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

The Nilotic practice of burying men in their huts (kings in their palaces) in our times became the Kasubi tombs.

There are words too, like the term for lady, Nyabbo, which researchers say can be deconstructed to a Luo root – from Nyar-Bor (the exalted daughter).

Contestation of these pasts arises post-colonially, from the deliberate poisoning of African societies by the British practice of divide and rule.

The Luo-Bantu hybridisation in modern day southern Uganda, particularly of the Banyoro, Baganda and Basoga, means they are neither purely Luo nor purely Bantu. The terms may themselves be arcane.

Secondly, any talk of “immense impact” must contend with the influence of Bantu culture and language as well as intermarriage on the Luo.

The Acholi and Lango word for God, Lubanga (Lango Obanga), and presumably theology, comes from the Bantu word for God, Ruhanga while the more appealing social etiquette of the Ugandan Luo is mostly Buganda in origin.

But the dislocating contradictions have left Luo scholars and leaders puzzled.

Says Aluoka: “They tend not to give up on what is theirs, innately theirs. It’s why they suffered in Sudan and in Uganda.

If I see the rise and fall of Obote, a man who was not serving the British interest, I see the typical action of a Luo whose self-righteousness and public good was seen as socialist.

“In their own self-identities, what made them leaders in the past became their undoing.”

“The problem with the Luo is that they trust others so much they think the way they think is the way things ought to be,” explains Kenyan Luo Council of Elders Chairman Ker Riaga Ogallo. “If you look into history, without Odinga (Sr), Kenyatta could have died in jail. But he insisted that without him, there would be no Kenya. He made Kenyatta a gift of Kenya. But when Kenyatta became president, his first plan was to eliminate the Luo from power.”

Aluoka accounts for this apparent contradiction in two broad explanations, the first being that colonialism came as such an affront to Luo pride that they have never stopped trying to drive out its politics, structures, culture and impact.

“It’s like an itch,” he explains. “The colonial experience has been responsible for that jigger in the Luo foot. In every coup attempt in Kenya, there has been a Luo involved. In the 1971 coup attempt, Luo were indicted; in 1982, Luo attempted to overthrow the government; in 2007 it was the Luo who started the protest against vote-rigging.

“In Uganda, I see the same drive in Cecilia Ogwal (opposition politician from Lira). They will stand up for what they believe in, no matter how big the odds are against them.

“The Luo is the one who comes out barechested to stop a tank with a stone in his hand. Of course, many are killed.”