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

But there are darker traits too. Writes Crazzolara: “In their more than a thousand miles march they had played havoc on a large scale and it is unlikely that they would know much of the peoples whom they had trampled down and whose languages they did not understand.”

The actions of Joseph Kony and Alice Lakwena have led people, including the Luo, to question to what extent defiance should be carried.

Yet historically, they won by refusing to surrender, grinding their enemies down in logic-defying, self-depleting wars that over the ages demoralised vastly superior forces into giving up.
At its core seems to be a pride that switches off compromise, as Crazzolara puts it in a telling description.

“He [the Luo] clings to his freedom and independence with his whole nature; and if his personal tastes and instincts were in question, he would rather live quietly in a small group of close relations, ready at any moment to offer bravely his life in their defence.”

It is beguiling. The now notorious 20-year wars waged by the Dinka and an insular group of Acholi have frequently escalated at the merest hint of disrespect.

But the leadership of these militaries as well as their political units deserves wider attention: At core sacerdotal, it combines politics with military and spiritual power to attain maximum hypnotic command.

Generals as warrior-priests are indeed not the exception in Luo history, a phenomenon notoriously displayed in our times by LRA leader Joseph Kony and the late prophetess, Alice Auma, “the messenger” (LaKwena).

As imperial ideology, this combination was crushingly imperious in Uganda and still ensures the BaBito cushy places in the upper echelons of Ugandan society.

To witness commoners in Western Uganda turn to jelly in the presence of the BaBito can be eerily unsettling.

On the lighter side, general stereotype describes the Luo as flashy, exuberant extroverts given to self-aggrandisement.

Kisumu FM radio producer David Odira (Radio Osienala) makes the common self-deprecating joke: “When you see the latest model car, it is likely to belong to a Luo. But he lives in a shack. He does not have furniture.”