This work draws from several interpretations and perceptions of Lou ethnic groups regarding their kinships, lineages, and the geocultural claims pertaining to their identity and sociocultural interactions among social groups and communities. It builds on the current literature and oral history to methodologically reaffirm kinships and establish ethnic lineages. Most contemporary Luo narratives come from Kenya and Uganda, in addition to those written by Western anthropologists and missionaries. None of these narratives have changed the content of the oral stories told by Luo groups and subgroups in Africa, especially those related to their lineages, ethnic affiliations, and their path of immigration from South Sudan to Tanzania, but have, instead, confirmed the history, stories, and mythology of the greater Luo groups in Africa. This book will serve to evoke intellectual curiosity among African social scientists, prompting them to conduct more research to further understanding of Luo ethnic groups’ ways of life and social interactions, as well as their contributions to the sociopolitical and economic development in the countries and regions they inhabit.

This highly illustrated and definitive dictionary, by two renowned biologists - one Kenyan, one Canadian - contains extensive coverage of the flora, fauna and animals of the Lake Victoria region of East Africa occupied by the Luo community, and is based on ten years of research by the authors. It is an expansion of the 1972 publication Luo-English Botanical Dictionary of Plant Names and Their Uses and now provides more botanical entries and an additional section consisting of a zoological dictionary. The individual entry comprises Luo terminology, its botanical/zoological equivalent, common name (when applicable), physical description, its prevalence, and its respective economic use.

This study examines the theological and anthropological foundations of the understanding of the dignity and vocation of woman as a mother and wife, gifts given by God that expresses the riches of the African concept of family. There are two approaches to inculturation theology in Africa, namely, that which attempts to construct African theology by starting from the biblical ecclesial teachings and find from them what features of African culture are relevant to the Christian theological and anthropological values, and the other one which takes the African cultural background as the point of departure. According to John Paul II, the dignity and vocation of woman is “something more universal, based on the very fact of her being a woman within all the interpersonal relationships, which, in the most varied ways, shape society and structure the interaction between all persons,” (Mulieris Dignitatem no. 29). This “concerns each and every woman, independent of the cultural context in which she lives and independently of her spiritual, psychological and physical characteristics, as for example, age, education, health, work, and whether she is married or single,” (Mulieris Dignitatem, no. 29). The theology of inculturation as presented in this dissertation opens the way for the integration of the theological anthropological teachings of John Paul II in understanding African woman as mother and wife.

Ukal Kawang Julu Mutho was born in 1964 at Lafon, Torit District, in the then Southern Sudan. He attended Primary School at Lafon in 1971; Torit one intermediate in 1978; Joined Juba Commercial Secondary School in 1979: studied in the University of Juba in 1986 and graduated with a Bachelor degree in Accounting. In 2003, he studied for pst Graduate Diploma in Sudanese and African languages in the Institute of African and Asian Studies (IAAS) University of Khartoum and graduated in 2004. Served as a teacher at El Gaderif commercial Secondary school in 1995; St. Mary Minor Secondary Khartoum in 1998; worked as senior Accountant with the Nile Commercial Bank Pic, in2006-9. Worked with the South Sudan Investment Authority as Director of Investor service; Acting Director-General with the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Investment (GOSS); served as Chief Administrator for Lafon Area in 2010 and became the first commissioner for Lafon county in 2016. Ukal is the author of Pӓri Alphabet Book, and The Pari Storybook; He is married and has children. Contents: Geography and the people: Cradle land and Migrations: Pӓri Clans Pӓri contacts with Outside World: Formation of Age group Political institutions and Authority: Institutions of Power, Relational Linkages and Justice. Marriage, Beliefs and Customs, Traditional burial Customs Epilogue.