The Luo are several ethnically and linguistically related Nilotic ethnic groups that inhabit an area ranging from Egypt and Sudan to South Sudan and Ethiopia, through Northern Uganda and eastern Congo (DRC), into western Kenya, and the Mara Region of Tanzania.
The Joluo and their language Dholuo are also known as the "Luo proper", even though their dialect has more Bantu loan words than the rest.
he level of historical separation between these groups is estimated at about eight centuries. Dispersion from the Nilotic homeland in South Sudan was presumably triggered by the turmoil of the Muslim conquest of Sudan.
The migration of individual groups over the last few centuries can to some extent be traced in the respective group's oral history.
Their Luo languages belong to the western branch of the Nilotic language family.
LUO PEOPLES DISTRIBUTION |
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South Sudan |
Uganda |
Kenya |
Tanzania |
Ethiopia |
DR Congo |
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Joluo; also known in some early colonial documents and ethnographic texts as the "Nilotic Kavirondo" (not an indigenous term).
Fifty years ago they were called "the people of the Kavirondo" and all groups of africans living around the Gulf of Lake Victoria - today the site of the town of Kisumu - were so named. Later on, they were briefly called the Kavirondo, as if to indicate the existence of a big tribe called Kavirondo.
Nowadays they are called LUO: once an ethnic block made up of more than forty autonomous groups, occupying their own small territory, but now strongly united into a flourishing tribe, which according to 1979 Kenya Census, numbers two million in Kenya (after the Kikuyu and Luhia). The Luo did not originate in Kenya. Once they were joined with the Maasai, or better with the ancestors of the Maasai tribe and lived on the vast and fertile inlets of the Nile in Southern Sudan. Tradition suggests that they were related to the Dinka and Nuer, still living today in the region of Wau (Sudan). History refers to at least four Luo migrations at definite intervals of time. The first to migrate from their motherland became entirely absorbed into the numberless groups and sub-groups, then living around the northern region of Lake Victoria.
The Luo homeland is an area of over 3,860 square miles (10,000 square kilometers) surrounding the Winam Gulf on the northeast end of Lake Victoria. Most of this area is in the Nyanza Province of Kenya, but a portion extends into northern Tanzania. A number of Luo also live in the urban centers of Nairobi and Mombasa. The Luo area is composed of three concentric climatic and vegetation zones that extend outward from the Winam Gulf. The first is an arid coastal plain from about 3,608 to 3,936 feet (1,100 to 1,200 meters) in elevation with an erratic annual rainfall of 20-40 inches (50-100 centimeters) and savanna vegetation. The second is an intermediate savanna zone up to about 4,592 feet (1,400 meters) in elevation with more than 45 inches (115 centimeters) of annual rainfall. The third region is a foothill zone up to about 4,920 feet (1,500 meters) in elevation with 59-69 inches (150-175 centimeters) of annual rainfall supporting a relatively lush vegetation. Periodic drought is common on the coastal plain, while the higher elevation zones generally receive enough precipitation during the "short rains" period to support a second cropping season.
Figures from the 1989 Kenyan census for which ethnic affiliation data are available indicate that there were 2,653,932 Luo at that time, or 12.38 percent of the total population of Kenya. More recent estimates are difficult given the uncertain demographic effects of AIDS and other factors over the last decade of the twentieth century and the beginning of the twenty-first century; however, assuming a projected total Kenyan population of around 30 million people in 2001 and a constant ratio, the total Luo population in Kenya would be approximately 3.7 million. The Luo population in Tanzania has been estimated at approximately 223,000.
Dholuo is the language of the Luo. It is classified as a Nilotic language within the Western (or "River-Lake") Nilotic branch of the Chari-Nile family. The most closely related languages to Dholuo are those of the Padhola and Alur of Uganda. Among the Luo there are several internal regional variations in vocabulary and pronunciation, with the inhabitants of much of Siaya District (especially the JoAlego) considered significantly distinctive by inhabitants of the other Luo districts.
According to reconstructions based upon oral history, the various lineages that constitute the modern Luo settled their current homeland in Kenya in an extremely complex and lengthy series of migrations that began in the late fifteenth or sixteenth century and continued through the end of the nineteenth century. Nyanza was previously occupied by Bantu-speaking peoples who were both absorbed and displaced by the several streams of infiltrating Luo. The early Luo settlers first entered the portion of Nyanza that lies north of the Winam Gulf (the current Siaya District) from eastern Uganda as part of a series of migrations of Nilotic-speaking peoples (Padhola, Acholi, Alur, etc.) out of southern Sudan. By the mid-eighteenth century, several Luo groups expanded out of this area and spread over South Nyanza as well. This whole process involved sequential displacements of earlier Luo settlers and Bantu groups by later arrivals, as well as the assimilation of many Bantu groups. The nineteenth century witnessed the most aggressively militaristic phase of expansion, especially into lands held by Bantu (Luyia) groups to the north. These ongoing population movements were halted by the imposition of British colonial control at the end of the nineteenth century when the territories of the various Luo subgroups at that moment were cartographically inscribed as the boundaries of the administrative sub-districts.
