First published in 1959 by the International African Institute
This edition first published in 2017
by Routledge
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1959 International African Institute
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ISBN: 978-1-138-23217-4 (Set)
ISBN: 978-1-315-30463-2 (Set) (ebk)
ISBN: 978-1-138-23298-3 (Volume 10) (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-138-23300-3 (Volume 10) (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-31089-3 (Volume 10) (ebk)
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T HE International African Institute has, since 1945, been engaged on the preparation and publication of an Ethnographic Survey of Africa, the purpose of which is to present in a brief and readily comprehensible form a summary of available information concerning the different peoples of Africa with respect to location, natural environment, economy and crafts, social structure, political organization, religious beliefs and cults. While available published material has provided the basis for the Survey, a mass of unpublished documents, reports and records in government files and in the archives of missionary societies, as well as field notes and special communications by anthropologists and others, have been generously made available and these have been supplemented by personal correspondence and consultation. The Survey is being published in a number of separate volumes, each of which is concerned with one people or a group of related peoples, and contains a comprehensive bibliography and specially-drawn map.
A committee of the Institute was set up under the Chairmanship of the late Professor Radcliffe-Brown, and the Director of the Institute undertook the organization and editing of the Survey. The generous collaboration of a number of research institutions and administrative officers in Europe and the African territories was secured, as well as the services of senior anthropologists who have been good enough to supervise and amplify the drafts.
The work of the Survey was initiated with the aid of a grant from the British Colonial Development and Welfare Fund, on the recommendation of the Social Science Research Council, to be applied mainly, though not exclusively, to work relating to British territories. A further grant from the Sudan Government has assisted in the preparation and publication of sections dealing with that territory.
The Ministre de la France dOutre-Mer and the Institut Franais dAfrique Noire were good enough to express their interest in the project, and through their good offices grants have been received from the Governments of French West Africa, the French Cameroons and French Equatorial Africa for the preparation and publication of sections relating to those areas. These sections have been prepared by French ethnologists with the support and advice of the late Professor M. Griaule of the Sorbonne, Mme. Calame-Griaule and Professor Th. Monod, Director of I.F.A.N.
The collaboration of the Belgian authorities in this project was first secured by the good offices of the late Professor de Jonghe, who enlisted the interest of the Commission dEthnologie of the Institut Royal Colonial Beige. The collaboration of the Institut pour la Recherche Scientifique en Afrique Centrale has also been readily accorded. Work relating to Belgian territories is being carried out at the Centre de Documentation of the Muse du Congo Belge, Tervuren, where Mile. Boone and members of her staff are engaged on the assembly and classification of the vast mass of material relating to African peoples in the Belgian Congo and Ruanda-Urundi. They work in close collaboration with ethnologists in the field, to whom draft manuscripts are submitted for checking.
The International African Institute desires to express its grateful thanks to those official bodies whose generous financial assistance has made the carrying out of this project possible and to the many scholars, directors of research organizations, administrative officers, missionaries, and others who have collaborated in the work and, by granting facilities to our research workers and by correcting and supervising their manuscripts, have contributed so largely to whatever merit the various sections may possess.
Since the unequal value and unsystematic nature of existing material was one of the reasons for undertaking the Survey, it is obvious that these studies cannot claim to be complete or definitive; it is hoped, however, that they will present a clear account of our existing knowledge and indicate where information is lacking and further research is needed.
A list of sections already published will be found on pp. 66-8.
D ARYLL F ORDE ,
Director ,
International African Institute .
Authors Note
I wish to acknowledge with gratitude the Junior Fellowship from the East African Institute of Social Research, without which this study could not have been made. I am deeply indebted to Dr. A. I. Richards and other members of the Institute for their friendship and for helping me on numerous occasions. Many people in Mbale gave me hospitality and assistance and I offer them my warmest thanks. My greatest debt is, of course, to the Gisu themselves, who taught me all that is written in this book. Mwanyala nabi .
J. S. L A F ONTAINE .