ABSTRACT
To understand the Luo community: mainly the history and culture, including artwork, music, costumes and dance. Notable Luos include the former prime minister of Kenya, Raila Odinga; the former president of the United States of America, Barack Obama; and the environmental scientist and Nobel Prize winner Professor Sam Odingo. Throughout the 19th century, the Luo migrated into the area they now occupy in Kenya. The Luo believed in God the creator, Nyasaye, whom they worshipped in sacred places (hembko or hembho). The sacred shrines, trees, huge rocks, hills and Lake Victoria were associated with the supernatural. Traditionally, the Luo were organised into exogamous clans consisting of several families and headed by a clan elder. The Luo believed that the dead joined the spirit world where they still had influence on living relatives. Luos in the precolonial era had a wide range of music genres.
