The white man cometh ... more about the history of the Joluo ...

European penetration of East Africa started with missionaries and explorers.  They 'discovered' peoples and the African lands, (as if they were the first people to see them) !  Following discoveries of new lands and peoples, were the battles for supremacy between the imperialist powers, principally Britain and Germany.   They divided East Africa between them, from the shores of Lake Victoria to the coast, with a kink in the straight line going around the north of Kilimanjaro (the highest mountain in the whole of Africa).  Borders drawn by the colonialists bore no relation to tribal boundaries, and have caused subsequent problems all over the continent.  

Its a nice story that having Mount Kenya in British East Africa, Queen Victoria decided to give the Kaiser Mount Kilimanjaro for a present, thus the border had to be changed to the north of the mountain to include it in German East Africa (Tanganyika) !

The two peaks of Kilimanjaro - the Kaisers birthday present !

The border of Kenya with Uganda once went from near Nakuru, to the north and south along the Rift.  Kisumu and the Joluo would then have been part of eastern Uganda.  At one time during and after the first world war, there were suggestions to make a Jewish homeland in the area around Njoro and on the Nandi escarpment, instead of the present Israel !  

But I'm jumping ahead in the story ...

The Luo at first  resisted British colonialism, and refused to co-operate in matters like agriculture and education, which nowadays might be called passive resistance.   Various tribal sub-groups of the Luo were in favour of the British; some were ambivalent; others opposed them vigourously.   Some collaborated, possibly in order to advance their own causes or to be able to trade and profit financially from the white incomers.   Many used the British to protect them from other tribes, and in time most realised the Wazungu, or white men, were powerful and could be used for personal enrichment.

By 1901 the Uganda Railway had reached Port Florence (the old name for Kisumu) which made white settlement much easier.  After the railway, came religion !   By 1904 the Mill Hill Mission had been founded in Kisumu, and was soon followed by Anglicans, Seventh Day Adventists and other denominations.   The Church Missionary Society (C.M.S.) started a school at Maseno, which is where I used to live, and built a small church there ... I remember there was no bell to call people to church ... instead, a large drum was beaten with enthusiasm and the sound carried a long way, and called the faithful to church.  

Maseno School church; our house was among the trees to the right !

There were also many tribal forms of Christianity which sprung up in Nyanza and other parts of Kenya, as well as non-Christian cults.  Some of these preached rejection of everything European, and a return to traditional ways of life.  But there was no turning back, and by the early 1950's cries for independence from British rule were heard throughout the country ... culminating in the Mau Mau uprising, and finally full independence in 1963, with Mzee Jomo Kenyatta as the first African president.   The Luo had participated in the move to freedom from the British, but were ill represented in the new African government.

More about the last fifty years to come in another episode !

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Its good for me to be able to drag the history of western Kenya as well as traditional tales up and up from the deepest recesses of my aging brain !!   I can't vouch for the accuracy ... but I think its near enough !   I hope it is interesting for the people who are offering to sponsor me, and for my friends, including the team going out to Kisumu in February !