Luo Peoples

Luo Peoples

The Luo (also spelled Lwo) are several ethnolinguistically related ethnic groups in Africa that inhabit an area ranging from South Sudan and Ethiopia, through northern Uganda and eastern Congo (DRC), into western Kenya, and the northern tip of Tanzania. Their Luo languages belong to the Nilotic group nd as such form part of the larger Eastern Sudanic phylum.

Within the Nilotic group, the Luo together with the Dinka–Nuer form the Western group. Tribal groups or nations within the Luo group include the Shilluk, Anuak, Acholi, Lango, Alur, Padhola, Joluo (Kenyan and Tanzanian Luo), Bor, and Kumam.

The Joluo and their language Dholuo are also known as the "Luo proper", being eponymous of the larger group. The level of historical separation between these groups is estimated at about eight centuries. Dispersion from the Nilotic homeland in South Sudan was presumably triggered by the turmoils of the Muslim conquest of Sudan, and the migration of the individual groups over the last few centuries can to some extent be traced in the respective tribes' oral history.