Patriliny Among the Gusii and the Luo of Kenya

Abstract

The Nilotic Luo of Kenya, in contrast to the Nuer, experienced considerable land scarcity. They responded with increasing hostility as much to their affines as to the colonial power which had enclosed land. Exclusive local patrilineages emerged, expressing themselves in collective feuding, litigation, and ritual toward immediate ancestors. A similar process seems to have occurred among the sociologically similar neighboring Bantu‐speaking Gusii .