Imagining Sport as a Social Space in Thimlich Ohinga Society: Multivariate Approach

Abstract

Abstract The article examines sports in antiquity as a social institution, just like religion, family, and others in the Thimlich Ohinga archaeological site. Its re-centers sports in exploring past societies in East Africa, emphasizing the Thimlich Ohinga society that existed from the 15th to the 20th century. The study employs multivariate strategies of data collection and subsequent analysis. They include archaeological, historical, and ethnographic methods. Key findings show that the Thimlich Ohinga incorporated various sports through time and space. They include bao, wrestling, swimming, spear throwing, and running, which can be categorized as games that lie under chance and physical skills. To that end, these games fall under societies that were not complex in the past. Interestingly, these games were practiced for survival, defense, and spaces for expressing gender, especially masculinity, in the above society. Namely, spear throwing acted as defense and raiding other communities for livestock, especially among the Luo community. However, the bao game was based on chance, a possibility of expression of luck, which is in line with religious activities. The study demonstrates that sports were part of Thimlich Ohinga’s social institutions. Therefore, these findings warrant further interrogation of sports as a social institution in wider East African past and contemporary indigenous societies.