The regional settlement pattern consists of individual patrilineal and patrilocal extended family homesteads scattered over the landscape without any larger traditional concentrations of population (although the multi-ethnic lake port city of Kisumu was established in Luo territory during the colonial period, as were a number of small administrative and market centers). Each homestead (dala; plural (delni) is occupied by an extended (usually polygynous) family. A man must always marry in the homestead of his father, rather than that of his grandfather; consequently, when a man's eldest son is ready for marriage, he will move out from his father's dala; and found a new one of his own. Thus, each homestead has a three-generation life cycle. When the last of the original inhabitants of a homestead has died, the settlement (now called gunda; plural gundni) will be left fallow for a period and then used as farmland by the sons of the former head of the homestead. The landscape also shows traces of significantly larger gundni with earthen ramparts (gunda bur) dating to the nineteenth century and earlier. In South Nyanza, there is also evidence of large gundni surrounded by stone walls called okinga. A gunda bur is identified by the name of an ancestor-inhabitant and they frequently serve as anchors for lineage claims to territory.
Each dala is bounded by a euphorbia hedge-fence and the houses are arranged in a highly ordered pattern on the interior. The spatial and temporal organization of the Luo homestead is a complex symbolic representation of the genealogical structure and the relations of authority in both the homestead and society. Lines of structural opposition and alliance between co-wives, and within the broader kinship and political system, are correlated with house placement on alternating sides of the homestead. Relations of seniority and authority are also represented and naturalized through temporal sequences of house construction, repair, and a host of daily activities and rituals that take place in the homestead.
The typical Luo family (or nuclear family) lived and still lives in its own enclosed place (pacho), together with its cattle. The pacho consists of a stretch of land enclosed by a fence of euphorbia tree (ojuok); it has a main and a secondary entrance. In the centre of the pacho, close to the smaller kraal reserved for cattle, there is the traditional circular hut of the family head. In this very hut, guests are welcomed and meals are taken together by all the male members of the family. Right behind this hut and in front of the main entrance, there stands the hut of the first wife (mikayi); the hut of the other wives are located beside it. By the sides of the main entrance there are the huts of adult male sons, whether married or not. A deep mark of distinction between the Luo and other Bantu and Nilotic tribes - which themselves greatly value hospitality - is the well known custom of honouring guests with the highest esteem and respect. It reaches its most concrete expression in the building of a beautiful guest hut, peculiar in shape. The entrance to it is high and comfortable, but soon one faces a low ceiling about one metre high and one needs to crouch low in order to reach a welcoming bed-sofa (or skins laid on the ground). The guest who enters this hut, where the family head is already waiting for him, must feel at once at ease, rest and take the food prepared in advance for him. A most honoured reception for those not affected by rheumatism...
Luo subsistence depends upon a mixture of agriculture, animal husbandry, and fishing. Subsistence agriculture is performed almost exclusively by women in scattered multiple small plots in the general neighborhood of the homestead. Primary agricultural production to feed her family is considered the duty of every rural Luo wife, and there is little dependence on purchased food (aside from small-scale "target" selling and buying of foodstuffs at the local markets and the purchase of a few imported items such as tea, sugar, and salt). Hoe agriculture is predominant, but ox-plows are found in some areas. The primary grain crops include sorghum, maize, and millet; cassava and sweet potatoes are major root crops. Sorghum and cassava are especially valued for their resistance to drought. These starches are complemented by various kinds of beans, lentils, and greens. In the higher elevation zone bananas are also grown. The early Luo settlers in Kenya had a pastoralist orientation, and cattle have remained very important as a symbol and unit of wealth; they have long been, for example, the central component of bride-wealth exchanges (now augmented or partially replaced with cash). The cattle are generally eaten only in the context of feasting rituals, but their milk forms an important part of the ordinary diet. Sheep, goats, and chickens are a less valuable and somewhat more commonly consumed source of meat. Fish of several types and sizes (tilapia, Nile perch, etc.) are also a much-appreciated source of protein. They are caught in the waters of the Winam Gulf and traded throughout the market system.
The Luo were forcibly drawn into a monetary economy at the beginning of the twentieth century by the colonial imposition of "hut" taxes designed to stimulate a supply of native workers for the farms of English colonists and for railroad construction. In fact, the most important source of cash has continued to be migratory wage labor by Luo men, such that about a third of middle-aged Luo men live outside the Luo area at any given time. The Luo have been notoriously resistant to cash cropping, especially in Siaya District. However, small-holder cash cropping of tobacco, cotton, sunflowers, coffee, peanuts, and a few other items is somewhat more prevalent in parts of southern Nyanza and the area around Kisumu. Large sugar plantations exist in the area north of Kisumu, but these are owned by outside agents who employ Luo workers. Other commercial activities oriented more toward a local market include such things as fishing, the sale of beer and chang'aa (an illegal distilled liquor), and motor-transportation services (especially the running of matatus, or "bush taxis").
