Gezira: A Story of Development in the Sudan

when describing the system of succession in Ruanda, he neglects to say what was the practice in exercising the choice between one son and another. There is no attempt to compare the dynastic genealogy with those of commoners, or to correlate events common to more than one kingdom and so to build up a single chronological framework for the history of neighbouring states. Instead he confines his argument to the chronology of the last six reigns of the Banyiginya dynasty. Here he reviews some interesting evidence, not least the annual changes of residence of the midand late nineteenth-century monarchs, which make possible a very exact chronology of this period. The evidence for the fourth, fifth, and sixth generations back turns upon the identification of a series of partial eclipses which took place around the middle of the eighteenth century, and Father Kagame concludes that the average length of the last six generations has been either thirty-two or thirty-six years. So far, so good. He then compromises at thirty-three and proceeds to apply this figure to earlier generations, printing a king-list of thirty rulers which starts with Gihanga, A.D. 95992. It is at this stage that some of his readers will take issue with him.