Political development in Eastern Africa: the Luo case re-examined

bibliographic database
Line

Periodical article

Title:	Political development in Eastern Africa: the Luo case re-examined
Author:	Herring, Ralph S.
Year:	1978
Periodical:	Kenya Historical Review
Volume:	6
Issue:	1-2
Pages:	126-145
Language:	English
Geographic terms:	Sudan Uganda
Subjects:	Luo traditional polities
Abstract:	The Luo seem to have diverged from the Jieng (or Dinka) and Naath (or Nuer) between the time that these groups separated and the time that the Northern and Central-Southern Luo linguistic clusters lost contact with each other. Luo stories indicate that some of the Luo migrants had lived in chiefdoms. To explain the development of centralized polities in the Luo-influenced societies in the Sudan and Uganda theories have been put forward by 1) colonial-era writers, 2) B.A. Ogot, 3) D.W. Cohen. This essay re-examines the evidence concerning the development of four Luo chiefdoms and states (Shilluk and Uganda) in order to discern whether or to what extent Luo ideas, non-Luo ideas, and the local situation influenced their development. Notes.