ABSTRACT
T he Gusii are cattle-keeping agriculturalists numbering over 260,000 (estimates of their contemporary population run as high as 287,000) and occupying the south-western tip of the Kenya highlands just east of Lake Victoria. This area consists of long, sloping hills 5,000 to 7,000 feet above sea level with extremely fertile soil and an annual rainfall of more than 70 inches. Although Bantu-speaking, the Gusii are surrounded by formerly hostile people of other linguistic stocks: Kipsigis, Luo, and Masai. They lost some land to the Kipsigis in the nineteenth century, but retained control of an abundant territory when they came under British administration in 1907. The traditional Gusii sociopolitical organization consisted of localized, exogamous, patrilineal clans which were militarily autonomous but loosely integrated with a number of surrounding clans in seven territorially distinct tribes. 37 Class structure, central political authority, and specialized political roles were virtually absent. Each clan was divided and subdivided into segmentary lineages which were, for the most part, highly localized and governed by informal councils of elders. Men of wealth had greater influence in such councils and sometimes achieved an independent judicial status, but only one of the seven Gusii tribes had positions approximating hereditary chieftainship.
