Kisii people

Kisii

Total population
2,205,669
Regions with significant populations
Kenya
Languages
Kisii
Religion
African Traditional Religion, Christianity
Related ethnic groups
Kuria, Luhya, other Bantu peoples

The Kisii (also known as AbaGusii) is a community of Bantu people who inhabit two counties: Kisii (formerly Kisii District) and Nyamira in Nyanza Province, Western Kenya. Gusii is the fond reference to their homeland and Mogusii is culturally identified as their founder and patriarch.

Kisii town - known as Bosongo or Getembe by the locals - is located in Nyanza Province to the southwest of Kenya and is home to the Gusii people. The name Bosongo is believed to have originated from Abasongo (to mean the Whites or the place where white people settle(d)) who lived in the town during the colonial times. According to the 1979 census, Kisii District had a population of 588,000. The AbaGusii increased to 2.2 million in the latest Kenya Census 2009.

The Abagusii, like the Abaluyia (Luhya), claim to have come from areas further north(Misri). As these Bantu speakers migrated from the west Central Africa, they split up into different groups with the Kisii ending up in Nyanza Province near Lake Victoria. (The Kikuyu, Kamba, and other related Bantu groups in Kenya continued the hunt for richer soil for farming and moved on eastwards across the Rift valley to their current locations. They later settled in the formerly-called Eastern, Central and Rift Valley Provinces of Kenya.)

The Kisii ended up in a geographical location unique among Bantu speaking groups in that they were surrounded on all sides by initially, and later sporadically hostile Nilotic communities of the Luo, Kipsigis, Nandi, and Maasai. Constant sieges resulted in the development of a war-like culture, unlike most Bantu communities, to defend against cattle-raiding neighboring communities. To this day, they have a reputation of being tough, emotionally labile, resilient, and very industrious.

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Wikipedia