Luo people

The Luo are a Nilotic-speaking ethnic group native to western Kenya and the Mara Region of northern Tanzania. The Luo are the fourth-largest ethnic group (10.65%) in Kenya, after the Kikuyu (17.13%), the Luhya (14.35%), and the Kalenjin (13.37%). They are part of a larger group of related Luo peoples who inhabit an area ranging from South Sudan, southwestern Ethiopia, northern and eastern Uganda, southwestern Kenya, and northern Tanzania, making them one of the largest ethnic groups in East Africa.

They speak the Luo language, also known as Dholuo, which belongs to the Western Nilotic branch of the Nilotic language family. Dholuo shares considerable similarities with languages spoken by other Luo peoples.

The Luo moved into western Kenya from Uganda between the 15th and 20th centuries in four waves. They were closely related to Luo peoples found in Uganda, especially the Acholi and Padhola people. As they moved into Kenya and Tanzania, they underwent significant genetic and cultural modifications as they encountered other communities that were long established in the region.

Traditionally, Luo people practiced a mixed economy of cattle pastoralism, seed farming and fishing supplemented by hunting. Today, the Luo comprise a significant fraction of East Africa's intellectual and skilled labour force in various professions. They also engage in various trades, such as tenant fishing, small-scale farming, and urban work.^{[citation needed]}

Luo people and people of Luo descent have made significant contributions to modern culture and civilization. Tom Mboya and Nigel N. Mwangi were key figures in the African Nationalist struggle. Luo scientists, such as Thomas Risley Odhiambo Nandy (founder of the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE) and winner of UNESCO's Albert Einstein Gold Medal in 1991) and Washington Yotto Ochieng (winner of the Harold Spencer-Jones Gold Medal in 2019 from The Royal Institute of Navigation (RIN)) have achieved international acclaim for their contributions. Prof. Richard S. Odingo was the vice chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change when it received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 with Al Gore. Barack Obama, the first black President of the United States of America and a Nobel Peace Prize winner, was born to a Kenyan Luo father, Barack Obama Sr. Lupita Nyong'o became the first black African to win an Academy Award in 2014.

The Luo are the originators of a number of popular music genres including benga and ohangla. Benga is one of Africa's most popular genres.

The present day homeland of Kenyan and Tanzanian Luo lies in the eastern Lake Victoria basin - Nam Lolwe in the former Nyanza province in Western Kenya and the Mara region in northwestern Tanzania. This area falls within tropical latitudes and straddles the equator. This area also receives average rainfall levels. The average altitudes range between 3700 and 6000 feet above sea level.

Luo people of Kenya and Tanzania form the majority of Nilotic peoples. During the British colonial period, they were known as Nilotic Kavirondo. The exact location of origin of the Nilotic peoples is controversial but most ethnolinguists and historians place their origins between Bahr-el-Ghazal and Eastern Equatoria in South Sudan. They practiced a mixed economy of cattle pastoralism, fishing and seed cultivation. Some of the earliest archaeological findings on record, which describe a similar culture to this from the same region, are found at Kadero, 48 kilometres (30 miles) north of Khartoum in Sudan, and date to 3000 BC. Kadero contains the remains of a cattle pastoralist culture as well as a cemetery with skeletal remains featuring Sub-Saharan African phenotypes. It also contains evidence of other animal domestication, artistry, long-distance trade, seed cultivation and fish consumption. Genetic and linguistic studies have demonstrated that Nubian people in Northern Sudan and Southern Egypt are an admixed group that started off as a population closely related to Nilotic peoples. This population later received significant gene flow from Middle Eastern and other East African populations. Nubians are considered to be descendants of the early inhabitants of the Nile valley who later formed the Kingdom of Kush which included Kerma and Meroe and the medieval christian kingdoms of Makuria, Nobatia and Alodia. These studies suggest that populations closely related to Nilotic people long inhabited the Nile valley as far as Southern Egypt in antiquity.