The Religion of a Nilotic PeopleDivinity and Experience: The Religion of the Dinka by Godfrey LienhardtReview by: Jacques J. MaquetThe Journal of African History, Vol. 3, No. 1 (1962), pp. 160-161Published by: Cambridge University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/179815 .

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described at some length and show how much one may fail to reconstruct even the recent past by misinterpreting the present. The appendix notes on African population and crop statistics and rainfall data should be read by all interested in African agriculture for they provide one of the best brief criticisms available.

The agricultural and especially the food producing and consuming economy in relation to the needs of the urban population of one of the most advanced countries in Africa is the theme of T. T. Poleman's case study of Ghana. This work will be of more interest to geographers, sociologists and economists for it is concerned mainly with recent trends and provides a possible pointer to

developments in countries which have yet to develop comparable export pro- duction. Data from the surveys of produce movement and of urban budgets and diets are brought together to show that economic changes have not brought any marked dietary change and that one cannot anticipate future behaviour in Africa

by analogies with Western experience.

Birmingham W. B. MORGAN

THE RELIGION OF A NILOTIC PEOPLE

Divinity and Experience: The Religion of the Dinka. By GODFREY LIENHARDT. London: Clarendon Press: Oxford University Press, I96I. Pp. x+ 328, 9 illustrations, 4 text-figures. 42s.

Dans ce livre qui se fonde sur un travail de deux ans parmi les Dinka occidentaux de la province soudanaise du Bahr-el-Ghazal, le Dr Lienhardt expose l'ensemble de la conception du monde des Dinka ainsi que les rites par lesquels ils entrent en relation avec les forces ultra-humaines qui participent a la vie des hommes et l'affectent favorablement ou defavorablement. Cette description est faite avec une minutieuse prudence, l'auteur definissant avec soin les concepts qu'il utilise pour restituer du point de vue des Dinka, la vision qu'ils ont du monde total dans lequel ils vivent.

Ensuite le Dr Lienhardt entreprend d'interpreter les conceptions et les

pratiques religieuses des Dinka. Son hypothese explicative est que les entites de la religion dinka (les 'Puissances' que sont la Divinite, les divinites libres et les divinites claniques) sont des images evoquees par certaines configurations de

l'experience que les Dinka ont de leur milieu physique et social. Ainsi les divinites claniques representent l'experience de la parente agnatique, de la division permanente de la societe en groupes de descendance distincts tandis

que la Divinite concue comme unite reflete l'experience de la communaute de situation de tous les hommes. De meme l'enterrement rituel des maitres au

javelot, chefs religieux, alors qu'ils sont encore vivants, traduit l'experience et

l'espoir de la survie de la collectivite. Ces quelques lignes ne rendent evidemment justice ni a la richesse d'inter-

pretation que permet l'hypothese du Dr Lienhardt, ni a la finesse de son analyse. Dans le temps, l'auteur se refere a la periode ou il a vecu chez les Dinka et ou

il les a observes (I947-50). Cependant il est manifeste qu'il a cherche avant tout

described at some length and show how much one may fail to reconstruct even the recent past by misinterpreting the present. The appendix notes on African population and crop statistics and rainfall data should be read by all interested in African agriculture for they provide one of the best brief criticisms available.

The agricultural and especially the food producing and consuming economy in relation to the needs of the urban population of one of the most advanced countries in Africa is the theme of T. T. Poleman's case study of Ghana. This work will be of more interest to geographers, sociologists and economists for it is concerned mainly with recent trends and provides a possible pointer to

developments in countries which have yet to develop comparable export pro- duction. Data from the surveys of produce movement and of urban budgets and diets are brought together to show that economic changes have not brought any marked dietary change and that one cannot anticipate future behaviour in Africa

by analogies with Western experience.

Birmingham W. B. MORGAN

THE RELIGION OF A NILOTIC PEOPLE

Divinity and Experience: The Religion of the Dinka. By GODFREY LIENHARDT. London: Clarendon Press: Oxford University Press, I96I. Pp. x+ 328, 9 illustrations, 4 text-figures. 42s.

Dans ce livre qui se fonde sur un travail de deux ans parmi les Dinka occidentaux de la province soudanaise du Bahr-el-Ghazal, le Dr Lienhardt expose l'ensemble de la conception du monde des Dinka ainsi que les rites par lesquels ils entrent en relation avec les forces ultra-humaines qui participent a la vie des hommes et l'affectent favorablement ou defavorablement. Cette description est faite avec une minutieuse prudence, l'auteur definissant avec soin les concepts qu'il utilise pour restituer du point de vue des Dinka, la vision qu'ils ont du monde total dans lequel ils vivent.

Ensuite le Dr Lienhardt entreprend d'interpreter les conceptions et les

pratiques religieuses des Dinka. Son hypothese explicative est que les entites de la religion dinka (les 'Puissances' que sont la Divinite, les divinites libres et les divinites claniques) sont des images evoquees par certaines configurations de

l'experience que les Dinka ont de leur milieu physique et social. Ainsi les divinites claniques representent l'experience de la parente agnatique, de la division permanente de la societe en groupes de descendance distincts tandis

que la Divinite concue comme unite reflete l'experience de la communaute de situation de tous les hommes. De meme l'enterrement rituel des maitres au

javelot, chefs religieux, alors qu'ils sont encore vivants, traduit l'experience et

l'espoir de la survie de la collectivite. Ces quelques lignes ne rendent evidemment justice ni a la richesse d'inter-

pretation que permet l'hypothese du Dr Lienhardt, ni a la finesse de son analyse. Dans le temps, l'auteur se refere a la periode ou il a vecu chez les Dinka et ou

il les a observes (I947-50). Cependant il est manifeste qu'il a cherche avant tout

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a saisir ce qu'etait la religion des Dinka dans la periode immediatement an- terieure a celle ou ils ont pu subir d'importantes influences etrangeres a leur tradition. II ne s'est pas preoccupe de situer son expose dans une perspective historique. Il indique que ce que les Dinka disent de l'origine des divinites claniques ou des sources de diffusion de la connaissance des divinites libres, pourrait donner des informations sur leurs contacts avec les populations etrangeres (p. 162); ou encore que les mythes des maitres au javelot pourraient eclairer certains points de l'histoire des clans (p. I75).

