Death and Rituals among the Luo in South Nyanza

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Periodical article

Title:	Death and Rituals among the Luo in South Nyanza
Author:	Shiino, Wakana
Year:	1997
Periodical:	African Study Monographs
Volume:	18
Issue:	3-4
Pages:	213-228
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Kenya
Subjects:	Luo death rites Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups)
External link:	https://jambo.africa.kyoto-u.ac.jp/kiroku/asm_normal/abstracts/pdf/18-3&4/18-3&4%20213-228.pdf
Abstract:	The Luo, a Western Nilotic people, inhabit the shores of Lake Victoria and its interior in western Kenya. They are known as a people who are seriously concerned with their places of burial, and they have a strong fear and respect for the dead. Based on fieldwork carried out between October 1996 and February 1997 in Nyanza Province, where he came across eleven cases of death and attended twenty ritual performances for the deceased, the author describes the basic features of Luo rituals for the dead and provides two case studies, one involving the death of an old man, the other the death of an old woman. It appears there are differences in the number of ritual events and in the way rituals are performed, depending on the personal attributes of the deceased, notably his or her age, sex, and marital status, the way the ancestors performed the same rituals, and membership of a religious denomination. Sociocultural changes brought about by modernization, notably the development of transportation and communication, and the expansion of Christianity, are reflected in the rituals. Bibliogr., sum.