Luo artisans make a wide variety of crafts that are largely consumed locally rather than directed toward a tourist market. Pottery is a thriving craft performed entirely by women. Less than 1 percent of all women are potters, yet they manage to supply nearly all Luo homes with a diverse range of forms to serve a common set of cooking, serving, and storage functions. Potters live in clusters of homesteads centered around clay sources scattered throughout the Luo area and they sell pots at local markets. Other local craft products sold at markets include baskets (for storage, food-processing, eating, and fishing, etc.), forged iron goods (agricultural tools, ornaments, etc.), and such things as ropes, brooms, reed mats, wooden tool handles, and oil lamps made from recycled cans.
A system of regular periodic markets exists throughout the Luo area and serves as a focus for both trading and social activities. This system developed in the early twentieth century out of the prior practice of sporadic famine markets under the influence of the developing cash economy. Markets serve as centers for the exchange of local crafts and foodstuffs as well as for the distribution of imported goods (e.g. clothing, kerosene, salt, plastic and metal containers). However, they do not usually serve as major collection points for large amounts of local produce flowing out to distant urban or international markets. The Luo do trade with neighboring peoples at border markets, and they are, for example, major suppliers of pottery to the Kisii/Gusii and some other non-Luo groups. Moreover, some of these products are distributed further afield by middleman traders.
The primary division of labor is gender-based. Subsistence agriculture, childcare, cooking, arid domestic maintenance are all female tasks. Women are also the primary or exclusive contributors to several kinds of craft production (especially pottery), although men contribute to some crafts (e.g. basketry) and are the exclusive producers of others (e.g. iron working). Men are the predominant ritual, political, and oral history specialists. In the pre-colonial era they were also the warriors. External wage labor and cash cropping also tend to be predominantly male activities. Market traders, on the other hand, are predominantly women, but men are also involved in the selling of some items, especially goods coming from outside the Luo area.
According to Achola Pala's ("Women's access to land", 1983) calculations, the majority of women work between three and five small, scattered parcels of land totaling 4-11 acres (1.5-4.5 hectares) but spread over a wide area. However, this system has been subjected to various kinds of pressure from increasing population density (hence land shortage), and from land tenure reform programs implemented by the colonial and, especially, postcolonial states. The goal of the reform programs is primarily to consolidate land holdings and register individual title to land. The effect has been to transform land into an alienable commodity in a system of almost exclusively male individualized ownership with little concern for women's access to it. The sale of land for cash has created serious moral tensions as well as sometimes leaving aged mothers and widows landless.
The traditional system of land tenure was one in which land was corporately held by patrilineages and was not individually alienable. This included farmland, pasture, water, firewood, and clay sources. Women received usufruct rights to agricultural plots and other resources by virtue of their husband's membership in a patrilineage. These rights were distributed among the women of a homestead by the husband or senior co-wife (mikayi), and they depended upon various dimensions of seniority relations.
Kinship has a powerful role in structuring Luo social life, identity, and politics, as well as the landscape. Luo maximal lineages (dhoudi; singular dhoot), sometimes called "clans" in the anthropological literature, are exogamous land-holding units. Descent is patrilineal and women remain members of their father's lineage after marriage. A cluster of maximal lineages occupying a distinct territory (piny) is called oganda (plural ogendi). These clusters are often referred to as "sub-tribes," or even, by one source, Evans-Pritchard (1949), "tribes." All these groups claim descent from a common ancestor named Ramogi. Their genealogical relationship to each other is a product of a long and continuing history of fluid segmentation of lineages. Each co-wife's house (ot) in a polygynous homestead is seen as the potential kernel of a future lineage. A person's identity is viewed as depending upon nested membership in the family of a particular father (jokawuoro) and grandfather (jokakwaro) within some distinct minimal lineage that is a segment of a given dhoot and oganda.
The Luo are markedly polygynous in both ideology and practice. Post-marital residence is patrilocal in the strictest sense of the term: that is, the wife goes to live with the husband in the homestead of the husband's father. Marriage involves a protracted series of exchanges and ceremonies between the families of the bride and groom, and most crucially the payment of substantial bride-wealth to the bride's family. Formerly, this involved cattle (and, in the pre-colonial era, iron hoes); now it involves cattle and cash. Once bride-wealth has been paid, the children produced by the marriage are considered to belong to the husband's lineage. Divorce necessitates a return of bride-wealth. Marriage is not simply an individual affair: it establishes an enduring relationship of mutual obligations between affines that can be invoked for aid in times of hunger or other need.
