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Pokomo people
The Pokomo people are a Bantu ethnic group of southeastern Kenya. Their population in Kenya was 112,075 in 2019. They are a distinct ethnic group with their own sub-clans/tribes. Despite their proximity, they are not of the nearby Mijikenda people. They are predominantly agriculturalists and both freshwater and ocean fishermen living along the Tana River in Tana River County. They speak the Pokomo language, which is similar to Swahili.
The Pokomo population is split into two groups: the Upper Pokomo, who make up 75% of the population, and the Lower Pokomo. The Upper Pokomo are mainly Muslim, and have been so since the end of the 19th century. The Lower Pokomos, who live along the lower part of the Tana up to the delta, are mainly Christians, converting to the religion by the early 20th century. Ethnologue indicates that the group is mainly Muslim.
In "History of Linguistics: Case Study of Tana River", Dereke Nurse confirmed that the Pokomo regard themselves and their language as divisible into Lower (LP) and Upper Pokomo (UP). The people and the language of roughly the northern one-third of the River Tana towards Garisa are known as Malakote (also known as Ilwana or El-Wana). Malakote differ considerably from UP and LP. Even the two-way split UP: LP is partly artificial linguistically. The major break does occur around Mwina, but these are also internal isoglosses dividing UP and LP. Some of these link adjoining part of UP and LP.
Within Pokomo, considerable linguistic variation occurs at all levels: lexical, phonological and morphological. Despite the small size of the Pokomo Community, at least as much internal difference separates UP and LP as do the two poles of the 150 mile-long Malakote Community. Van Otterloo assess the level of lexical similarity between UP and LP as much the same as that between Giriama and Digo. UP and LP refer to each other jocularly as "two-week" languages; that is, they take two weeks to learn, but Malakote, within UP is regarded as a "two-months language". This demonstrates that Pokomo are not part of the Mijikenda community, which is composed of nine sub-tribes, the Kauma, Chonyi, Jibana, Giriama, Kambe, Ribe, Rabai, Duruma and Digo.
The Pokomo are subdivided into eleven (11) sub-tribes: six in the UP (Mila Julu) and five in the LP (Mila Nchini). The word Mila connotes "culture"; julu, nchini and kote mean "up", "lower" and "both" respectively; therefore the word milajulu refers to the culture of the Upper Pokomo and milanchini to the culture of the Lower Pokomo. Thus, Milakote (evolving into Malakote) connotes culture from both sides (here referring to blended culture of Pokomo and Orma/Somalis/Borana).
All UP clans live along the river and in the hinterland from the river on both sides in villages located on small hills, probably to avoid river flooding. The farmlands are within the riverline on both sides of the river stretching an average of 3 miles or until the farms touches the sandy soils.
The LP occupy the entire Tana Delta (which starts at Baomo) to the mouth of the River before it empties into the Indian Ocean; however, currently some UP have settled together with the LP in the villages of Kipini, Ozi, Kilelengwani, Chara, Chamwanamuma, and Kau among other villages up to Lamu Archipelago and its surrounding islands.
In these sub-tribes, clans range from three to nine in either sub-tribe, and they are mostly found cutting across the eleven sub-tribes. The same clan may have different reference names across sub-tribe. The Zubaki sub-tribe is the largest amongst the Pokomo sub-tribes. It has nine clans: Karhayu, Meta, Jabha, Kinaghasere, Garjedha, Utah, Ilani and Kinakala.
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Pokomo people
The Pokomo people are a Bantu ethnic group of southeastern Kenya. Their population in Kenya was 112,075 in 2019. They are a distinct ethnic group with their own sub-clans/tribes. Despite their proximity, they are not of the nearby Mijikenda people. They are predominantly agriculturalists and both freshwater and ocean fishermen living along the Tana River in Tana River County. They speak the Pokomo language, which is similar to Swahili.
The Pokomo population is split into two groups: the Upper Pokomo, who make up 75% of the population, and the Lower Pokomo. The Upper Pokomo are mainly Muslim, and have been so since the end of the 19th century. The Lower Pokomos, who live along the lower part of the Tana up to the delta, are mainly Christians, converting to the religion by the early 20th century. Ethnologue indicates that the group is mainly Muslim.
In "History of Linguistics: Case Study of Tana River", Dereke Nurse confirmed that the Pokomo regard themselves and their language as divisible into Lower (LP) and Upper Pokomo (UP). The people and the language of roughly the northern one-third of the River Tana towards Garisa are known as Malakote (also known as Ilwana or El-Wana). Malakote differ considerably from UP and LP. Even the two-way split UP: LP is partly artificial linguistically. The major break does occur around Mwina, but these are also internal isoglosses dividing UP and LP. Some of these link adjoining part of UP and LP.
Within Pokomo, considerable linguistic variation occurs at all levels: lexical, phonological and morphological. Despite the small size of the Pokomo Community, at least as much internal difference separates UP and LP as do the two poles of the 150 mile-long Malakote Community. Van Otterloo assess the level of lexical similarity between UP and LP as much the same as that between Giriama and Digo. UP and LP refer to each other jocularly as "two-week" languages; that is, they take two weeks to learn, but Malakote, within UP is regarded as a "two-months language". This demonstrates that Pokomo are not part of the Mijikenda community, which is composed of nine sub-tribes, the Kauma, Chonyi, Jibana, Giriama, Kambe, Ribe, Rabai, Duruma and Digo.
The Pokomo are subdivided into eleven (11) sub-tribes: six in the UP (Mila Julu) and five in the LP (Mila Nchini). The word Mila connotes "culture"; julu, nchini and kote mean "up", "lower" and "both" respectively; therefore the word milajulu refers to the culture of the Upper Pokomo and milanchini to the culture of the Lower Pokomo. Thus, Milakote (evolving into Malakote) connotes culture from both sides (here referring to blended culture of Pokomo and Orma/Somalis/Borana).
All UP clans live along the river and in the hinterland from the river on both sides in villages located on small hills, probably to avoid river flooding. The farmlands are within the riverline on both sides of the river stretching an average of 3 miles or until the farms touches the sandy soils.
The LP occupy the entire Tana Delta (which starts at Baomo) to the mouth of the River before it empties into the Indian Ocean; however, currently some UP have settled together with the LP in the villages of Kipini, Ozi, Kilelengwani, Chara, Chamwanamuma, and Kau among other villages up to Lamu Archipelago and its surrounding islands.
In these sub-tribes, clans range from three to nine in either sub-tribe, and they are mostly found cutting across the eleven sub-tribes. The same clan may have different reference names across sub-tribe. The Zubaki sub-tribe is the largest amongst the Pokomo sub-tribes. It has nine clans: Karhayu, Meta, Jabha, Kinaghasere, Garjedha, Utah, Ilani and Kinakala.