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 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.
Homeland and early links 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.
Demic diffusion While the genetic, archeological and linguistic evidence suggests that the Abagusii largely derive from the Bantu family, the Bantu-speaking ancestors of the Abagusii interacted with diverse pre-Bantu populations in the Great Lakes region of East Africa, including speakers of Central Sudanic, East Sahelian, and Southern Cushitic languages, evidenced by loanwords in Ekegusii and related languages. Archaeological, anthropological, and linguistic research indicates that pre-Bantu settlers in present-day Kenya included Neolithic hunter-gatherers akin to the
Ogiek and
Khoisan, and agropastoralists related to Southern Cushitic and Nilotic groups. The next group of settlers were
Nilotic pastoralists from present-day
South Sudan that settled in the area circa 500 BC. The last group to settle in the area are
Bantu speakers, whose
migration to the area began in about 1 AD. Several
southern Nilotics and
southern Cushitics were assimilated into the Abagusii, who are likely responsible for the Gusii practice of circumcision and other practices due to cultural diffusion.
Colonial era , a Gusii warrior, c. 1905–1907. The Abagusii were seen as warlike and fierce fighters by other ethnic groups, along with the Ameru,
Abakuria and
Maasai. This perception is evident in excerpts from the East African Protectorate Commissioner Sir
Charles Eliot in early 1900s expeditions of Gusiiland and surrounding areas. This gradually ended the pastoral and war-based lifestyle of most Abagusii. the
Maragoli, the
Nubi, and the
Olusuba-speaking
Suba people (Kenya) from
Rusinga Island,
Mfangano Island, and parts of
Homa Bay County. The Nubians were settled in present-day
Kisii town and served as soldiers, while the Bantu-speaking Maragoli and Baganda worked as porters and labourers on white-owned farms and tea plantations. The Suba served as interpreters for the British administration. Some of these groups have been assimilated into Gusii society, while others, notably the Nubi, have retained distinct cultural identities and continue to reside in their original settlements in Kisii town. == Relationship with other peoples ==