Luo peoples

The Luo (Lwo) are Nilotic peoples scattered from South Sudan and Ethiopia through Uganda and Congo to Kenya and Tanzania: Shilluk, Anuak, Acholi, Alur, Padhola and the Kenyan Joluo, speakers of western Nilotic tongues. Some eight centuries of separation divide dialects, and dispersal from a southern Sudanese core, quickened by the Muslim conquest's turmoil, carried each group to its lake or river in the last centuries. Fishers and cattle keepers under rainmakers and chiefs, the Luo built lakeside civilisations of papyrus canoes, finger millet and cattle kraals. The Kenyan Luo, Luo proper, fish Victoria Nyanza and farm its shore; Acholi and Alur hold the upper Nile banks. Luo benga music, wrestling festivals and a famous taste for politics, from Jaramogi Odinga to today's parliaments, carry one language family across five states. Acholi, Alur and Padhola still farm the upper Nile banks. Kenya and Tanzania Joluo keep the Dholuo language alive. Shilluk, Anuak and Pari keep the South Sudanese Luo dialects.