Proper noun

Luhya

1. A Bantu language spoken in western Kenya and Uganda. Luhya has a number of dialects, including Maragoli, Abagisu, Marama, Kibukusu, Wanga, and Bukusu.

Synonyms

• Luyia
• Luluyia

The Luhya (also Luyia, Luhia, Abaluhya) are the second largest ethnic group in Kenya, numbering about 5.3 million people, or 14% of Kenya's total population of 38 million, according to kenyaweb.com.

The Luhya cultivate the fertile highlands of Western Kenya, between Lake Victoria to the south, the Nandi Escarpment to the East, Uganda to the West and Mt. Elgon to the north. The area they live in is the most densely populated in Kenya and indeed, in the world. Luhyas are one of the most culturally, politically and economically active ethnic groups in Kenya.

Luhya refers both to the people and the Luhya languages, a group of closely related languages spoken by Luhya sub-groups. The Luhya are made up of about 16 sub-ethnic groups in Kenya, the most dominant groups being the: Bukhusu, Maragoli, Wanga, Ava-Nyore (who ruled the Bunyoro Kingdom in present day Uganda), Marama, Idakho, Khisa, Isukha, Tsotso, Tiriki, Khabras, Ava-Nyala, Tachoni, Khayo, Marachi and Samia. One sub-ethnic group is in northern Tanzania and four are in Uganda.

The Maragoli are considered to be related to the Kisii (also known as Abagusii), who are separated from the rest of the Luhyas by the chasm of Lake Victoria, Kano plains and Luo Nyanza to the South and the Nandi Escarpment and Kipsigis to the South East. The relationship between the Maragoli and the Kisii or Abagusii is mainly from their oral history (where both claim to have migrated from Misri (Egypt) via Mount Elgon, and also in linguistic similarity of their phonemes and certain key words in the languages. The Abagusii also have linguistic relationships with some tribes in Tanzania, and this similarity may be due to acquisition of words from these tribes due to more recent contact after the main migration from Misri. It is also noteworthy that the sound forms of Maragoli and Tiriki languages is slightly different from the other Luhya dialects and closer to the Kisii Language.

Note that the prefix 'Ava' or 'Aba' which when translated into English would mean 'the people/children of ...' (for example 'Ava-Logoli' would mean 'the children of Maragoli') is placed before all the Luhya sub-ethnic groups when referring to one's ethnicity, by a different person describing another person's ethnicity. Someone describing themself will use the prefix 'Omu-@, as in 'Omubukusu'.

Many Luhyas today are remnants of several federations (divided along the sub-ethnic lines of the Luhya), of the most powerful centralised kingdom that ever existed in Kenya's entire history before the advent of British colonialism in the early 1900s — the Wanga kingdom. The Wanga, themselves a Luhya people, incorporated most of the other sub-ethnic groups of the Luhya, as well as much of the areas inhabited by the Luo, the Kipsigis, the Nandi and the Masai territories as far east as the popular tourist town and flower capital of Kenya, Naivasha in Central Kenya.