Luo social formations in change; Karachuonyo and Kanyamkago

Abstract

This is a microstudy of the economic history of two locations in southwestern Kenya--Karachuonyo and Kanyamkago. Both the fact of its being a microstudy and its being economic history require amplification. In part, it is a microstudy because of limitations imposed by the methodology of field research. Originally the project was designed to comprise all Roma Bay District. Archival sources for the entire area were studied. When field research was begun, however, it soon proved unrealistic to plan representative interviewing of informants throughout this large area. locations. Therefore field research was conducted in two sample Karachuonyo and Kanyamkago were chosen because their peoples share the same Luo culture, but their different geographical position and demographic pattern, it was thought, would provide the variables by which to gauge the blanket effect of similar colonial experience. The study is economic history only in the sense that the economic base in the last instance, delimits the potential cultural variation of a social formation. The emphasis throughout this study is on the social changes which were attendant on economic change. Admittedly, working with a relatively short time span, these changes are often difficult if not impossible to assess definitively. Trends, nuances, and small-scale effects form the basis of much of the discussion. This is economic history also because of its own juncture in the time frame of African studies. If every generation rewrites history, every decade has witnessed revision in African historiography.