The Luo are a Western Nilotic ethnic group native to western Kenya and the Mara Region of northern Tanzania. The Luo are the fourth-largest ethnic group with a population of 5,066,966 representing approximately (~10.6%) of the Kenyan total after the Kalenjin (~14%) per the 2019 census. They are part of a larger group of related Luo peoples who inhabit an area ranging from South Sudan, southwestern Ethiopia, northern and eastern Uganda, southwestern Kenya, and northern Tanzania, making them one of the largest ethnic groups in East Africa.
They speak the Luo language, also known as Dholuo, which belongs to the Western Nilotic branch of the Nilotic language family and the broader Nilo-Saharan language family. Dholuo shares considerable similarities with Nilotic languages spoken by other Luo peoples.Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Nilotic". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History. The Luo moved into western Kenya from Uganda between the 15th and 20th centuries in four waves. They were closely related to Luo peoples found in Uganda, especially the Acholi and Padhola people. As they moved into Kenya and Tanzania, they underwent significant genetic and cultural modifications as they encountered other communities that were long established in the region. Traditionally, Luo people practiced a mixed economy of cattle pastoralism, seed farming and fishing supplemented by hunting. Today, the Luo comprise a significant fraction of East Africa's intellectual and skilled labour force in various professions. They also engage in various trades, such as tenant fishing, small-scale farming, and urban work.
Luo people and people of Luo descent have made significant contributions to modern culture and civilization. Tom Mboya and Nigel N. Mwangi were key figures in the African nationalist struggle.The Politics of The Independence of Kenya by Kyle Keith. Palgrave MacMillan 1999 Luo scientists, such as Thomas Risley Odhiambo Nandy (founder of the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology and winner of the UNESCO Albert Einstein medal in 1991) and Washington Yotto Ochieng (winner of the Harold Spencer-Jones Gold Medal in 2019 from the Royal Institute of Navigation have achieved international acclaim for their contributions. Richard S. Odingo was the vice chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change when it received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 with Al Gore. Barack Obama, the first black President of the United States and a Nobel Peace Prize winner, was born to a Kenyan Luo father, Barack Obama Sr.Obama, Barack (1995). Dreams from My Father. Three Rivers Press. Lupita Nyong'o became the first black African to win an Academy Award in 2014."'Pride of Africa: Kenya celebrates Nyong'o's Oscar". Boston Herald. 3 March 2014. Archived from the original on 9 March 2014. Retrieved 5 September 2014. The Luo are the originators of a number of popular music genres including benga and ohangla. Benga is one of Africa's most popular genres.
Location The present day homeland of Kenyan and Tanzanian Luo lies in the eastern Lake Victoria basin - Nam Lolwe in the former Nyanza province in Western Kenya and the Mara region in northwestern Tanzania. This area falls within tropical latitudes and straddles the equator. This area also receives average rainfall levels. The average altitudes range between 3,700 and 6,000 feet above sea level.Ogot, Bethwell A., History of the Southern Luo: Volume I, Migration and Settlement, 1500–1900, (Series: Peoples of East Africa), East African Publishing House, Nairobi, 1967 pp 31–39
Origin
Origins
Luo people of Kenya and Tanzania form the majority of Nilotic peoples. During the British colonial period, they were known as Nilotic Kavirondo.Joyce, Thomas Athol (1911). "Kavirondo". In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. 15 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 701. The exact location of origin of the Nilotic peoples is controversial but most ethnolinguists and historians place their origins between Bahr-el-Ghazal and Eastern Equatoria in South Sudan. They practiced a mixed economy of cattle pastoralism, fishing and seed cultivation. Some of the earliest archaeological findings on record, which describe a similar culture to this from the same region, are found at Kadero, 48 kilometres (30 miles) north of Khartoum in Sudan, and date to 3000 BC. Kadero contains the remains of a cattle pastoralist culture as well as a cemetery with skeletal remains featuring Sub-Saharan African phenotypes. It also contains evidence of other animal domestication, artistry, long-distance trade, seed cultivation and fish consumption.Achilles Gautier. The faunal remains of the Early Neolithic site Kadero, Central Sudan. Archaeology of Early Northeastern Africa Studies in African Archaeology 9. Available from: https://books.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/propylaeum/reader/download/218/218-30-76968-1-10-20170210.pdf Genetic and linguistic studies have demonstrated that Nubian people in Northern Sudan and Southern Egypt are an admixed group that started off as a population closely related to Nilotic peoples. This population later received significant gene flow from Middle Eastern and other East African populations. Nubians are considered to be descendants of the early inhabitants of the Nile valley who later formed the Kingdom of Kush which included Kerma and Meroe and the medieval christian kingdoms of Makuria, Nobatia and Alodia. These studies suggest that populations closely related to Nilotic people long inhabited the Nile valley as far as Southern Egypt in antiquity.
