African Interest

Title: Origin of Luo Culture and Spirituality Author: John Ming’ala Obure In his groundbreaking book “A History of the Luo Speaking Peoples of Eastern Africa,” Prof Bethwell A. Ogot traces the Luo’s history back to a place in South Sudan called Bahr El Ghazal and documents their migration pattern from South Sudan into several countries in the eastern Africa region. The book states that “colonialism re-wrote many of life rules,” which significantly changed our knowledge about our history and origin. Most of the changes were geographical; however, the most detrimental ones blurred our identity. As a result, these changes have significantly distorted the history of Africans in general and particularly the once-unified Luo-speaking people, who were ultimately divided. The Luo-speaking people are a monolithic group that has remained culturally distinct for centuries despite the split into various clans scattered across several countries in Eastern and Central Africa. Definitely the history of the Luo, their culture and belief system goes way back beyond Bahr-El-Ghazal in South Sudan. This book has managed to trace the genesis of the Luo people back to Noah’s time and for the first time the true identity of the people who has been known as the Nubians is revealed. The book has documented possible origins of most of the Luo cultural and spiritual practices we are familiar with today. The author has also relied on his own intuition and imagination to explain some of the fundamental gaps in understanding the spiritual relations between man and God of the Luo people. The book also explains many deep and complex concepts in the Luo spirituality such as the spiritual connections in common cultural practices such as marriage rites, feasting in burials, sex and marriage, life after death and the certain thing about the environment around us.