The Zimbabwe culture of present day Southern Rhodesia and Mozambique, of which the main occupation at the nuclear site of Great Zimbabwe dates from the twelfth to the fifteenth centuries, is best known for its external trade in gold, ivory, and copper and for its monumental stone ruins. But while important in terms of prestige exchanges at the diplomatic level, mining and trade seem to have been seasonal occupations fitted in round the annual cycle of subsistence cultivation dependent upon the rains (Barreto 1667: 489–92; Mudenge 1974; Phimister 1974). Patron–client relations between Shona-speaking groups were expressed by limited, symbolic tribute in agricultural labor, military service, gold, ivory, livestock, wives, slaves, local produce, and other prestige items (Barros 1552:271; Conçeicão 1696: 66; Andrade 1955: 306, 310–11), but until recent times basic control over social and political groupings was probably exercised through belief in various levels of spirit cult, ranging from the grass-roots system of individual guardian spirits (mudzimu, sing.) in the ancestral cult controlled by village elders in the extended family and descent group, through a hierarchy of ritually senior, loosely territorial land spirits (mhondoro) holding sway over the progressively larger land shrine realms (nyika) of neighborhood leaders, petty chieftains, chiefs, and paramounts. Leaders at each level influenced a following of both spirits and living people who were interconnected, and the fluctuating network of alliances that existed between leaders was symbolized and kept going by an intermittent traffic in tribute, diplomatic missions, and religious congregations coming to the shrines and leaders located at the various headquarters (zimbabwes) of the confederacy. When the confederacy was large and free from civil wars and secession, the system sometimes culminated in a unifying central cult devoted to a supreme spirit (such as Mwari Nyadenga, Leza or Mulungu) supporting a Mambo, whom the Portuguese called King or Emperor (Santos 1609: esp. 196–9; Abraham 1966; Bullock 1928; Garbett 1966, 1969; Holleman 1953).

The Tuareg are Berber-speaking ‘semi-nomadic pastoralists’. The Northern Tuareg, comprising the Kel Ahaggar and Kel Ajjer, inhabit the Central Saharan massifs of Ahaggar and Ajjer in Southern Algeria. The Southern Tuareg, namely the Kel Adrar, Kel Ayr, Kel Gress, Kel Tadamakat, Iwllemmeden, etc., are found throughout much of Mali and Niger. Each of these groups constitutes a separate, independent federation. This paper is concerned with the Kel Ahaggar who number about 5000–6000.

The word egungun, masquerades, is often used to describe all masked figures found among the Yoruba of Nigeria. It is, strictly speaking, applicable only to those found among the Oyo Yoruba, hence Egungun Oyo, Oyo masquerades (cf. Adedeji 1969: 6; Beier 1958: 5). This type has diffused to other sub-groups where it occurs with local types such as Gelede in Egbado, Agemo in Ijebu, and Epa in northern Ekiti. Its ubiquity may be due to the movement southwards of Oyo Yoruba elements, the extent of Oyo and later Ibadan Empires, peaceful migration and cultural contacts with neighbouring sub-groups (see Fig. 1 inset).

This paper concerns the historical and sociological significance of the traditions of certain lineage-groups residing on the eastern fringes of Lake Victoria in Kenya. These traditions have implications about the nature of pre-colonial social structure in the region, and allow the use of anthropological findings in the reconstruction of social forms through the medium of oral history.

The groups in question are to be found on the islands and adjoining southern mainland at the mouth of the Gulf of Kavirondo (see map 1). These lineages, together with others, are collectively known as the Basuba, and they inhabit in whole or in part a number of South Nyanza administrative locations and extend across the Kenyan border into Tanzania; the lineages of immediate interest here are to be found on Rusinga and Mfangano Islands, and in the mainland locations of Gembe, Kaksingiri, and Gwasi. The discussion which follows is largely based on information gathered from selected knowledgeable men on the islands, and supplementary researches conducted by the same means in the mainland areas mentioned above; five months of fieldwork were conducted in two periods in 1969 and 1973 and, unless otherwise indicated, all information below pertaining to South Nyanza is derived from that.

The Islamic brotherhoods common in North Africa take a variety of forms south of the Sahara, but even at the very fringes of Muslim, penetration the great orders such as the Qaddiriyya have a part to play in the lives of the believers. One function they have is to bring adherents back to what members of the order see as the essential tenets of the faith, to purge practice of the inevitable compromises made with local ‘pagan’ cults, and to increase the solidarity of the congregation of the faithful.

Throughout the growing body of literature on Sierra Leone a considerable degree of error has persisted over the use of the term ‘creole’ and the resultant confusion has led to repeated failure to describe accurately the society of the colony. This is not merely an academic problem. The very existence of such literature feeds back into the ‘collective representations’ of the society and has provided a false historical basis for the descriptions of the contemporary culture of the group who are referred to as creoles.