Marriage is one of the most important ceremonies of the Luo society. It is not a matter of an actor of a day, but it completes itself through a long period of time. Few Luo people actually really know the most intricate ritual of marriage. It consists of a long gradual process of agreements, of offerings, of sacrifices, of feasts etc... each having a crowd of leading and minor characters roaming around the bridegroom's family and around the groom's father, who will help his son draw up the required dowry in order to marry. A most expert master of ceremonies will lead the marriage celebration according to old Luo traditions. Marriage negotiations can last for months. They are carried on by the parents of the two "promised", through intermediaries. Once the marriage has been agreed on, it was a past custom - performed even today in some places - to devise a kind of "bride-snatching" (such a custom is found also among some Bantu people in Kenya): the girl was carried off to the boy friend's hut. After a certain period of living together, the couple will go to the girl's parents' house, where the boy friend will express his respect to the mother and then will start to pay part of the agreed dowry. A great feast will then follow.
The fiancé-husband will comply with his duty to pay the rest of the dowry, but ¡n the meantime, the girl will remain with her parents paying only brief visits to the "promised husband", on the occasions of additional dowry payments, such as a new cow.
Only when the girl's father is fully satisfied with the number of cows paid, will the final marriage feast - called riso - take place, being the ceremony of definitely handing over the bride to the husband. Among Luo there was no room for unmarried women or men. An unmarried person was considered neither an adult nor a full member of the clan.
The Luo, in their long migration process, have naturally become nomads, great owners of livestock, used to warfare. During the last century, however, they began to settle down to a more stable kind of life, getting some subsistence from land cultivation, without giving up cattle rearing. The family structure of Luo is patrilinear, whereby ownership and power come down from the father or grandfather to male children only. The family nucleus is constituted by the family head and his wives, (polygamy is very common among Luo), with their sons and daughters and, if the sons are married, also their wives and children . The daughters of the family head, when they get married, definitely leave the family of origin and join their husband's line. The wealth of a family head has an influential weight on the stability of his family group: a wealthy man must have more wives and many children in order to defend, protect and care for the property and look after the cattle. It was a common occurrence to register a nuclear family with up to fifty wives, mainly among great chiefs and witchdoctors. According to the Luo mentality, there is strength in numbers, so that the bigger a nuclear family is, the more powerful it is. Besides, it needs to be pointed out that, as a result of tropical diseases and epidemics, mortality was high and the greater number of wives was considered as the most solid means to uphold the perpetuity of family life.
The basic domestic unit is the polygynous household. Each co-wife must have her own house (ot) in the homestead (dala) occupied by the patrilineal polygynous extended family. The husband, considered the wuon dala (head of the homestead), rotates among the houses of his wives for eating and sleeping, although he often has a small independent house (duol) for entertaining other male guests. Each house, occupied by a woman and her children, also has its own granary and is responsible for raising its own subsistence, although there is often a great deal of cooperation among co-wives or neighbors in labor of various kinds.
Inheritance is patrilineal. Sons inherit cattle and other forms of wealth, as well as rights to the land of the father's gunda, from their father. A woman generally does not inherit wealth from her father or husband: the property of the husband passes to his brothers. Women do sometimes inherit small household items from their mothers-in-law.
Caring for young children is shared by mothers, grandmothers, and older siblings. By the end of the twentieth century, school also played an important role in socialization. From the time they reach the age of puberty until they marry, boys live together in a house called samba just inside the main gate of the homestead. For women, who typically marry young (traditionally before age sixteen), there is a great deal of post-marital re-socialization in which the mother-in-law plays an authoritative role. The spatial organization of the settlement itself has an important part in channeling the flow of social relations and inculcating beliefs and attitudes about proper behavior, authority, and relationships. The Luo have no formal initiation rites to mark the transition to adulthood and they are not circumcised. However, until the 1970s it was a common practice to extract six lower front teeth at some point in the pre-adult phase of the life cycle.
Generational time structures relationships between individuals within lineages or lineage segments. For example, two males of identical chronological age may stand in the relationship of either "brothers" or of "father" and "son," depending upon the temporal depth of their genealogical connection. This structural relationship will have a great deal to do with the behavior considered appropriate between the two and will have much more to do with determining seniority than the relative times of birth.
Lineage membership is the primary structuring principle of social organization. The distant past is perceived as the history of successive segmentation of patrilineages from a common Luo ancestor (Ramogi) resulting in a dendritic system of connections among all Luo lineages. Membership in a lineage implies a specific social distance from all other Luo lineages which is calculated on the basis of the temporal distance of the segmentation event. This temporal and social distance has practical significance in structuring personal interaction, as it determines whom one can marry, where one can expect political allies, with whom one is expected to share, whose funerals one must attend, where one has rights to land, and other relations.
