Luo

Historical Background

The Luo have a long history as pastoralists, but they have become agriculturalists who maintain large cattle herds. They are found in many of the large cities of Eastern Africa as urban workers. They speak the Dholuo language, which is similar to Lango, Acholi, Padhola, and Alur spoken in Uganda. This cluster of languages means that the Luo have close relations with other ethnic groups that share cultural commonalities.

According to history, the Luo migrated from Sudan near the confluence of the Sue and Meride Rivers near Wau. It is from this area of vast plains where scores of ethnic groups have gathered for thousands of years that the Luo are said to have begun their travel to the south. From this region, they migrated to Uganda and then to Kenya about 1400 AD.

The Wau region is known for being a crossroads of culture. The Dinka, Luo, and other people are known to have met on these plains, and in the midst of wars and conflicts many groups were dispersed. At least five waves of Luo came from this area before they became a firm, concrete, stable group identified as a separate linguistic family. They migrated as the Joka who came from Achoiland, the people from Alur, the Owiny from Padhola, the Jok'Omolo from Pawir, and the Abasuba who are now found in southern Nyanza. Thus, the contemporary Luo group consists of many subgroups that may, in turn, consist of many subclans.

One can say that by the mid-19th century, the Luo identity was well established as a society consisting of ruodbi or regional kings. These kings resisted the British intentions to remove the people from their territory. In 1896, the British sent an expedition with the Maxim machine gun to fight against King Gero and his Umira Kager clan. Allying themselves politically for advantage with Mumia, the Wanga ruler, the British quickly murdered 200 Luo.

Three years later, another British expedition was led against the Luo, in which 2,500 cattle and 10,000 sheep and goats were captured. Subdued by the British superior weapons, the Luo king

Oderà was forced to supply 1,500 porters for the British army as it fought against the Nandi people. Many Luo objected to this capitulation to the British because they saw it as the end of their own culture. When the British sent Oderà Akang'o, the ruoth of Gem, to Kampala, he was so impressed by the British settlement that he initiated a process of forcing his own people to adopt British dress, language, and styles. The Luo rapidly came under the influence of British culture. By following the British pattern of life, they avoided the wholesale loss of their land that befell other pastoral people in the Kenyan Highlands.

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