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Luo peoples

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For the Luo people of Kenya and Tanzania, see Luo (Kenya and Tanzania).

The Luo (also spelled Lwo) are a family of linguistically affiliated ethnic groups who live in an area that stretches from the southern Sudan, through northern Uganda and eastern Congo (DRC), into western Kenya, and ending in the upper tip of Tanzania. These people speak an Eastern Sudanic (Nilotic) language, a branch of the Nilo-Saharan language family. According to various classification schemes, they are sometimes referred to as River-Lake Nilotes or Western Nilotes, which also includes the Dinka-Nuer language group. People who speak Luo languages include the Shilluk, Anuak, Acholi, Lango, Palwo, Alur, Padhola, Joluo (Kenyan Luo), Bor, and Kumam.

Origins in Sudan

According to ethnologists, linguists and their oral history, the Luo are part of the Nilotic group of tribes who separated from the East Sudanic family of tribes about 3000 BCE. More than eight centuries ago, the Luo peoples occupied the area that now lies in eastern Bahr el Ghazal. The reason for their dispersion from this area is not known. Internal contradictions or population explosion could have driven them from this region. The Luo moved to nearly all the countries neighbouring Sudan, resulting in many separate groups with variation in language and tradition as each group moved further away from their kin.

A branch of the Luo, the Shilluk (or Chollo) nation, comprising more than one hundred clans and sub-tribes, was founded by a chief named Nyikango sometime in the middle of the 15th century. They evolved a nation with a feudal-style system. Nyikango and his nation moved northward along the Nile (towards Kush and Rip) to re-conquer and settle the land their ancestors had lost to the Arabs and Europeans. The rest of the Luo groups rejected Nyikango's idea and kept a south and westwards migration.

Uganda

Around 1500, a small group of Luo known as the Biito-Luo led by a Chief called Labongo whose full title became Isingoma Labongo Rukidi (sometimes named as Mpuga Rukidi), encountered Bantu-speaking peoples living in the area of Bunyoro. These Luo settled with the Bantu and established the Babiito dynasty, replacing the Bachwezi dynasty of the Empire of Kitara. Labongo, the first in the line of the Babiito kings of Bunyoro-Kitara, was according to Bunyoro legend the twin brother of Kato Kimera, the first king of Buganda. These Luo were assimilated by the Bantu, and they lost their language and culture.

Later in the 16th century, other Luo-speaking people moved to the area that encompasses present day Southern Sudan, Northern Uganda and North-Eastern Congo (DRC) – forming the Alur and Acholi. Conflicts developed when they encountered the Lango who had been living in the area north of Lake Kyoga. Lango also speak a Luo language, but their origins are somewhat obscure. It is generally held that they are an Eastern Nilotic Ateker people who originated in Ethiopia around A.D. 1600, adopting the Luo language of their Acholi neighbours. Kumam, who live the same area, also speak a Luo language, but belong to the Ateker group along with the Teso and Karamojong.

Between the middle of the 16th century and the beginning of the 17th century, some Luo groups proceeded eastwards. One group called Padhola (or Jopadhola - people of Adhola), led by a chief called Adhola, settled in Budama in Eastern Uganda. They settled in a thickly forested area as a defence against attacks from Bantu neighbours who had already settled there. This self-imposed isolation helped them maintain their language and culture amidst Bantu and Ateker communities.

Kenya and Tanzania

Between about 1500 and 1800, other Luo groups crossed into present-day Kenya and eventually into present-day Tanzania. They inhabited the area on the banks of Lake Victoria. According to the Joluo (known in Kenya simply as Luo), a warrior chief named Ramogi Ajwang led them into present-day Kenya about 500 years ago.

As in Uganda, some non-Luo people in Kenya have adopted Luo languages. A majority of the Bantu Suba people in Kenya speak Dholuo (albeit mostly as a second language).

The Luo in Kenya, who call themselves Joluo (aka Jaluo, "people of Luo"), are the third largest community in Kenya after the Kikuyu and Luhya. In 1994 their population was estimated to be 3,185,000 [1]. In Tanzania they numbered (in 2001) an estimated 280,000 [2]. The Luo in Kenya and Tanzania call their language Dholuo, which is mutually intelligible with the languages of the Lango, Kumam and Padhola of Uganda, Acholi of Uganda and Sudan and Alur of Uganda and Congo.

Luo sub-groups

This includes peoples who share Luo ancestry and/or speak a Luo language.

Internationally notable Luo people

References

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