The aim of this thesis was to investigate views on the the traditional Levirate custom in modern society specifically regarding repercussions on the freedom of widows in the traditional Luo community. Qualitative research has been used this thesis, using both primary and secondary sources. Phenomenology as a principle of science has been adopted. Though much research has been done on this subject matter, this study hopes to provide a new approach by addressing the issues mentioned above. The findings of this study have shown that the Levirate custom seems to infringe on the freedom of the widows in the traditional Luo community. Evidence of male dominance due to values attached to the traditional Levirate custom has been observed.

De praktiker och föreställningar som hör samma med den magiska verkligheten under etiketten ”witchcraft” verkar öka i popularitet i dagens Afrika. Medan vissa postmoderna antropologer har tolkat fenomenet som en kritisk kommentar mot moderniseringsprocesser är det troligt att föreställningen om den magiska verkligheten kan göra anspråk på fler uttryck än så. Syftet med den här undersökningen är att analysera hur informanternas syn på andebesättelse i en Luo-dominerad kristen evangelisk församling i Kibera, kan tolkas utifrån vissa ekonomiska, sociala och kulturella processer. Jag undersöker hur andebesättelse kan förstås med hjälp av informanternas förhållande till och synen på hemmet, familjen, könsroller, staden, landsbygden, avundsjuka och framgång. I analysen tolkas informanternas föreställningar om andebesättelse utifrån rörelser mellan de kenyanska gränserna rikedom/fattigdom, stadsliv/landsbygd och offentligt/privat. Andebesättelse kan därefter förstås som en slags medlare mellan dessa gränser, där de som befinner sig mellan någon av dessa oppositioner tenderar att vara särskilt utsatta för andliga attacker. / The notion of witchcraft seems to grow in popularity in the contemporary Africa. While some postmodern anthropologists have interpreted the phenomenon as a critical commentary on the processes of modernization, it is likely to be able to claim more than that. The purpose of the thesis is to analyse the notion of spirit possession by the informants in a Luo dominated evangelical church in Kibera, and how it may be interpreted through certain economic, social and cultural processes. This is made by investigating the views on the home, family, gender roles, urban, rural, jealousy and prosperity. The informant’s notion of spirit possession is interpreted in the analyse as movements across the Kenyan boundaries of rural/urban, public/private and rich/poor. Spirit possession is understood as a mediator between these boundaries, and those who is found to be in between some of these oppositions tend to be most vulnerable to spirit attacks.

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Thesis (M.A.)--Miami University, Dept. of History, 2006. / Title from first page of PDF document. Includes bibliographical references (p. 84-89).

