PORTRAYING SOCIETY THROUGH CHILDREN - PLAY AMONG THE WASO-BOORANA OF KENYA

One of the few accounts on children as agents of social action in Africa is Monica Wilson's ''Good Company'' (1951). Following that account on Nyakyusa children and their society, this article provides ethnological material related to the Waso Boorana children (ca. 3-6 years old) of Garba Tulla, Kenya. Through their play they learn how to be social, but at the same time they develop their own social processes. They compete for social roles in their own microcosmical society. Nevertheless, their action and play only becomes meaningful in the context of the Waso Boorana religious changes through generations, since 1932.