The Larim are popularly known as Boya or Langorim. They are related linguistically to the Didinga, Tenet, Murle in Upper Nile and the Pokot in Kenya.
Demography and Geography
The Larim are found in Kapoeta County of Eastern Equatoria. They number about twenty to twenty five thousand persons dispersed in solitary as well as collective settlements around the Boya Hills. Their country lies north of Didinga Hills, east of Kidepo valley and the Lopit Hills. The main town of the Boya are Kimatong at the foot of the Boya Hills.
Environment, Economy and Natural Resources
The Larim country is a rugged and hilly terrain with few shrub covered outcrops lying between the Kedipo valley to the west and the Thangata river valley to the east. The vegetation is that of rich savannah with high grassland and thick shrubby bushes. It drained by seasonal streams that flow eastwards into Thangata and westwards into Kidepo. The Larim are agro-pastoralist. While they engage in cultivation of food crops like sorghum, maize, and beans, the bulk of their socio-economic activities rest on livestock herding and hunting of game and fishing. Livestock is the only known natural resource in Larim country.
Mythology and History
The Larim are close relatives to the Didinga, the Murle and the Tenet. They believe they came from Ethiopia as part of the group whose separation into apparently different ethnic communities was provoked by the dispute over the gazelle soup. The Larim have lived in their present location since the eighteenth century. They have resisted the dominant Lotuka and Toposa maintaining strong links to the Didinga and Tenet.
Language
The Larim speak, although with some variations, the same language as the Didinga, Murle and Tenet.
Society, social events, attitudes, customs ad traditions
The Larim are organised into agnatic exogamous lineages knit together by strong ties of community solidarity; custom and tradition have helped them survive planked by two hostile communities . The social organisation of the Larim is identical to that of the Didinga in terms of marriage and dowry settlement, rituals associated with birth, naming of the child, death and treatment of the diseased.
The Larim venerate valour, courage and machismo in their social relations and economic activities. This is reflected in the trepidation and fright their neighbours display when the Larim come raiding for cattle. The Larim food culture and habits is similar to the Murle. Beef and games meat form the biggest part of the Larim dish. The Larim have initiation rituals for passing into adulthood, which comes at about the age of eighteen and twenty for boys and fourteen for the girls.
Political Organisation and Traditional Authority
Although they have not developed some form of state organisation only that the Larim have a traditional socio-political system in which administrative power is vested in the hereditary chiefs respected by all and sunder. The Larim share the same Rain Chief as the Didinga and indeed perform rain-making rituals in common.
Spirituality, Beliefs and Customs
The Larim are highly religious. Their spirituality is not organised in some of religion but share with other religions the existence of a supreme being who the Larim believe controls all life including the health of their cattle. They believe the spirits of the departed ones still roam around them and therefore communicate with them through prayers and offerings which they perform collectively in designated ritual place.
Culture: arts and physical culture
The Larim evolved tradition and culture which revolves around cattle, cattle acquisition and hunting transmitted orally through generations. Cattle are the medium of exchange.