This thesis is a qualitative study of mood and ambiguity in Dholuo, a Nilotic language spoken in western Kenya. It also examines the content of the verb phrase (VP) and the role of tone in the expression of mood in Dholuo. Specifically, the study set out to find out how mood is expressed and how ambiguity is resolved in Dholuo, the modal structure of the language and how it can be explained within Chomsky’s Minimalist Programme (1995), particularly regarding feature checking. The thesis comprises six chapters. Chapter One is the introduction and focuses on background information to set the scene for this study. Specifically, it considers the context and the research methodology, which is mainly qualitative. The researcher’s knowledge of the language is of great importance in this study of mood and ambiguity in Dholuo, and native speakers of Dholuo were consulted to avoid bias. In addition, desk research is carried out. The chapter outlines the objectives, discusses the research problem, motivation, scope and limitations of the study. It explains the language situation in Kenya, the number of languages and their families, dialectal variations, the status of the languages and their use in education and parliament, including the recent provisions made in the 2010 constitution. Chapter One also presents the challenges concerning the language situation. Lastly, a synopsis of each chapter is provided. Chapter Two comprises the literature review. The study is based on mood in Dholuo, but the review first deliberates on how mood is expressed in English, as well as types of ambiguity and interpretations in English language studies. In order to determine how mood is expressed in an African language, the chapter discusses a study on tense, aspect and mood as expressed in Kihavu, a Bantu language spoken in the Kalehe district in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Rusizi/Nyamasheke districts in the Republic of Rwanda. Next, Dholuo descriptive grammars, research and related works are discussed. Presented in Chapter Three is the theoretical framework, the main tenets of the Minimalist Programme (MP) and its aims. The theory is adopted as a tool to handle the data in Dholuo. The chapter also discusses how MP differs from Generative Grammar (GG) and Government and Binding (GB) (Chomsky, 1981), including the problems it aims to resolve that could not be properly addressed by GG and GB. How the theory accounts for the data on mood and ambiguity in Dholuo and its challenges is also discussed. The study hopes to contribute to the Minimalist Programme’s further development and refinement, as most linguistic theories including the MP are informed and inspired by Indo-European languages, particularly English. Chapter Four presents Dholuo's basic morphosyntactic structures, phonology, the morphology of nouns, personal pronouns and verbs, since some of the features in these domains have a bearing on mood. The language known to many as Luo is actually called Dholuo; ‘Dho’ serves as a noun class prefix in Bantu languages, as in ‘ki-‘ for Kiswahili and ‘gi-‘ for Gikuyu. It is a prefix referring to language: ‘the language of’ the Luo people. Mood and ambiguity in Dholuo are discussed in Chapter Five. Types of Dholuo modal auxiliaries are described and instances where there is ambiguity between modal auxiliaries and words belonging to other word categories are mentioned. How MP theory accounts for data on mood and ambiguity in Dholuo, and the problems encountered in the application of this theory, are considered. The label ‘mood’ is adopted for the study as a syntactic/grammatical category. The categories of Dholuo mood and possible word formation processes of inflection and derivation realised on the auxiliary are also discussed. Ambiguity is seen through conversion as a word formation process where there is derivation with no morphological marking, but there is functional shift. The modal auxiliary, which precedes the main verb in a construction, is inserted into its base position in the VP. The inflectional nodes are for feature checking. Chomsky (1993) states that morphology plays an important role in the new theory. The operations in the computational system are driven by morphological and lexical necessity. The amount of movement that takes place in the structure building depends on how rich or weak the morphology of a language is. Chapter Six summarises how mood is expressed in Dholuo, how it is affected by ambiguity in terms of accessing the meaning and the role tone plays in resolving ambiguity so that meaning becomes accessible. The study concludes that this theory is adequate in accounting for the data on mood and ambiguity in Dholuo, although modifications have to be made to cater for the feature checking of Dholuo mood and ambiguity in terms of the creation of some heads. Such modifications include heads for mood and aspectual tone for the auxiliary that derives from a noun or tonal distinction where an auxiliary is used together with the verb from which it derives. This is in line with the idea that the Minimalist Programme is based on feature checking and structure building; both processes are morphologically or lexically driven. The features build the structure. Morphemes are moved out of the lexicon to build the structure. Suggestions for further research based on the limitations of the study are presented. The study focuses only on mood and ambiguity in Dholuo as spoken in western Kenya, although Dholuo is a cross border language. There is an opportunity for further research into Dholuo as it is spoken in Uganda and Tanzania. / African Languages / D. Litt. et Phil. (African Languages)

This study investigates how the Biblical teaching on death and the resurrection can provide the appropriate doctrinal challenge to the problem of the pervasive and persistent fear of death amongst the Luo people of Kenya. It therefore examines the Luo traditional beliefs and customs surrounding death in order to establish its contribution to the fear of death, even amongst some Luo Christians. A Biblical-theological study of death and the afterlife provides the doctrinal antidote necessary to rescue and transform a people under bondage to fear, thus outlining the basis for hope in a life beyond physical death through the doctrine of the resurrection. The research commences with a description of Luo traditional beliefs concerning death and dying, and outlines the related Luo customs in relation to their belief in the spirit-world. The contention is that these beliefs result in the fear of death, while the lack of Biblical understanding even amongst some Luo Christians has led to their ignorance of the Biblical teaching on death, and thus a loss of the assurance found in the resurrection of Christ. Death and the afterlife is carefully examined from a Biblical-theological perspective in order to demonstrate how the doctrine of the resurrection can function as a 'rescue doctrine' for those affected by the pervasive and persistent fear of death. The study also explores the assurance of triumph over death as an eschatological reality in keeping with Christ's work of redemption. Similarly, it is argued that triumph over evil and malevolent spirits is guaranteed. In closing, the study explores the power of the Gospel of the resurrected Christ to change lives and transform unbiblical practices and worldviews to conform to his will. It is the resurrected Christ alone who has the power to transform the moral and ethical values ingrained in any culture. / Thesis (M.A. (Dogmatics))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2007.

