ABSTRACT
The reconstruction of East Africa's remote past is bedevilled by three initial problems—the ever-present factor of complexity, the factor of conscious or unconscious prejudice among writers and scholars, and the confusion of terminology. It has already been noted that East Africa is culturally, linguistically and racially heterogeneous. One cannot, as some writers have done, assume an easy equation between culture, language and physical characteristics. On the contrary, there is much overlapping. In the evolution of East African peoples as we know them today, different layers have overlaid each other, and there have been varying degrees of mutual influence between different traditions. Moreover, some languages and cultures which have played an important part in the evolutionary process have become submerged, or have vanished altogether.
