THE POLITICAL ORGANIZATION OF THE BANTU OF
KAVIRONDO
By GUNTER WAGNER
/. Introductory
^pHIS essay proposes to deal with the political organization -L of two tribes living in the westernmost part of Kenya, the Logoli and Vugusu, which, together with a number of others, are usually referred to as the * Bantu Kavirondo*. The tribes grouped under this name are politically quite independent, though culturally and linguistically closely related with one another. They do nbt call themselves by a common name. The name Kavirondo, although its origin and etymology are not entirely clear, was apparently given to them by Arab and Swahili traders.1 It refers to the rolling, open plains that extend, broken by the Nyando Valley, from Mt. Elgon in the north to the Kenya-Tanganyika boundary in the south, as well as to the various Bantu and Nilotic tribes inhabiting these plains.
Migratory accounts and minor differences in language and custom make it possible to distinguish several larger divisions among the 'Bantu Kavirondo', each comprising a number of tribal groups.2 Such a larger division has no common name either, but the tribal groups of which it is composed are conscious of their similarities and explain them either by a vague relationship in the distant past or by a long period of neighbourliness and intermarriage. Between tribes belonging to different divisions of this kind a more or less permanent state of warfare, broken by seasonal periods of truce, was the rule. There is no record, however, of combined warfare of one group of tribes against another. War
1 cf. Johnston, Sir Harry, The Uganda Protectorate (London, 1902), vol. ii,
p. 722 f•
2 Two such larger groupings are (i) the Kitoah group, comprising the Vugusu of South Kitosh and Kimilili, the Tadjoni and some small groups of Niio-Hamitic origin, such as the Ngoma (Ngomanek) and Lago (El Bawgek), and (2) the Wanga group, comprising the Wanga proper, the Marama, and the Tsotso.