ABSTRACT
Movements of population have been going on since the first appearance of man in East Africa. The rapidity and impermanence of contemporary movements is a new phenomenon. Migration has been channelled by the differing resources of the physical environment in relation to changing human needs, precipitated by war, famine and disease, influenced by the contrasting social structures and values of tribes and more recently by differentiation in education, wealth and opportunity. The Galla Boran were pushed westward in northern Kenya and the southward movement of the Somali was only halted by the strict measures of the colonial administration. While the southward movement from Shungwaya was proceeding a spectacular contrary movement from south to north occurred. Individual movements resulted from personal reactions to misfortune or opportunity and affected only a small minority. The Karamojong of north-eastern Uganda are an extreme example of primitive subsistence economy, almost completely immune from modern population movements.
