Luo (Kenya and Tanzania)

Dennis Oliech Kenyan football player.

Barack Obama's father Barack Sr is of the luo in Kenya.

The Luo (also called Jaluo and Joluo) are an ethnic group in Kenya, eastern Uganda, and northern Tanzania. They are part of a larger group of ethnolinguistically related Luo peoples who inhabit an area including southern Sudan, northern and eastern Uganda, western Kenya, and northern Tanzania.

The Luo are the third largest ethnic group (13%) in Kenya, after the Kikuyu (20%) and the Luhya (17%). The Luo and the Kikuyu inherited the bulk of political power in the first years following Kenya's independence in 1963. The Luo population in Kenya was estimated to be 3,185,000 in 1994 . In Tanzanian population was estimated at 280,000 in 2001.

The main Luo livelihood is fishing. Outside Luoland, the Luo work in eastern Africa as tenant fishermen, small scale farmers, and urban workers. They speak the Dholuo language, which belongs to the Western Nilotic branch of the Nilo-Saharan language family spoken by other Luo-speaking peoples such as the Lango, Acholi, Padhola and Alur (all of Uganda).
Contents

1 History
1.1 Pre-colonial times
1.2 Colonial times
1.3 Independent Kenya
2 Political influence in the government
3 Culture and customs
3.1 Religious customs
3.2 Marriage customs
3.3 Music

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