Although at the beginning of the twenty-first century they live with an administrative system of local "chiefs" imposed by the British colonial government and continued by the postcolonial Kenyan state, the Luo have traditionally had a strongly egalitarian political ethos and lacked centralized authority. They do, however, have an indigenous term, ruoth, that is used to refer to modern chiefs. In the precolonial era this term more likely meant something closer to "leader" or "man of influence" than to the institutionalized political role it has come to signify. However, oral histories indicate that the degree to which individuals in the past were able to transform their informal influence within councils of elders into naturalized positions of authority and power varied somewhat from region to region. Traditionally, there was no pan-Luo centralized political authority or formal political hierarchy. Rather, the Luo are considered to be a classic example of a segmentary lineage system with fluctuating ad hoc alliances among lineages structured by genealogical distance between the disputants. The modern administrative boundaries within Luo territory, which were defined during the colonial era, effectively froze into static form what had previously been a series of highly dynamic factional and territorial struggles between competing subgroups organized according to lineage affiliation and military expediency.
Each Luo family belongs to a clan (dhoot): clan means a group of people or families belonging to the same ancestor. Several clans inter-related and gathered in the same geographical area make up a people (oganda), under the leadership of a chief (ruoth). Several peoples (ogendini) together constitute the Luo tribe. When the English Colonial power occupied the región of the Gulf of the Kavirondo, it found thirteen ogendini, which gave rise to the thirteen locations, into which the present territory is divided. Each ruoth had its own Council (buch pini) made up of the elders of the most renowned clans, for, according to the Luo and also to all Bantu people, wisdom is a characteristic of oíd age. This Council judged questions and cases of greater importance, such as serious crimes, raids, land problems, inter-clan wars... Besides this there were Regional Councils and Clans'Councils. The family head was entitled to judge only minor crimes within his own intímate family.
Belief in witchcraft and the potentially lethal supernatural consequences of violating cultural codes has been a powerful traditional force for social control. In this strongly egalitarian society, ostentatious accumulation of riches and deviation from the obligation to share are thought to provoke jealousy and the attention of witches, resulting in sickness and death. Moreover, violation of a range of cultural practices (especially temporal sequences of ritual acts that emphasize relations of seniority and authority and codes of personal interaction between classes of kin and affines) is thought to result in a state of supernatural illness called chira, that can be fatal, sometimes for entire families, if not expiated through appropriate rituals.
In the precolonial period, the arbitration of disputes within the smallest local territorial unit, the gweng, was handled by a council of elders (jodongo). The possibility to become an influential leader in this context required the building of prestige and moral authority, and these qualities were acquired from several possible sources. The most immediate criteria were genealogical position and the strength of the lineage: the most genealogically senior member of the dominant lineage of the gweng had responsibilities to settle disputes within the gweng, and he met with other similar leaders to attempt to resolve disputes between gwenge. Disputes that could not be settled peacefully were resolved by fission and migration, or by armed conflict. Pragmatic alliances often formed in which strong lineages would secure the support of weaker jodak (tenant) lineage groups that had settled in their territory after being forced out or fissioning elsewhere. Chiefs appointed by the Kenyan state now fulfill many of these local conflict mediation roles and the law courts are the locus of higher level disputes.
From the late fifteenth to the end of the nineteenth century, the Luo, in the course of their southward migration and intrusion into the territory of Bantu-speaking peoples, were frequently engaged in armed conflict. There was little to distinguish internal and external fighting since in the segmentary lineage system fighting could be directed at one time against other Luo lineages (such as the earlier settlers) and at other times it would be against Bantu speakers. Fighting mostly ceased with the imposition of British colonial rule. With the exception of occasional isolated skirmishes, territorial disputes have since been displaced into the court system and the legislature. A number of Luo men were also drawn into larger conflicts when they were conscripted into the British colonial army during World Wars I and II.
The Luo believe in the existence of God - Nyasaye - Supreme Being, creator of the universe. The name Nyasaye (or Nyasi) is not of Luo origin, but ¡t has been borrowed from neighbouring Bantu tribes. According to some people it means only "good spirit". Next to the Supreme Being is the figure of Chieng, the sun. It is the elders 'duty to pray to God and plead with him for help, or for rain, through the ancestors' mediation. Traditional Luo nourish a strange sacred respect for serpents. When they meet them on their way or in any place of work, they prefer to move away in awe without disturbing them. If they discover a serpent in their hut, they tactfully invite it to go out, thinking that such a serpent is a reincarnation (or nearly) of the spirit of one of the ancestors, who has come to make sure things in his old house still function well. Trees, rocks and tops of high hills, are considered sacred places where animistic people offer sacrifices of animals and implore god's blessings for the harvest and homesteads. The Luo also believe in the presence of the spirits (juogi); these can take possession of a person, conferring on him certain healing powers. Such a possessed person becomes a witchdoctor - ajuoga - or a medicine-man. As a matter of fact, such a person is quite conversant with herbalism and can cure diseases, thus strengthening the credibility of his trade.
