ABSTRACT
I shall use the word ‘tribe’ in its wider rather than in its narrower sense. I f we restrict the word ‘tribe’ to a group organ ized by a single political structure, in many instances the ‘tribes’ would be very small indeed. This is the case among the Gisu,1 a Bantu-speaking people living on the south-western slopes of Mount Elgon, which straddles the Kenya/Uganda border. They numbered about a quarter of a million when I studied them in 1953-5, but traditionally there was no single political structure unifying them. Nevertheless, they were and are acutely aware of their ‘tribal identity’ ; it is with this that I am concerned.