This thesis is a qualitative study of mood and ambiguity in Dholuo, a Nilotic language spoken in western Kenya. It also examines the content of the verb phrase (VP) and the role of tone in the expression of mood in Dholuo. Specifically, the study set out to find out how mood is expressed and how ambiguity is resolved in Dholuo, the modal structure of the language and how it can be explained within Chomsky’s Minimalist Programme (1995), particularly regarding feature checking. The thesis comprises six chapters. Chapter One is the introduction and focuses on background information to set the scene for this study. Specifically, it considers the context and the research methodology, which is mainly qualitative. The researcher’s knowledge of the language is of great importance in this study of mood and ambiguity in Dholuo, and native speakers of Dholuo were consulted to avoid bias. In addition, desk research is carried out. The chapter outlines the objectives, discusses the research problem, motivation, scope and limitations of the study. It explains the language situation in Kenya, the number of languages and their families, dialectal variations, the status of the languages and their use in education and parliament, including the recent provisions made in the 2010 constitution. Chapter One also presents the challenges concerning the language situation. Lastly, a synopsis of each chapter is provided. Chapter Two comprises the literature review. The study is based on mood in Dholuo, but the review first deliberates on how mood is expressed in English, as well as types of ambiguity and interpretations in English language studies. In order to determine how mood is expressed in an African language, the chapter discusses a study on tense, aspect and mood as expressed in Kihavu, a Bantu language spoken in the Kalehe district in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Rusizi/Nyamasheke districts in the Republic of Rwanda. Next, Dholuo descriptive grammars, research and related works are discussed. Presented in Chapter Three is the theoretical framework, the main tenets of the Minimalist Programme (MP) and its aims. The theory is adopted as a tool to handle the data in Dholuo. The chapter also discusses how MP differs from Generative Grammar (GG) and Government and Binding (GB) (Chomsky, 1981), including the problems it aims to resolve that could not be properly addressed by GG and GB. How the theory accounts for the data on mood and ambiguity in Dholuo and its challenges is also discussed. The study hopes to contribute to the Minimalist Programme’s further development and refinement, as most linguistic theories including the MP are informed and inspired by Indo-European languages, particularly English. Chapter Four presents Dholuo's basic morphosyntactic structures, phonology, the morphology of nouns, personal pronouns and verbs, since some of the features in these domains have a bearing on mood. The language known to many as Luo is actually called Dholuo; ‘Dho’ serves as a noun class prefix in Bantu languages, as in ‘ki-‘ for Kiswahili and ‘gi-‘ for Gikuyu. It is a prefix referring to language: ‘the language of’ the Luo people. Mood and ambiguity in Dholuo are discussed in Chapter Five. Types of Dholuo modal auxiliaries are described and instances where there is ambiguity between modal auxiliaries and words belonging to other word categories are mentioned. How MP theory accounts for data on mood and ambiguity in Dholuo, and the problems encountered in the application of this theory, are considered. The label ‘mood’ is adopted for the study as a syntactic/grammatical category. The categories of Dholuo mood and possible word formation processes of inflection and derivation realised on the auxiliary are also discussed. Ambiguity is seen through conversion as a word formation process where there is derivation with no morphological marking, but there is functional shift. The modal auxiliary, which precedes the main verb in a construction, is inserted into its base position in the VP. The inflectional nodes are for feature checking. Chomsky (1993) states that morphology plays an important role in the new theory. The operations in the computational system are driven by morphological and lexical necessity. The amount of movement that takes place in the structure building depends on how rich or weak the morphology of a language is. Chapter Six summarises how mood is expressed in Dholuo, how it is affected by ambiguity in terms of accessing the meaning and the role tone plays in resolving ambiguity so that meaning becomes accessible. The study concludes that this theory is adequate in accounting for the data on mood and ambiguity in Dholuo, although modifications have to be made to cater for the feature checking of Dholuo mood and ambiguity in terms of the creation of some heads. Such modifications include heads for mood and aspectual tone for the auxiliary that derives from a noun or tonal distinction where an auxiliary is used together with the verb from which it derives. This is in line with the idea that the Minimalist Programme is based on feature checking and structure building; both processes are morphologically or lexically driven. The features build the structure. Morphemes are moved out of the lexicon to build the structure. Suggestions for further research based on the limitations of the study are presented. The study focuses only on mood and ambiguity in Dholuo as spoken in western Kenya, although Dholuo is a cross border language. There is an opportunity for further research into Dholuo as it is spoken in Uganda and Tanzania. / African Languages / D. Litt. et Phil. (African Languages)

