Gusii people
The Gusii people are a Bantu speaking ethnic group indigenous to Kisii and Nyamira counties of former Nyanza, as well as parts of Kericho and Bomet counties of the former Rift Valley province of Kenya.
They speak Ekegusii, classified among the Great Lakes Bantu languages and generally grouped with northeast Bantu-speaking populations. Recent studies, however, note that Ekegusii, along with Kuria, Simbiti, Ngurimi, Rangi, and Mbugwe, is structurally distinct from other Bantu languages, particularly in tense usage.
Etymology
The term Kisii is Swahili and originates from the colonial British administration, who used it in colonial Kenya to refer to the Abagusii people, as it was much easier to pronounce.The term Kisii, however, has no meaning in the Ekegusii language. In the Swahili language, the singular form is Mkisii and the plural form is Wakisii; the Swahili name for the Ekegusii language is Kikisii. The term is now popularly used in Kenya to refer to the Abagusii people.
Among the Abagusii, the name Kisii does not refer to the people, but to a town—Kisii, also called Bosongo or Getembe by the locals, is the major native urban centre of the Abagusii people. The name Bosongo is believed to have originated from Abasongo, which means "the whites" or "the place where white people settle", referring to settlers living in the town during the colonial era.
The other name used by the British in reference to Abagusii was Kosova/Kossowa, which is a derivative of the Ekegusii expression "Inka Sobo", meaning their home. Another possible origin of this is the Kipsigis referring to the Abagusii as "Gosobe". The endonyms are Abagusii and Omogusii ; the language spoken by the people is Ekegusii. The term "Gusii" supposedly derives from Mogusii, the community's founder. The term "Abagusii means people of "Mogusii"
History
Origins
The Abagusii speak Ekegusii, a Great Lakes Bantu language. The Bantu language family is the largest in Kenya. The Gusii language, Ekegusii, is one of Kenya's distinctive branch of western Bantu languages, and its speakers, The Gusii people, mainly arrived from the wider Bantu stream in eastern Uganda.. Other scholars, such as Christopher Ehret and David Schoenbrun, say that the Gusii people descend from East Nyanza languages|East|Proto-East Nyanza Bantu people coming from the south within the Mara region of Tanzania. The proto-Bantu language is generally accepted to have emerged in an area encompassing southern Nigeria and western Cameroon. The Bantu expansion was not just a linguistic or cultural diffusion, but a demic diffusion; Bantu expansion involved successive migrations of Bantu speaking peoples southwards and eastwards through Africa. However they did not wholly replace existing populations. Genetic analysis show significant admixture of incoming populations with the existing populations living in the areas of expansion, with a loss of diversity of the source proto-Bantu speaking population as they moved farther from west Africa.Nevertheless, the Abagusii have their own oral traditions that stress a distinctive "Misri" origin, which posits an origin in Egypt, and a long, staged migration into their present homeland in Kisii and Nyamira counties. The earlier ancestors in this tradition are credited as the founders of the six principal Gusii clans: the Abagetutu, Abanyaribari, Abagirango, Abanchari, Abamachoge, and Ababasi, and closely related tribes.
Homeland and early links
In Abagusii traditions, they were together with several other Bantu groups, including Kuria, Maragoli, Bukusu, Suba, Meru, Embu, Kikuyu, and Kamba, implying a common Western and Central Kenyan Bantu community. Their remembered homeland before arriving in Kenya lies in eastern Uganda, from which they began moving toward Mount Elgon on the Kenya–Uganda border.Migration route into Kenya
From Mount Elgon, the Abagusii, together with the Abakuria and Maragoli, followed River Nzoia to the Yimbo area in present-day Siaya, then moved through Yala and Alego to Kisumu after pressure from Luo groups, especially cattle raiding. Famine and further conflicts pushed them from Kisumu to Kano between roughly 1640 and 1755, and from there they moved via places such as Kabianga and Sotik through Kalenjin territory before finally settling in the present Kisii and Nyamira highlands, where they both influenced and were influenced by neighboring Maasai and Kipsigis.Misri origin tradition
Like many of Kenya's Western Bantu, the Abagusii preserve oral traditions claiming an ultimate origin in a location known as Misri, often associated with Egypt. Historian Gideon Were argued that the tradition was influenced by the biblical narrative, and that Misri should be located generally to the north of Mount Elgon, to dry regions such as Turkana or Karamoja. The historian, William Ochieng, initially agreed, but later argued against a dismissal of the identification of Misri with Egypt, arguing that Egyptians ordinarily referred to themselves as Misriyim and to their country as Misri. This, he argued, may encode memories of much older movements from the Nile Valley region.Demic diffusion
While the genetic, archeological and linguistic evidence suggests that the Abagusii largely derive from the Bantu family, the Bantu-speaking ancestors of the Abagusii interacted with diverse pre-Bantu populations in the Great Lakes region of East Africa, including speakers of Central Sudanic, East Sahelian, and Southern Cushitic languages, evidenced by loanwords in Ekegusii and related languages.Archaeological, anthropological, and linguistic research indicates that pre-Bantu settlers in present-day Kenya included Neolithic hunter-gatherers akin to the Ogiek and Khoisan, and agropastoralists related to Southern Cushitic and Nilotic groups. Their interaction with Bantu-speaking migrants contributed to the emergence of the Abagusii, whose heritage and oral traditions are multifaceted and rooted in diverse ancestral backgrounds.
