An ‘irresistible, awful, marvellous people’: The portrait of the Luos of East Africa

“When I see Obama, I see a typical Luo man,” says Kenyan anthropologist Othieno Aluoka.

These wry observations belie the immense suffering undergone by the Luo peoples. Colonialism occasioned a decline in Luo societies. Bunyoro refused to surrender to British imperial forces, which as a result decimated its population on a genocidal scale.

Persecution was their lot under Amin, Kenyatta and Moi. They are by and large the poorest of East Africans, a people of whom the majority do not expect to know peace and prosperity in their lifetimes.

While Kenya has never been actively at war, the Luo experience remains a painful one.

Nearly all their prominent leaders have died violently — from the assassinations of Tom Mboya and Robert Ouko to the killings of the lawyer Argwings Kodhek, Prof Mbai Odhiambo and Otieno Oyo.

In Ethiopia, the Anuak, under their leader Ato Okello Nyegilo, charge that the Ethiopian government is fomenting genocide against them, claims also made in northern Uganda.

They are a people in tatters, with the lowest life expectancies and highest morbidity rates.

Yet again, Luo names grace the royal houses of Uganda and not just the US White House.

The current kings of both Toro and Bunyoro are called Oyo. There have been kings over the centuries named Olimi, Ocaki, Cwa. Names like Okwir (“elector”), are common along these lineages.

Former diplomat, actress and model Mubito Mugo (Princess) Elizabeth Bagaya carries the full name of her distant, Luo forefather, as does Princess Elizabeth Rukidi Nyabongo Bagaya — the Ba prefixing Gaya, said to be one of the earlier Luo groups in the area.

The word Babito itself originates from an area about 10 km north of Bunyoro, across the River Nile, in Acholi.

Because they came from the place called Te-Bito (2.25 degrees north and 31.4 degrees East) the Bantu referred to them as BaBito. The word was to acquire potency above and beyond this Western Rift Valley area, now part of a game park.

Cwa (prefixed also as AbaCwa) is a kingly title linkable to Chua (also county in Acholi) as in Omukama Cwa II Kabalega; also titular for Kabaka Mutebi’s grandfather named Daudi Cwa.

In a recurrent trajectory, these are Luo names from decrepit places that emerged to immense heights. In October 2005, the world-famous Obote was buried in a sorghum garden. Such was the poverty of his people.

Buganda’s distance from the Luo heritage is more sensitive (Bunyoro still maintains spiritual-cultural links with Lango and Acholi) but there are countless, ancient Luo words and practices now taken as being Baganda.