Sorghum as a gift of self: the Jie harvest ritual through time

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Periodical article

Title:	Sorghum as a gift of self: the Jie harvest ritual through time
Author:	Mirzeler, Mustafa Kemal
Year:	2009
Periodical:	History in Africa
Volume:	36
Pages:	387-419
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Uganda
Subjects:	Jie sorghum rituals gifts ethnic relations ethnic identity symbols Turkana
External link:	http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/history_in_africa/v036/36.1.mirzeler.pdf
Abstract:	The Jie are agropastoralists of the central Karamoja Plateau in northern Uganda. This paper examines the role sorghum symbolism and metaphors play in producing identities and social relationships of power in Jie society and in the Jie people's interethnic relationship with their Turkana neighbours. Sorghum occupies a special place in the Jie diet, and is the staple food in a quantitative sense, as well as a food for ceremonial occasions. Jie women offer sorghum as a gift to Turkana women, which is loaded with meaning and historically marked. The Jie harvest ritual, and its interconnection with the oral tradition of origin, articulates the theme of gift exchange between humans and deities, between the Jie firemaker and the Jie people on the one hand, and between the Jie and the Turkana people on the other. Bibliogr., notes, ref. [ASC Leiden abstract]