CHAPTEll IT 



THE CENTRAL FBOTIXCE AXJ) TILE JTCTOBIA 



NYANZA 



THE Ontral Province contains the Elgon, Karainojo, Lohor, IJukedi, 

 and Busoga Districts. 



The P^lgon District includes the northern half of the Kavirondo 

 country. It is difficult to locate this word "Kavirondo." It is prohahly 

 of Bantu origin, but although it is recognised to some extent liy the 

 natives as a word indicating tlie north-east coast-lands of the A'ictoria 

 Nyanza, it is nowhere actually a})plied ]\v the natives to them>elves; while 

 the people loosely stvled *■' Kavirondo " by the first travellers in these 

 regions, though they ])0ssess in common a liking for complete nudity in 

 both sexes, and a certain general resemblance in physique* and in manners 

 and customs, yet are divided sharply into two sections by the languages 

 which they speak. The peoj)le of Northern Kavirondo use closely related 

 dialects of the Bantu family ; those of Southern Kavirondo (already 

 alluded to as the Ja-luo in the preceding chapter) speak a dialect of the 

 Acholi language of the Upper Nile. The word " Kavirondo " was not originally 

 known to the Baganda before recent years; they spoke of this district, in 

 common with other parts of the Central Province where the people wear 

 no clothes, as " Bukedi " ("The Laud of Nakedness ") or " Bug ay a." The 

 term " Kavirondo " will probably be always perpetuated now as the most 

 convenient general name for all those natives speaking Bantu dialects 

 west of Busoga and north of Ka\irondo Bay. 



The Kavirondo country, which thus forms the southern ]iart of the 

 Elgon District, is an extremely fertile land, traversed by the only three 

 rivers which enter the northern half of the A'ictoria Nyanza, eastwards of 

 Western Uganda. (It must be observed as a remarkable geographical 

 feature that i)ractically no running stream enters the Victoria Nyanza 

 along the whole of its northern coast between Berkeley Bay on the north- 

 east and the mouth of the Katonga on the south-west. Along all this 

 coast the lake is bordered with liigh downs and liills. and from the back 



* Dr. Hhrubsall, however, pronounces the Kavirondo divided iiliysically into 

 Bantu and Nilotic types. 