This dissertation analyses an ethnographic study of how people in a peri-urban, agricultural village in western Kenya have responded to the questions of who will care for children, and how, when those children’s parents, or other primary caregivers, have died. It examines the practical and ideological implications of wide-scale orphaning among a population that has experienced increased numbers and proportions of orphaned children mainly due to HIV/AIDS, as well as the gradual depletion of resources in terms of both the availability of middle-aged adults and the security of economic livelihoods. The research explores how specific caring relationships, as well as general sociality, have been challenged, adapted, and affirmed or rejected normatively and practically in this context. The research revealed a high degree of questioning in people’s efforts to forge responses to children’s orphaned situations. Rarely was there unambiguous consensus in the study context concerning what should be done in response to children’s orphanhood in light of families’ diminished livelihood capacities. More broadly, there was a distinctive concern with how such situations might be appraised in moral terms. The analysis therefore focuses on three main concerns, including: how to understand uncertainty as a condition of life, and the implications of this; how a shared perspective of uncertainty has spurred a concern with morality in the study context, and specifically galvanised a moral economy of kinship; and how the concern with morality affected what was deemed at stake in people’s lives.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hong Kong, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 450-509).

This study investigates how the Biblical teaching on death and the resurrection can provide the appropriate doctrinal challenge to the problem of the pervasive and persistent fear of death amongst the Luo people of Kenya. It therefore examines the Luo traditional beliefs and customs surrounding death in order to establish its contribution to the fear of death, even amongst some Luo Christians. A Biblical-theological study of death and the afterlife provides the doctrinal antidote necessary to rescue and transform a people under bondage to fear, thus outlining the basis for hope in a life beyond physical death through the doctrine of the resurrection. The research commences with a description of Luo traditional beliefs concerning death and dying, and outlines the related Luo customs in relation to their belief in the spirit-world. The contention is that these beliefs result in the fear of death, while the lack of Biblical understanding even amongst some Luo Christians has led to their ignorance of the Biblical teaching on death, and thus a loss of the assurance found in the resurrection of Christ. Death and the afterlife is carefully examined from a Biblical-theological perspective in order to demonstrate how the doctrine of the resurrection can function as a 'rescue doctrine' for those affected by the pervasive and persistent fear of death. The study also explores the assurance of triumph over death as an eschatological reality in keeping with Christ's work of redemption. Similarly, it is argued that triumph over evil and malevolent spirits is guaranteed. In closing, the study explores the power of the Gospel of the resurrected Christ to change lives and transform unbiblical practices and worldviews to conform to his will. It is the resurrected Christ alone who has the power to transform the moral and ethical values ingrained in any culture. / Thesis (M.A. (Dogmatics))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2007.