Homicide and Suicide Among the Gisu (IN: African Homicide and Suicide, ed. by P Bohannan)

This article describes homicide & suicide among the Gisu, a Bantu-speaking people from eastern Uganda. The authors studied murder & suicide rates from the 1940s & 1950s, & present information on concepts of death, justifiable homicide, & many other social beliefs. Suicide, to the Gisu, is viewed as a result of “litima”, or temper; suicide is seen as evil & and contagious. Stastistics on methods, motives, economic conditions, age, & sex are included. Case histories are included. (VM)