![]() | The Roots of Ethnicity: The Origins of the Acholi of Uganda Before 1800 Subjects: Acoli (African people) -- Origin; Acoli (African people) -- History -- Sources; Acoli (African people) -- Ethnic identity; Ethnicity -- Uganda; Ethnohistory -- Uganda; Chiefdoms -- Uganda -- History; In The Roots of Ethnicity , Ronald R. Atkinson argues that although colonial rule and its aftermath have played a major role in shaping the particular manifestations of ethnicity in Africa, many sociohistorical developments crucial to current expressions of ethnicity can be traced to a past long before the colonial period. Atkinson develops his argument through an exhaustive examination of the origins of the collective identity of the Acholi of present-day northern Uganda. His study makes clear that by the time of European conquest the essential foundations and the crucial parameters for the evolution of Acholi society and ethnic consciousness had long been established. In presenting his argument for the need to extend the existing scholarship on ethnicity in Africa beyond its twentieth-century focus, Atkinson provides what is perhaps the most detailed reconstruction and analysis yet available of the pre-1800 evolution of an African sociopolitical order. Ronald R. Atkinson is Associate Professor of History at the University of South Carolina. |
![hidden image for function call](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ca/1x1.png)