Luo (ethnic group)
The Luo are a Nilotic-speaking ethnic group on Lake Victoria in Kenya and Tanzania , to which around 3.4 million people belong. In Kenya they are the third largest ethnic group after the Kikuyu and the Luhya and make up around 13 percent of the Kenyan population. They are ethno-linguistically related to the Acholi , Kalendjin and Maasai . Their language is also called Luo or Dholuo and belongs to the Nilotic languages.
Customs and Traditions
There used to be a custom of breaking out the front incisors at initiation . This ritual supposedly arose because tetanus was widespread among the Luo. Due to the breaking out of the incisors, the sick person could be supplied with food and fluid through a tube, despite the rigidly closed jaw. This practice is no longer in use today.
To this day it is still quite common for the Luo to live in polygamous marriages. So a man can have several wives in order to achieve a higher reputation, because many women testify to wealth, or to relieve a woman when she has become too old to bear children. If a man dies, the so-called "widow cleansing" is carried out. However, this practice is increasingly being called into question.
The Luo are one of the few peoples in Kenya who traditionally do not practice circumcision either for boys ( circumcision ) or for girls ( female genital mutilation ), which in the eyes of many other ethnic groups politically discredits them. Around the year 2000, Kenya, encouraged by the WHO, began to promote the circumcision of adult men, as it was hoped that it would reduce the number of HIV infections. According to the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey (KDHS) (information from July 2004), around 17 percent of Luo between 15 and 54 are circumcised.
The connection to the ground has a very central, emotional and, in earlier times, social significance. Land is inherited within the family according to strictly defined rules that are intended to ensure the livelihood of all members. The prevailing view was that the land not only belongs to the living, but is inhabited by the spirits of the deceased and future generations. As a result, it could not be sold or leased: the only way to make it available to strangers was to let them use it free of charge at their request, according to clear rules, for a certain period of time and with clear rights of the beneficiary. Those who do not own any land have had a difficult social situation to this day, and it is felt to be very stressful as a Luo not to have a piece of homeland on which one can one day be buried.
Traditionally, Luo society was remarkably egalitarian . So in principle everyone had the same access to the resources, only the age and special ordinations like those of healers and clairvoyants guaranteed a higher rank. Old age is still respected today. People are seen as lifelong learning and changeable, which promotes openness to educational opportunities and high mobility.
history
Luo literally means "people from the swamps", which alludes to their origins in the Sudanese swamps at the confluence of the White Nile and the Bahr al-Ghazal . From there they emigrated from the 14th century for reasons that are not clear and split up into ever more sub-groups, which borrowed from the new environment in their way of life and economy. In the 15th century Nyakango united around a hundred clans and subgroups and founded a feudal nation, which he led north in order to recapture the territories lost to Arabs and Europeans. The remaining Luo migrated on towards Uganda, with some groups assimilating to the Bantu- speaking majority population, while others established their own dynasties and defended their independence. Luo-speaking groups immigrated to Kenya between about 1550 and 1800 and settled the Nyanza area and the west bank of Lake Victoria in several batches . Although originally nomadic like the Maasai of Nilotic origin today, they very quickly began farming and fishing there, because there was not enough pastureland available for nomadic lifestyle.
politics
The Luo look back on a tradition of equality within the community, in which, apart from the hierarchy of age and knowledge, there are in principle no differences in rank. There is a self-confidence as the driving force behind the democratization of Kenya, which has so far been unsatisfactory for the Luo in terms of the distribution of power and competencies. Important politicians among the Luo were Tom Mboya , murdered in 1969 , the former Kenyan Foreign Minister Robert Ouko , who was also murdered in 1990 , Oginga Odinga † and his son and current minister under the NARC government (2002 to 2005) Raila Odinga . The Luo have been in competition with the Kikuyu since colonial times . Political rivalries have not only led to distrust and resentment towards the Kikuyu since the 2007 elections in Kenya and the associated disappointment with the distribution of powers within the government (keyword constitutional reform, establishment of the office of a prime minister) . They are considered to be extremely traditional. This and the tension with the Kikuyu emerged very clearly in 1987 in the famous Otieno case (who has the right to bury a dead where: the Kikuyu widow in Nairobi or the Luo brothers in Kisumu ?), Which led to months of press coverage and even Street riot in Nairobi resulted. The country's supreme court ruled in favor of the Luo brothers, as in the event that a legal asset is not regulated (which was the case in this case), the constitution gives priority to traditional rights.
area
The main distribution area of the Luo today is the former Nyanza province in western Kenya, which is also inhabited by the Bantu-speaking Kisii or Gusii. Land disputes have often occurred in the densely populated area, which has one of the highest population densities in Kenya. A direct comparison of the Luo with other ethnic groups or regions of Kenya shows the low level of innovation in the agricultural sector.
Known Luo
- Grace Ogot , writer
- Barack Obama Sr. , father of the 44th President of the United States of America Barack Obama
- Lupita Nyong'o , actress
literature
- David William Cohen, ES Atieno Odhiambo: Siaya - The Historical Anthropology of an African Landscape. (Eastern African Studies.) Currey, London 1989, ISBN 0-85255-035-9 .
- John W. Ndisi: A study in the economic and social life of the Luo of Kenya. Phil. Diss., Uppsala 1974.
Web links
- Cultural Group: Luo , start database search at the Pitt Rivers Museum
Individual evidence
- ^ Rifts in the Rift . The Economist , Jan. 23, 2016.
- ↑ Kenya: Whether a circumcised male of the Luo ethnic group would face repercussions . ( Page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
