage of the Abayundu clan | 271 |
INDEX | |
FOOD AND ITS ACQUISITION | 195 |
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Common terms and phrases
Abajura Abayundu Abraham Edel adzes African animals Ankole baby basket beans beer behaviour boys bride bride-price British brother Bufuka Bunyoro calabash cattle ceremony charms Chiga child clan clothing compound cooking courtyard cows crops cross-cousin cult daughter death diviner divorce dried drink emandwa Eseri example exogamous father feast fields fire formal ghost gifts girl goats grain grass gruel hand herds household husband important Kabaka Yekka Kampala killed kinship kinsmen knife land leprosy lineage live magic marriage married mats meat milk millet mother mother-in-law Mpororo neighbours Nyabingi offerings older pact-brother papyrus particular patrilineal peas person planted priests relations relationship rites ritual Ruanda sheep sister skin skirts sometimes sorcerer sort spear spirits stick tabus tion tribal Uganda usually village whole wife witchcraft wives woman women young
Popular passages
Page 264 - The model of tribalism must also be modified by the segmentarylineage type of structure which was to be found among quite a few of the peoples of Uganda. For such people as the Chiga, whatever sense of ethnic unity they possess can only be an emergent one, a response to experiences of the recent past. For the Chiga as I knew them in the nineteen-thirties had no "tribal
Page xii - The majority of the investigations were carried on during the latter part of the nineteenth and early part of the twentieth century, but a few investigators have continued the study to the present day.
Page 263 - tribalism" mean to them, and to what degree have their horizons and loyalties been changing? Because of the differences in their older life ways, and in their reactions to modern currents of change, it would be very difficult to make any valid statements that would fit all of them. I should, as a matter of fact, even be hard pressed to find a definition for the tribe as such which would fit all the peoples of Uganda. However, for some at least we can say that the experiences of the recent past have...
Page 256 - I am going to concentrate on describing how we see the persistence of tribalism into modern times, in spite of the industrial revolution which has produced such great social changes. Our main argument is that in the rural areas membership of a tribe involves participation in a working political system, and sharing domestic life with kinsfolk; and that this continued participation is based on present economic and social needs, and not merely on conservatism. On the other hand, tribalism in towns is...
Page 256 - ... Buganda, Bunyoro, and Ankole, quite a number of smaller states, and a large number of non-centralized peoples who had no chiefs at all. These were disparate peoples, with no possible sense of common allegiance or obligation. Indeed, between many of these different peoples — tribes, if you like — there was an active condition of warfare at the time of British intervention, in the latter part of the nineteenth century. Uganda was governed by the British as a protectorate. There were few permanent...
Page 264 - They spoke a dialect of Lunyankole sometimes with a considerable admixture of Lunyaruanda. There was no common Chiga jural or moral community. Different Chiga clans, and even sub-clans, were constantly fighting one another; there were cattle raids, feud killings, even open battles. And there was no way of avoiding such bloodshed by ritual or blood-money payments, except between closely related lineages. The only ties uniting "Richards, 167.