Gusii Tribe

This tribe is also called the Kisii; a name they got from the former colonialists who found it difficult to pronounce the word abagusii. The language spoken by the Kisii people is called ekegusii. They make up approximately 6% of the Kenyan population. Their real place of origin is disputable. They are believed to have originally migrated from the northern African country now called Egypt while some sources also say that they originated in Congo basin forests presently know as DRC (Democratic republic of Congo) alongside other Bantu groups.

All in all, the ancestral Gusii population entered western Kenya from Uganda and then moved on from the foothills of Mount Elgon towards their current lands. In the process of their movement, on the way, for two generations, they stayed at Goye Bay, by Lake Victoria then they moved initially to the Kano plains and later, to their present location due to the population expansion of the Luo and the Maasai and Kuria. The Kisii finally ended up in a geographical location unique among all bantu speaking groups in that they were surrounded all round by Nilotic tribes of the Luo, Kipsgis, Nandi and Maasai. Eventually, they ended up settling at the highlands close to the Lake Victoria region.

The Kisii people are famous for their Soapstone carvings which they also export and for the large banana plantations. The Kisii soapstones are mined at a place in the southern part of Kisii called Tabaka while the bananas are generally grown all over the Kisii highlands. Culturally, the Gusii people play a large string instrument called obokano. They also practice some initiation ceremonies meant to signify a shift from childhood to adulthood. Boys get circumcised at around age 10. This was traditionally done as a rite of passage. Soon after that, it was a time for seclusion whereby, the newly initiated boys go under training from the older boys. Celebration came thus called for family and communities participation. In conclusion, the Gusii culture has been to some extent mixed with their own Bantu aspects and borrowed then assimilated feature from the nearby tribes.