A little about the history of the Joluo of Nyanza ...

Nyanza is one of the provinces of Kenya  (I suppose provinces are somewhat similar to English counties ... but considerably bigger !   And while I'm writing about size, Lake Victoria is HUGE ... it covers an area approximately the same size as the whole of the island of Ireland.)

In the past, various tribal groups tended to live together in one area and not mix ... for example, and very generally, the Kikuyu were mostly around Mt Kenya and north of Nairobi; the Swahili were at the coast; the Maasai were on the plains of the Rift Valley and so on.   This isn't so nowadays ... people have moved for work and for land, and many from one tribe have married into another; thus tribal boundaries are breaking down.  Religious groups however, tend to marry within their groups.   But there is no hard and fast rule ! 

So ... the Luo ... they have tended to stay around the north and east of Lake Victoria, both in Kenya and over the border into Uganda.   But where did they come from ?   Up until about 1600, the area was inhabited by Bantu-speaking peoples ... remnants of these are the Gusii and Kipsigis, whose centres nowadays are Kisii and the tea growing district of Kericho, up on the Nandi escarpment; the Abaluyia, who live around Maseno and Kakamega; and the Kuria, from South Nyanza, along the border with Tanzania.   

Back to where the Luo came from !   After about 1600 - 1650, there was a migration of peoples from along the Nile, possibly necessitated by population pressure, or wars, or other unknown reasons, into Uganda and then Kenya around the north and east of the lake ... the Luo.  Traditionally, they first entered Kenya and settled on and around Got Ramogi ... just a little west of Got Usenge (Usenge Hill) in my title photo.    Ramogi is thought to be the first Luo man - a sort of Luo Adam !   

There is no written evidence from the past for any of this, but archaeological evidence and oral histories have been studied by wiser people than me, and this is the conclusion they have reached about the origins of the Joluo.  

The people lived by fishing, and a sort of subsistence agriculture.   It is hard to imagine that trade with other tribes would be necessary, but even going back to stone age times, materials and tools were traded throughout East Africa, so there is no doubt the Luo traded with other local peoples.   In was in both their interests to do so.   The Luo are good at making pots and baskets, and iron implements and would have traded these ... and possibly/probably even slaves. 

I'll write another time about the coming of the white man, and the effect it had on Nyanza !