The Jabilo is a sacred or quasi-sacred person; he is a kind of great priest: he foretold or foreboded successful results of battles, laid "magic" on the warriors that they might not die in war... and, not least, was a "rain-maker".
Traditional religious practitioners include several kinds of witches, sorcerers, or magicians and diviners. These go by various names depending upon their attributes. Those who use medicines are called jobilo. They are feared and respected for their powers of divination and their ability to use killing magic on enemies. Ajuoge is a more general term for witches or sorcerers, while jopuok is used for "nightrunners" and those (usually women) who have the power to cause sickness through the "evil eye" (sihoho). Witchcraft and magical powers can be inherited or learned, depending upon the circumstances and type of powers. The independent African churches have a range of parallel religious specialists (priests, bishops, popes, prophets, etc.) derived from the Christian tradition. Leadership roles in these churches tend to be predominantly male, while church membership is predominantly female.
The largest and most ostentatious Luo ceremonies are funerals. These can last for several days, during which time the host family must supply a large gathering of kin and affines with a steady supply of food and beer. The ritual involves a parade of the cattle owned by the deceased and a great feast accompanied by dancing and praise songs. A person's prestige can be measured by the number of people who attend his or her funeral. There are a host of other important ceremonies that are less elaborate than funerals, including marriage, twin-birth rituals, rites for establishing a new homestead, and harvest festivals. These all involve feasts with beer (and often chang'aa)
Oratory is one of the most admired and highly developed arts among the Luo. This includes the ability to tell stories and proverbs, to engage in formal praise speeches, and to marshal eloquent skills of political persuasion. There are also professional musicians who play the nyatiti (a plucked string instrument) to accompany songs that include both praise and witty satire of patrons and other influential men. Dancing also plays an important part in most festivities and rituals. Among the plastic arts, potters and basket-weavers are notably skilled.
The Luo have a rich lore of herbal and other natural medicines. Some plants and their uses are known by everyone. Others (especially those used for harmful magic) are the domain of specialists (jobilo). Much curing is also done, after divination of the causes, by rituals that are not based upon plant medicines.
The ancestors are a strong force in the life of the living. The spirits of the dead can be very dangerous if they have died under troubled circumstances or if they have been offended by the behavior of the living. However, they can also be a positive force. Children are often renamed after an ancestor who appears in a dream or who is invoked by a diviner. Most Luo also hold views of death and the afterlife influenced by their participation in Christian religions. Adults are buried within the homestead, while infants and those who have died in some spiritually dangerous luminal state may be buried outside the settlement. It is imperative that even those Luo who live in distant cities be brought back to their homestead for burial out of their own house. The famous legal dispute following the death of S. M. Otieno in 1985 (in which his non-Luo wife objected to his being returned to his homeland for burial) is a dramatic demonstration of the force of this belief and of the potential conflict between traditional law based upon collective rights and the law of the state based upon individual rights.
Generally Luo have a quiet and jovial character. Intelligent and enterprising. Deriving from nomadic ancestors, modern Luo still have in their blood a need of adventure: they easily wander far from their home, but they are firmly rooted in their country of origin. Their traditional life was hunting, fishing, rearing animals and only recently, cultivation. Hunting of wild animals provided the daily necessities of the group, while the domestic animals were reserved for special solemnities, marriages, sacrifices and funerals. Hunting was a community affair and the division of the meat formed a special ceremonial which even today applies in the division of the domestic meat. Luo were, and still are, the champions at fishing, among all the tribes of Kenya. The new fishermen have adopted nets and modern fishing-lines instead of the oíd wicker net. But even nowadays, mainly on the tiny deltas of the rivers flowing into the Lake Victoria, you may admire groups of fishermen busy with their oíd traps. The most renowned fish they like is the Tilapia (ngege), but the kamongo (lung-fish) is also a favoured catch. The presence of numerous hippos in Lake Victoria was a good chance for the Luo to become courageous hunters and eaters of hippo meat. From the hippo, besides the meat, they used to obtain fat, hide for their shields, ornamental tusks for their ritual masks (particularly for the ritual funeral masks). Land cultivation is a relatively recent activity of the Luo. Finger millet (eleusina), cassava, cotton, sorghum, sugar cañe, bananas and pumpkins are the usual crops which may be cultivated in the hot, humid climate of the Lake Basin. Joviality among the Luo may be expressed in many ways: banquets with copious beer drinking, dances, extempore thrumming of citharists, strenuous smoking by aged grandmothers. The picture of the Luo eider peacefully smoking her big clay pipe is almost classic! The characteristic Luo musical instruments used for pacing the rhythm of a dance or of a song, are the nyatiti, a sort of guitar or zither with many strings, not necessarily arranged in order to make a diatonic scale (it is enough to strum), the abu (horn of an ox or other large animal); the orutu, a kind of violin with a single string which is made to vibrate by means of a tiny bow. In some places you may find people blowing into a gigantic horn-plus-pumpkin (see the picture), called bu.
