Meet the Bukusu

The Bukusu are one of the seventeen Kenyan tribes of the Luhya Bantu people of East Africa. Calling themselves BaBukusu, they are the largest tribe of the Luhya nation, making up about 17% of the Luhya population. They speak Bukusu dialect.

Historically, the Bukusu lived in fortified villages, and did not have a structure of central authority. The highest authority was the village headman, called Omukasa, who was usually elected by the men of the village. There were also healers and prophets who acquired great status because of their knowledge of tribal tradition, medicines, and religion. Elijah Masinde, a resistance leader and traditional medicine man, was revered as a healer in the early 1980s.

The Bukusu highly approve of intermarriages between themselves and BaMasaaba. This is because they have quite a number of similarities in their codes of conduct, marriage customs, circumcision traditions and even folklore. Among the most famous of Bukusu marriage customs is the immense respect accorded one's in-laws.

Like many of the tribes we have learned about on this blog, cattle are very important: they are the main means of exchange. Most values, from the beauty of a girl to the price of a field of land, are expressed in terms of head of cattle. Possessing cattle wealth and prosperous agriculture, the Bukusu are sometimes not only admired but also envied by neighboring communities.

Being sedentary pastoralists, they have time to care for their sick and bury their dead. A sick person is looked after until he recuperated or died. When a person dies, he or she is buried in a grave that ranges from 3–4 feet in depth, with people buried facing East, the direction in which the sun rises. It is not uncommon for the dead to be buried in a sitting position.

Bukusu accounts indicate that both agricultural and pastoral economies have been practiced by the tribe for as long can be remembered. This is authenticated by the vast amount of knowledge they have about farming practices, rich pastoral vocabulary and the broad variety of legends connected with pastoral life. Today, they farm mainly maize for subsistence and sugar cane as a cash crop in the Bungoma area, as well as wheat in the Kitale area. Cattle and sheep are universally kept, cattle mainly for milk, and sheep for meat and ceremonial functions. Chicken, a traditional delicacy, are nowadays reared on small to medium scales for commercial egg production.

Photo credit: sTr Photo