Settlement in Gusiiland
Present-day Gusiiland, along with Kenya and East Africa at large, has been inhabited since the Neolithic period. As a result, its settlers have diverse origins. The first settlers were likely hunter/gathers similar to the Khoisan and Ogiek, which were followed by the Nyanza/Rift Cushites who replaced these hunters-gatherers, assimilating them, and settled during the Savanna Pastoral Neolithic period The next group of settlers were Nilotic pastoralists from present-day South Sudan that settled in the area circa 500 BC. The last group to settle in the area are Bantu speakers, whose migration to the area began in about 1 AD. Several southern Nilotics and southern Cushitics were assimilated into the Abagusii, who are likely responsible for the Gusii practice of circumcision and other practices due to cultural diffusion.Colonial era
The Abagusii were seen as warlike and fierce fighters by other ethnic groups, along with the Ameru, Abakuria and Maasai. This perception is evident in excerpts from the East African Protectorate Commissioner Sir Charles Eliot in early 1900s expeditions of Gusiiland and surrounding areas.Their warlike nature was deemed a threat to British rule, particularly the cattle camps frequented by warriors, prompting punitive expeditions that raided cattle and suppressed warrior activity. This gradually ended the pastoral and war-based lifestyle of most Abagusii.
In the 1930s, the British introduced new immigrants to Kisii County and other regions of Kenya to serve as interpreters, soldiers, porters, and farmers. These included the Baganda, the Maragoli, the Nubi, and the Olusuba-speaking Suba people from Rusinga Island, Mfangano Island, and parts of Homa Bay County. The Nubians were settled in present-day Kisii town and served as soldiers, while the Bantu-speaking Maragoli and Baganda worked as porters and labourers on white-owned farms and tea plantations. The Suba served as interpreters for the British administration. Some of these groups have been assimilated into Gusii society, while others, notably the Nubi, have retained distinct cultural identities and continue to reside in their original settlements in Kisii town.
Post-colonial
In the post-colonial age, the Abagusii have expanded out of their traditional range, settling in the major towns of the Luo-Nyanza counties, like Homa Bay, Migori, Kisumu and Siaya as well as other Kenyan towns and cities. There is also a significant diaspora population in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, and South Africa.Relationship with other peoples
Relationship with Nilotic speakers and East African Bantu speakers
During the pre-colonial period, the Abagusii primarily interacted with neighbouring Nilotic-speaking communities, including the Maasai, Nandi, Kipsigis, and Luo. These interactions contributed to limited contact with other Bantu-speaking populations, a factor reflected in the cultural influences and linguistic characteristics of Ekegusii.Despite this, the Abagusii maintained contact with some closely related Bantu-speaking groups before colonisation, including the Kuria, Zanaki, Ikoma, Rangi, Mbugwe, Ngurimi, Simbiti, certain Suba clans, and the Maragoli.
Prior to colonisation, the Abagusii engaged in barter trade with neighbouring groups, notably the Luo, and occasionally formed alliances to counter threats such as cattle raiding. Relations with Nilotic communities were generally peaceful, with occasional conflicts over cattle and grazing land. Gusii oral traditions and some scholarly sources indicate historical ties with Nilotic-speaking groups, particularly the Kipsigis, including shared clan affiliations.
Etymology of Bantu and relevance to Abagusii
The modern usage of the term "Bantu" emerged in the 19th century during European colonisation; prior to this period, such divisions did not exist in Africa. This classification of African peoples into distinct, internally homogeneous groups has been criticised as overly general and often inaccurate. Linguists trace their heritage to proto-Bantu, which originated in southern Nigeria and western Cameroon, and spread through subsequent migrations.In the case of the Abagusii, together with the Kuria, Zanaki, Ikoma, Rangi, Mbugwe, Ngurimi, and Simbiti, linguistic and cultural evidence suggests stronger influences from Nilotic and Cushitic communities than is typical among other Bantu groups.