Les historiens de l'Afrique esperent que le Dr Lienhardt a pu, au cours de ses recherches chez les Dinka, pousser ses investigations dans ce sens et que, dans une publication ulterieure, il fera connaitre d'une maniere aussi brillante que dans celle-ci, les donnees historiques qu'il a pu recueillir.

Paris JACQUES J. MAQUET

THE ANATOMY OF AN AFRICAN ARISTOCRACY

The Premise of Inequality in Ruanda. By J. J. MAQUET. London: Oxford Univer-

sity Press, I96I. Pp. I99, photographs. 35s.

This is the first monograph on Ruanda published in English, and it is probably the best. But it must be kept in mind when reading it, that a great many books or articles have been written in French on the subject and that this study is not an introduction to Ruanda but a study in depth. There are no descriptions in this work, there is no ethnographic detail, and if the reader wants to control many of the statements made, he will have to look up the more descriptive monographs listed in the bibliography. Moreover, the study is not an analysis of the whole of Ruanda as it was in I900, despite M. Maquet's claim on page I. It applies only to central Ruanda, and to the social and political structure of I900 as remembered today by the ruling Tutsi. M. Maquet based his research on interviews conducted along the lines of a very well constructed questionnaire. But his sample of informants is biased. He admits, page 3, that his informants are practically all Tutsi, that is, upper-caste, and that 'we attempted to interview only the most informed persons on the subject and to take into account the divergence of their views'. That the bias is real and the study limited to Central Ruanda can be gathered from many sources such as the Historique et chronologie du Ruanda, the writings of Dufays, de Moor, Pauwels, d'Hertefelt and Edel, whose book on the Chiga should have been included in the bibliography. More- over M. Maquet gives us a structural model, not a description. He simplifies reality to bring out its most striking features. But it is a simplification, even for central Ruanda, as can be seen from comparison with the writings of A. Kagame.

Once it is admitted that this work represents a structural model of central Ruanda society, its relation to reality can be considered. Our experience is that it is a masterpiece. Here, for the first time, is a picture of the overall construction of this complicated society. Mr Maquet's theoretical deductions and conclusions, especially his discussion of the principle of inequality, compel the admiration of

a saisir ce qu'etait la religion des Dinka dans la periode immediatement an- terieure a celle ou ils ont pu subir d'importantes influences etrangeres a leur tradition. II ne s'est pas preoccupe de situer son expose dans une perspective historique. Il indique que ce que les Dinka disent de l'origine des divinites claniques ou des sources de diffusion de la connaissance des divinites libres, pourrait donner des informations sur leurs contacts avec les populations etrangeres (p. 162); ou encore que les mythes des maitres au javelot pourraient eclairer certains points de l'histoire des clans (p. I75).

Les historiens de l'Afrique esperent que le Dr Lienhardt a pu, au cours de ses recherches chez les Dinka, pousser ses investigations dans ce sens et que, dans une publication ulterieure, il fera connaitre d'une maniere aussi brillante que dans celle-ci, les donnees historiques qu'il a pu recueillir.

Paris JACQUES J. MAQUET

THE ANATOMY OF AN AFRICAN ARISTOCRACY

The Premise of Inequality in Ruanda. By J. J. MAQUET. London: Oxford Univer-

sity Press, I96I. Pp. I99, photographs. 35s.

This is the first monograph on Ruanda published in English, and it is probably the best. But it must be kept in mind when reading it, that a great many books or articles have been written in French on the subject and that this study is not an introduction to Ruanda but a study in depth. There are no descriptions in this work, there is no ethnographic detail, and if the reader wants to control many of the statements made, he will have to look up the more descriptive monographs listed in the bibliography. Moreover, the study is not an analysis of the whole of Ruanda as it was in I900, despite M. Maquet's claim on page I. It applies only to central Ruanda, and to the social and political structure of I900 as remembered today by the ruling Tutsi. M. Maquet based his research on interviews conducted along the lines of a very well constructed questionnaire. But his sample of informants is biased. He admits, page 3, that his informants are practically all Tutsi, that is, upper-caste, and that 'we attempted to interview only the most informed persons on the subject and to take into account the divergence of their views'. That the bias is real and the study limited to Central Ruanda can be gathered from many sources such as the Historique et chronologie du Ruanda, the writings of Dufays, de Moor, Pauwels, d'Hertefelt and Edel, whose book on the Chiga should have been included in the bibliography. More- over M. Maquet gives us a structural model, not a description. He simplifies reality to bring out its most striking features. But it is a simplification, even for central Ruanda, as can be seen from comparison with the writings of A. Kagame.

Once it is admitted that this work represents a structural model of central Ruanda society, its relation to reality can be considered. Our experience is that it is a masterpiece. Here, for the first time, is a picture of the overall construction of this complicated society. Mr Maquet's theoretical deductions and conclusions, especially his discussion of the principle of inequality, compel the admiration of

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