The birth of the first born - as among all tribes of Kenya - is greeted with particular joy: all the clan must take part in the solemn ceremonies and dances. If the first born is a male, the solemnity will be at its peak, but also for the first baby girl there will be feasting and joy. A birth of twins however, in the past was considered a bad ornen and among some groups of Luo the twins were suffocated. If births and marriages were regulated by sumptuous ceremonials, we must say that the funeral rites surpass all others.
Some would derive the funeral rites of the Luo from the pharaohnic rites of the Egyptians. Luo funerals, particularly the ruoth's (chief) funeral, have an impressive and communitarian significance. The death is celebrated with laments, songs and dances. All parents, closely or distantly related, together with friends and acquaintances, will gather in the pacho and deeply mourn the death. The successor of the head of the family must do his utmost to please all guests properly: food and beer must be in plenty for everybody if he would not be shamed. Celebration will go on for days and weeks even after burial. The burial place of the head of the family is in front of the first wife's hut, in the pacho. The grave of the first wife, should she be the first to die, is in front of the husband's hut. While assisting at Luo funeral rites, one may note people solemnly dressed in pharaohnic attire, pushing a big ox. The animal will be sacrificed for the benefit of the participants in the funeral rites and in honour of the deceased in order to gain his favour as an "ancestor". Succession and division of the deceased's property must scrupulously follow his last will. Rich heads of the family seldom leave this world without an oral testament for the family and the clan. One main point is taken for granted: the daughters will not inherit from their father. The Luo culture, especially recently, has undergone rapid and deep changes. The Luo have adapted to a more sedentary life. They have specialized in the cultivation of more profitable crops, small industries, different professions and commercial life, and last but not least, they have entered politics. All these changes have made the Luo people - compared to other tribal groups - a prominent tribe not only in their own territory but all over Kenya as well, mainly in the big cities, where the Luo now share their ability with the Kikuyu, Luhia, Kalenjin etc... in all aspects of national life: politics, the legal profession, medicine, engineering, journalism.
Ethiopia is located in Eastern Africa, west of Somalia, at between 8 00 N, 38 00 E coordinates. Ethiopia is about 1,127,127 sq km, with a population of 73,053,286. The Luo ethnic group in Ethiopia are about 45,646 of the total population. Its climate is classified as tropical monsoon with wide topographic-induced variation.
The Luo in Ethiopia are known as Anuak as well, and are in fact no any different than the Anuak of the Upper Nile in Sudan.
Moreover, the Luo Anuak in Ethiopia indeed are the continuation of the Anuak of the Upper Nile Region in Southern Sudan whom are the descendants of Gilo, the younger brother of Nikango and Dimo as far as the ancestry linkages are concerned (Ogot, Bathwell (1967).
The Anuak Luo of Ethiopia are found in the Gamella region of south western Ethiopia. They are classified as Nilo-Saharan, Eastern Sudanic, Nilotics, Luo and Anuak. They are numbering 45, 646 according to (1991) census (Gilley, Leoma: 2004).
Their main sources of economy are fishing, agriculture, mining and hunting. Their source of economy has a distinct link between with the other Luo groups in Southern Sudan and neighbouring countries (Ethiopia, Kenya, DRC, Uganda and Tanzania)
The Luo ethnic group in Kenya are part of the central arguments among the Luo groups all over Africa. Some Luo’s mythical and oral history in Sudan refer to Kenya as the home of origin before the migration Luo people to Sudan and other parts of Eastern Africa.
On the contrary, Luo in Kenya assume that Sudan is the central point of migration and their home of origin, the fact that has been proven by many ethnologists and historians to be the actual point of origin of the Luo people (Atieno-Odhiambo: 1999).
Most ethnologists and scholars who tried to study Luo ethnic groups in the 21 century have cited the same assumptions in which they refer to Southern Sudan as the home of Luo ethnic groups.
Furthermore, Kenya remained the most populated country with Luo ethnic groups in Africa. Kenya also appeared to be unique in the sense that Luo group has maintained its culture, Language and sustained the unity and prevented further separation and migration (Atieno-Odhiambo: 1999).
According to Adamson (1967), the migration of Luo ethnic group to Kenya started some hundred and fifty years ago. Adamson further stated that Luo are the only Nilotic groups in Kenya as far as Kenyan ethnic classification is concerned. They have “… cross [ed] lake Victoria after pushing Bantu ethnic population and the first inhabitants of the Lake Victoria (1967: p157).
The Luo have chosen Nyanza province on the Banks of Lake Victoria as their home and settled there since. They (Luo) have migrated to Kenya from eastern Uganda in four waves which consisted of (1) The Joka-jok as the first group to arrive from the Acholiland, and the largest migration of the Luo recorded to Kenya (2) migration from Alur (3) The owiny whom are actually part of the Padhola and (4) the Jok’omolo who migrated from Pawir.
