The Gusii people or Abagusii (also known as Kisii in Swahili) 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.
They are noted for their soapstone sculptures, called chigware
The term Kisii is an exonym derived from Swahili that was adopted by the colonial British administration for official use. In the Swahili language, a single person is referred to as a Mkisii, the people as Wakisii, and their language as Kikisii. While the community traditionally refers to themselves as the Abagusii and their language as Ekegusii, the term "Kisii" has since become the most common designation within Kenya to identify both the people and their ancestral counties.
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(d)", 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 (plural) and Omogusii (singular); 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
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|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. Historians suggest this narrative was largely instilled through their deep historical integration with Kalenjin groups, particularly the Kipsigis. The scholar William Ochieng suggests that the "Misri" legend, which posits a migration from a northern homeland, is a traditional Nilotic account that was adopted by the Gusii. He notes various Kalenjin lineages, most notably the Abachere clan, were absorbed into the Gusii social structure. Thus his thesis is that shared oral tradition reflects a period of intense cultural diffusion, where Nilotic migration myths were passed on and fused with Gusii history
In Abagusii traditions, they were together with several other Bantu groups, including Kuria, Maragoli, Bukusu (Luhya), 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 (northern Kenya) or Karamoja (across the border in northern Uganda). 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
Religion
Prior to the introduction of Christianity and Islam to Africa, the Abagusii were monotheistic, believing in a supreme God called "Engoro"; this God is also popularly called "Nyasae", a loanword from the Dholuo language, among Abagusii. The Abagusii believe that Engoro created the Universe, and was the source of all life. The sun ("Risase") and stars are both important in the Abagusii religion. Death, disease, and destruction of crops and livestock were considered unnatural events brought on by evil spirits, bad luck, witchcraft, or the displeasure of ancestor spirits. The Abagusii also revered medicine men and practiced ancestor worship, calling the ancestor spirits "Ebirecha."
Today, most Abagusii practice Christianity, with the four major denominations being Catholicism, the Seventh-day Adventist Church, Swedish Lutheranism, and Pentecostal Assemblies of God. A minority of Abagusii still adhere to their traditional religion, and others observe a syncretic form of their traditional religion and Christianity. Many still go to visit a diviner ("omoragori") who can point out displeased spirits of the dead and prescribe solutions for placating them
Marriage
Traditionally, marriage was arranged by the parents, who used intermediaries called "chisigani"; these intermediaries acted as referees for the future bride and groom. After the parents negotiated the dowry, the wedding would be organised. The wedding ceremony involved a mentor, called an "omoimari", who could provide continuing support to the newly married couple. Marriage between members of the same clan was traditionally forbidden. Marriage was officially established through the payment of dowry in the form of cattle to the wife's family. Afterwards, the man and woman are officially considered husband and wife. Divorce is customarily not allowed among Abagusii, as marriage is considered a permanent union that is only disrupted by death. Currently, civil and Christian marriages are recognised among the Abagusii
GIF by donaldtiki
Cuisine
The original diet of the Gusii people prior to colonisation consisted of meat, milk, and blood from livestock, cereals from millet and sorghum, as well as fruits, vegetables, birds, edible insects ("chintuga"), and wild meat obtained through hunting and gathering. The post-colonial diet of Abagusii and other African tribes has been transformed and influenced by interactions with the European colonists that introduced new crops and farming methods to Gusiiland and Africa.
The staple meal is obokima, which is a dish of millet flour or sorghum flour cooked with water to a hardened dough-like consistency. It is often served with rinagu, chinsaga, rikuneni, enderema, emboga, omotere, risosa, egesare, among other local green leaves consumed as vegetables. It's served with milk, particularly sour milk from livestock; it can also be served with any other stew. The Ekegusii word for "having a meal" ('ragera') usually connotes a meal involving obokima at the centre. By the 1920s, maize was introduced to Gusiiland and had overtaken finger millet and sorghum as staple crops and cash crops. As a result, maize is now largely used to prepare obokima. Ritoke (plural: "amatoke"), a dish of cooked and flavoured bananas, is a popular snack, but is considered a supplemental food, and not a proper meal.
