An outstanding feature of the kinship organization of the Baniyankole is its lack of uniformity. Here we have an African tribe composed of pastoralists and agriculturalists, whose respective kinship organizations reveal marked differences, despite the fact that they have for a long time inhabited a common territory, spoken a common language, and practised many similar customs. Besides these two, so to speak, original forms there are the more recent variations due to European influences. If we are to study the family, for instance, we shall have to consider several types. There is the family of the Muhima herdsman, the family of the agricultural Mwiru of the old type, the family of the peasant who owns cattle and grows coffee, and the family of the government clerk or school teacher. Similarly, if we were to study the political organization, we should have to consider the old form of Banyankole kingship as it existed when the British took over the administration of Ankole, the outlines of which we are able to construct not only from the present form of government but also from official documents and the memories of missionaries and natives who lived at the time, and the series of changes that have taken place in this form of government. It at once becomes apparent that we are here dealing with variations and change. Differences in time and space are as much facts of the case as are the peculiarities and general features of a given item of culture. Any realistic approach to the variations and changes in the kinship organization of the Banyankole, therefore, calls not only for description but for comparison and interpretation.