Pokomo people
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| 94,965 (Kenya) (2009) | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
 Kenya
|
|
| Languages | |
| Pokomo language | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Mijikenda, Swahili, other Bantu peoples |
The Pokomo people are a Bantu ethnic group of southeastern Kenya. The population in Kenya is currently more than 150,000. Despite their proximity, they are not one of the groups that make up the nearby Mijikenda peoples; they are a distinct ethnic group with their own sub-clans/tribes. They are predominantly agriculturalists and both freshwater and ocean fishermen living along the Tana River in the Tana River County. They speak the Pokomo language, which is similar to Swahili.
The Pokomo population is split into two groups: the Upper Pokomo, who make up 75% of the population, and the Lower Pokomo. The Upper Pokomo people are mainly Muslim, and have been so since the first half of the 20th century. The Lower Pokomos, who live along the lower part of the Tana up to the delta, were receptive to the teachings of the Christian missionaries who arrived in the area in the late 1870s, and, by 1914, were almost exclusively Christian. The Joshua Project states that, in total, 25% of Pokomo are Christian (Evangelical: 18%) and 65% are Muslim. Ethnologue indicates that the group is mainly Muslim.
In his paper published in the Journal of History in Africa 10 (1983), 207–237 entitled "History of Linguistics: Case Study of Tana River", Dereke Nurse confirmed that the Pokomo regard themselves and their language as being divisible into Lower (LP) and Upper (UP) Pokomo. The people and the language of roughly the northern one-third of the River Tana towards Garisa are known as Malakote (M: also known as Ilwana or El-Wana). Malakote differ considerably from UP and LP. Even the two-way split UP: LP is partly artificial linguistically, as in any continuum. The major break does occur around Mwina, but these are also internal isoglosses dividing UP and LP. Some of these link adjoining part of UP and LP.
Within Pokomo, there is considerable linguistic variation at all levels: lexical, phonological and morphological. Despite the smallness of the Pokomo Community, there is at least as much internal difference between UP and LP as between the two poles of the 150 mile-long Malakote Community. Van Otterloo assess the level of lexical similarity between UP and LP as much as the same as that between Giriama and Digo. UP and LP refer to each other jocularly as "two-week" languages; that is, they take two weeks to learn but Malakote, within UP is regarded as a "two-months language". It is therefore clear that Pokomo are not part of the Mijikenda community, which is composed of nine sub-tribes. Some of these are the (i) Kauma, (ii) Chonyi, (iii) Jibana, (iv) Giriama, (v) Kambe, (vi) Ribe, (vii) Rabai, (viii) Duruma and (ix) Digo.
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