For various reasons, slow and multi-generational migrations of Nilotic Luo Peoples occurred from South Sudan into Uganda and western Kenya from at least 1000 AD continuing up until the early 20th century. Some authors note that the early phases of this expansion coincide with the collapse of the Christian Nubian kingdoms of Makuria and Alodia, the penetration of Arabs into central Sudan as well as Nilotic adoption of Iron Age technology. The northern most group of Luo peoples - the Shilluk - advanced north along the White Nile in the 16th century, conquering territory as far as modern day Khartoum.Martell, Peter (2018). First Raise a Flag. London: Hurst & Company. . They established the Shilluk Kingdom. In the 15th century, Luo peoples moved into the Bunyoro-Kitara Kingdom and established the Babiito dynasty in Uganda. This group assimilated into Bantu culture.
The Luo of Kenya and Tanzania are classified as Southern Luo.and are the only 'river lake Nilotes' having migrated and lived along the Nile river. They entered Kenya and Tanzania via Uganda from the Bahr el-Ghazal region in South Sudan. The Luo speakers who migrated into Kenya were chiefly from four Luo-speaking groups: the Acholi, Adhola and Alur people (From Uganda and parts of South Sudan and Eastern Congo), especially Acholi and Padhola. It is estimated that Dholuo has 90% lexical similarity with Lep Alur (Alur language); 83% with Lep Achol (Acholi language); 93% with Dhopadhola (Padhola language), 74% with Anuak, and 69% with Jurchol (Luwo) and Dhi-Pari (Pari).
Luo of Kenya and Tanzania are also called Joluo or Jonagi/Onagi(a person who has his six lower teeth removed as a rite of passage during puberty), singular Jaluo, Jaonagi or Joramogi/Nyikwaramogi, meaning "Ramogi's heirs." The Luo clans of Kenya and Tanzania were called Ororo, while among the Nuer they were called Liel. In the Dinka tribe, the Luo are called the Jur-Chol. The present-day Kenya Luo traditionally consist of 27 tribes, each in turn composed of various clans and sub-clans ("Jo-" indicates "people of").
Migration into Kenya
Oral history and genealogical evidence have been used to estimate timelines of Luo expansion into and within Kenya and Tanzania. Four major waves of migrations into the former Nyanza province in Kenya are discernible, starting with the People of Jok (Joka Jok), which is estimated to have begun around 1490–1517. Joka Jok were the first and largest wave of migrants into northern Nyanza. These migrants settled at a place called Ramogi Hill, then expanded around Northern Nyanza. The People of Owiny' (Jok'Owiny) and the People of Omolo (Jok'Omolo) followed soon after (1598–1625). A miscellaneous group composed of the Suba, Sakwa, Asembo, Uyoma and Kano then followed. The Suba originally were Bantu-speaking people who assimilated into Luo culture. They fled from the Buganda Kingdom in Uganda after the civil strife that followed the murder of the 24th Kabaka of Buganda in the mid 18th century and settled in South Nyanza, especially at Rusinga and Mfangano islands. Luo speakers crossed Winam Gulf of Lake Victoria from Northern Nyanza into South Nyanza starting in the early 17th century.
As Luo speakers migrated deeper into western Kenya, they encountered the descendants of various people who had long occupied the region. The Great Lakes region has been inhabited since the early Stone Age. The Kanysore culture, located at Gogo falls in Migori county, are thought to be the first hunter gatherers in East Africa to produce ceramics. Twa people are thought to have created the rock art present on Mfangano Island. Bantu speakers, early migrants from West Africa, are thought to have reached western Kenya by 1000 BC. They brought with them iron-forging technology and novel farming techniques, turning the great lakes region into one of Africa's main population centres and earliest iron smelting regions. The Urewe culture was dominant from 650 BC to 550 BC. This culture was found in northern Nyanza. Bantu speaking groups found in the Lake Victoria basin today include the Luhya, Suba, Kunta, Kuria and Kisii. Southern Nilotic speakers, the Nandi, Kipsigis and Maasai also were found in this area.
Luo expansion into these already inhabited areas led to trade, conflict, conquest, inter-marriage and cultural assimilation. The previous inhabitants were pushed by Luo speakers to their present day boundaries. The Luhya were pushed up into higher ground. The Kuria were pushed southwards between the Kenyan and Tanzania border. The Nandi and Kipsigis were pushed east and northeast.
As Luo people moved into the Nyanza region, the local Bantu peoples stopped circumcising as they increasingly adopted Luo culture. Women played a significant role in overcoming prohibitions to intermarriage by changing circumcision practices and other customs. Luo women told the local Bantu men, "If you want to marry us you have to stop circumcising and file your bottom teeth, so that you look like us and we can marry you." The Suba and other Bantu groups were interested in Luo brides because their bridewealth was much lower or non-existent. Luo women living in Suba communities spoke to their children in Luo, who became bilingual. The Luo language spread rapidly this way.