Kuria people
 |
|
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| 260,401 (in Kenya) | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
 Tanzania,  Kenya
|
|
| Languages | |
| Kuria | |
| Religion | |
| African Traditional Religion, Christianity | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Kisii, Luhya, other Bantu peoples |
The Kurya (also known as AbaKurya, as they prefer to call themselves) are a community of Bantu people who inhabit Tanzania and Kenya.
The people now known as AbaKurya are of diverse origins and clans. Before the twentieth century, they did not refer to themselves as the AbaKurya but by their various clans, or by the "provinces" from which they came. The Kurya people known as the Abakurya live astride the Kenyan-Tanzanian border and in South Nyanza on the Kenyan side. They are divided into clans (ibiaro) which some researchers refer to as sub-tribes, but they are not real sub-tribes as the differences among the clans are minor. The laws and practices are the same and the language is also the same among all clans with minor variations.
Each clan inhabits a geographically defined area, that is, the clans are localised. Each clan is divided into sub-clans called ibisaku; into generation-sets known as amakora of which there are only eight (8) and the same in all clans; and into age-sets referred to as ichisaro. Every clan has its own council of elders (inchama) who controlled the clan (ikiaro, singular) as political and religious leaders. The Abakurya believed in taboos and superstition and they generally feared punishment from the inchama for not observing the taboos. The punishment could be either death or barrenness or other misfortunes. The Abakurya customary law is made up of rules and practices accepted and sanctioned by the community. The custom had many do's and don'ts (taboos/superstitions) called imigiro. Even the marriage laws were full of taboos and superstition and there was automatic punishment for breaking these imigiro. Hence the laws were followed so strictly both before and after colonization, because after colonization the Abakurya went back to their original life and were not influenced by westernization.
Their strictness made Abakurya marriages (oboteti) binding to the extent that divorce was something almost impossible. Their marriage was potentially polygamous like any other customary marriage in Kenya. Marriage was valued very much, as one way of family sustenance and continuation. As such everybody had to marry and get married. Even for someone who was naturally incapable of marrying on his own like the lunatic, the dead, the cripple (irigata) among others, there was a way of ensuring that there was a wife in his name. There was also a way of caring for the barren or childless through marriage so that their houses would not be extinguished. There was no singlehood as a marital status to adults and as such even the divorcees had to remarry and every man had to marry in order to establish his own home (umugi goe). Also every woman had to be married to establish her own house (inyumba yae). Umugi and inyumba had to be sustained, that is, had to continue growing at whatever cost. All these factors led to certain marriages like ghost marriages, female to female (busino) and others. The stigma and disregard attached to divorcees, and given the fact that everyone had to marry, made people stick to their marriages however frustrating or bad some of them were.
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Wikipedia