Currently, there are about 12 Luo clans found in Kenya, and consist of Jo-Alego, Jo-Gem (Gum), Jo-Ugenya, Jo-Seme, Jo-Karachuonyo, Jo-Nnyakach, Jo-Kabundo, Jo-Kisumo, Jo-Kano, Jo-Asembo, Jo-Uyoma, Jo-Sakwa and Jo-Kajulu. The term “Jo” in Luo language means "people of” (Ogot: 1997).
Apparently, the Luo ethnic tribe are considered as the third largest group in Kenya (11%) after the non-Luo Bantu of Kikuyu (21%) and Luhya (14%) of the total population. (Ogot: 1997)
Nonetheless, the Luo language is adopted and spoken by majority of non-Luo tribes in Kenya as a second language. In 1994, the Luo ethnic group’s population was estimated to be 3, 185,000. The Luo in Kenya are also known as Nilotic Kavirondo, and classified as Nilo-Saharan, Eastern sudanic. The Luo however, simply refer to themselves as Jo- Luo, which literary means; (the people of Luo) (Ogot: 1997).
The Luo of Kenya are known as agriculturist, Fishers and miners. They have adopted Christianity as their traditional religion, and also believed in ancestors and life after death (Gray, Richard: 1961).
There are similarities noted between the Luo ethnic groups of Tanzania, and the Luo of Kenya. Both are being classified as Nilotic Kavirondo, Nilo-Saharan, Luo, and Eastern Sudanic.
Nonetheless, by paying a closer look at the Luo Settlement around the Lake Victoria (Re: Map figure) in Kenya, it gives a clear indication of continuation of the same Luo ethnic tribe of Kenya up to eastern bank of lake Victoria, crossing the border of Tanzania and Kenya. The Luo in Kenya are found in Mara Region (Ogot: 1997).
The population in Tanzania was estimated at 280,000 according to the year 2001 government census. The migration of the Luo ethnic to Tanzania is cited around 1800. The Luo ethnic group in Tanzania crossed over form Kenya, as such they are not any different than the Luo in Kenya.
The Luo group in Tanzania are also known as Luo Kavirindo; the same name that applies to Luo groups in Kenya (Wild J.V. (1954).
Uganda is home for Luo ethnic groups of (1) Acholi, (2) Adhola, and the assimilated Luo groups of (3) Lango and (4) Kumam.
It is also assumed to be the possible first entrance that Luos of Sudan used to further migrate to Kenya, Tanzania and the Democratic republic of Congo.
The Luo population in Uganda was estimated at 994,373, in which 746,796 according to (1991 census) were Luo acholi, that are found in North central Acholi district, and 12,089 speakers of Chopi, (1972 Ladeoged et al,). This statistics also includes 247, 577 (1986) Luo Adhola in Maple District (Ogot: 1997).
Both Luo Acholi and Adhola are classified as Nilo-Saharan, Eastern Sudanic, Nilotics, Luo or Lwo. In addition to Acholi and Adhola in Uganda, there are also Alur, Jo-Nam, Thur, Lango and Kumam. In this context, it was noted that Lango and Kumam are not Luo by their origin; rather, they have been assimilated through intermarriages and socio-cultural interaction. According to T.T. S. Hayley (1947) the Lango were in close contact with the Nilo-homitic such as Shilluk, Luo, Anuak, Alur and Jopaluo.
These groups seem to occupy the areas that passed round the north of Lake Rudolph and cross to the north of Lake Albert. The groups split up, and migrated northwest, and southwest to form what is known today as nilotic group of eastern Africa, as a result of inter ethnic conflict between an alliance of Bari and Madi against the Acholi. In this segment, Lango continued its migration to settle southwest towards the Nile about A.D. 1700..
DR Congo, or The Democratic Republic of Congo is one of central African Countries that hosted large number of Luo ethnic tribe known as Alur. The Luo Alur are about 750,000 in the democratic Republic of Congo (2001Johnston and Mandrake), and are found in Oriental Province, Mahagi Territory and Northwest to Djalasiga area. (Hayley: 1947)
The Luo Alur in Congo are also known as Lur, Aloro, Alua, Alulu, Luri, Dho Alur and Jo-Alur. Furthermore, They are classified as Nilo-Saharan, Eastern Sudanic, Nilotics, Luo-Acholi, Alur-Acholi or Alur.
The Luo Alur in the Congo were the pioneers of African Music’s, which is adopted later by most African countries in the modern history. (Atkinson, Raymond: 1994).
The Luo Alur according to Peter George Murdock (1959) subsists primary by agriculture, the profession that many Luo groups’ masters. The Luo Alur inhabit northern Uganda, and extended into Belgian Congo and Kenya. (1959).
The ancestor of Alur groups according to Partitioned, Francis (1985), were part of the long term movement of the Luo speaking people from Southern Sudan to what is known now as Uganda and Kenya.
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