Ebook: Good Company: A Study of Nyakyusa Age-Villages

Originally published in 1951 this book is a study of village system in southern Tanzania, which at the time of publication was thought to be unique. Each village consisted not of a group of kinsmen but an age-set: a group of male contemporaries, together with their wives and young children. The book is concerned with the structure of these villages and the values expressed in them.

deals with the structure, economy and values of Nyakyusa society. For the purposes of the Ngonde file, the Nyakyusa are considered to be part of the Ngonde nation. The monograph includes discussions of the environment, village structure, mystical interdependence among members of the age-village, the maintenance of order, and characteristics of an age-village organization. Effects of European contact, particularly missionary activities which have succeeded in the conversion of a good number of Nyakysa to Christianity, are dealt with. A large part of the book consists of documents relating to the villages, in almost all of which witchcraft and sorcery figure prominently. Dr. Wilson is currently at the School of African Studies at the University of Capetown.