Elizabeth Colson

The Social Organization of the Gwembe Tonga

Manchester, Manchester University Press, 1960.

HN800.R47.C65 Anthropology Library

"When the Governments of British Central Africa decided to dam the Zambesi at the Kariba Gorge, and produce the largest artificial lake in the world, various learned bodies in the region combined to produce a plan to study the people, archaeological remains, fauna and fish and birds, and geology of the land that was to be drowned. It was hoped that the initial anthropological study of the people, the Gwembe Tonga, in their original home could then be followed by a further investigation into how they adapted themselves to new conditions in the areas where they were to be resettled. Professor Elizabeth Colson had previously visited the area while carrying out a full study of the neighbouring and related Tonga on the Mazabuka Plateau of Northern Rhodesia. Her study of Marriage and the Family Among the Plateau Tonga (1958), and a series of brilliant articles on Tonga politics, not only had provided excellent descriptions of the tribe, but also were of important theoretical significance."

From: Max Gluckman 1961 review of "The Social Organization of the Gwembe Tonga."
The Sociological Review, vol. 9, no. 1, p. 111-112.