Grain, Cattle, and Power: Social Processes of Intensive Cultivation and Exchange in Precolonial Western Kenya

Abstract

The tribal economies of precolonial East Africa can only partially be understood within theories of food production which stress self-sufficiency, production for use, and risk aversion. The level of food production in tribal economies is not determined solely by an inherent orientation towards subsistence but also involves the possibility of converting food into wealth and relationships of social dependency. The relationship between agricultural production and grain and cattle exchange is examined here in the context of the Gusii populations in the highlands of western Kenya and the Luo populations in the Lake Victoria basin. The use of cattle as prestige goods for bridewealth payments sustained a regional exchange system, high population densities, and intensive cultivation in the highlands. Production was organized to meet the culturally defined exchange objectives of social reproduction and the political economy.