This archive report was first published on 1 August 2019.
Located in the western part of Kenya, the Luo community is one of the over 40 tribes that inhabit the East African region. The community is known for preserving its tradition, which is binding to the majority of its people.
According to researcher Wakana Shiino from Tokyo Metropolitan University, the Luo community's strong fear and respect for the dead are the reasons behind the many rituals and feasts performed during death. Shiino's research, titled 'Death and Rituals Among the Luo in South Nyanza,' highlights the community's unique approach to death and mourning.
During his five-month research, Shiino came across eleven cases of death and attended twenty of them. He observed that the details of the rituals differ depending on the deceased's sex and the sex of the participants. Shiino writes, 'A ritual is performed in certain, fixed ways to reflect how a particular death occurred, the good and bad deeds of the deceased, and the way the deceased and the ancestors performed the same rituals.'
The Luo community performs a total of about fourteen rituals for one deceased. These rituals include death announcement, vigil, grave digging, burial, and accompanying the spirit of the deceased to the former battleground. Other rituals include shaving, mourners' departure for their homes, serving meals to the deceased and its family, and visiting the widow's matal home.
Shiino's research also highlights the importance of the church and the deceased family members in deciding the right place for a grave. In the old times, people used to dig graves in the daytime, but nowadays, they prepare the grave at midnight before the burial day due to the exhaustion of digging under the strong sun.
As part of the ritual, four days after the burial, people shave their heads. The first shave marks the beginning of the mourning period, and the second shave marks the beginning of their new life. The Luo community also serves meals to the deceased in what is referred to as tedo, where the sons and daughters return to their natal home to cook for the dead mother or father.
Dividing the items left by the deceased, known as keyo nyinyo, is another ritual where the family and relatives divide between themselves items such as clothes, furniture, dishes, calabashes, and cooking pots. Remembrance, or rapar, is a ritual where the relatives assemble at the dead person's home for remembrance, comfort, and to appease the dead person.
