02/02/2023
What do you think?
The Gentrification of the Luo Man.
Naturally, a Luo man is of medium height or even tall and is lean and very strong.
He is stoic, confident and hardworking.
He is skilled, innovative and creative.
30 years ago, if you wanted valuable furniture, you'd go to a Luo carpenter.
If you wanted a good-looking suit to wear, you'd go to a Luo tailor.
If you wanted your pair of shoes repaired, you'd go to a Luo cobbler.
If you wanted your car fixed, you'd go to a Luo mechanic.
The Luo man is gifted with craft skills and this is because of his proclivity to fishing.
Fishing requires dexterity, astuteness and wit. The whole process of fishing expedition begins early in the morning at 2 am, and it includes rowing the boat deep into the lake and setting the trawls of nets.
This skill of fishing was critically needed as society became more civilized.
Culturally, a Luo man was a tough husband and a resolute father who didn't entertain nonsense in his homestead.
His family was raised on principles of the discipline.
His family ate the most nutritious meals available which consisted of fish, fish oil, sorghum, millet and smoked beef.
A luo man owned wealth which he passed to his sons. He owned several cows, granaries of millet and sorghum and land.
Socially, the Luo man is a warm social animal. That's why most sports are domiciled in the Luo community eg Rugby and football.
If you visit Luo markets, you will come across old men playing ajua and other sports that promote cohesion and learning among generations.
However, when civilization arrived in the Luo nation, the gentrification of the Luo man started.
The Europeans began turning the mind of a Luo man into an Afro-Anglican. This was achieved through the railway system that brought this gentrification in Kisumu city.
The Luo man began living the soft life of the Europeans. Wearing expensive English fashion, driving the most luxurious European car and opting to live in modern anglo-houses.
Their politicians began mimicking the Europeans while encouraging the newer generation to abandon the Luo tradition and pursue the culture of the Anglo-Saxons.
In deed, subsequent Governments since independence have promoted systemic and structural discrimination against the Luo man. This has pitted him against these governments.
But this discrimination is based on hate and jealousy because the gentrification of the Luo man did not sit well with the colonial apologists in Nairobi and central Kenya.
Since a Luo man is considered astute, he had to be stifled in order to remain stunted.
But this has not stopped the Luo community from pursuing its liberation from systemic discrimination.
Despite the collapse of their economic stimulants like the fishing industry, the cotton industry, the railway, the irrigation scheme and the sports, they have soldiered on stoically. (Refer to my analysis of their nature).
Luos don't beg for food from Government. They don't beg for favours. Yet they still live together with their little resources availed to them by nature.
So what do we have today?
We have lazy luo men who waste their time on hedonistic ways of life.
The modern Luo man is fat, chaotic and unreasonably emotional.
It is a sad sight to see a fat luo man with man-boobs, potbelly and feminine buttocks.
He has abandoned his parents or community back in the village because he was told they will bewitch him. So he pitches camp in the city. He pursues yellow women who don't even respect him.
When he retires, he goes back to his village broke, depressed and distorted, with nothing to show for his 30 years working as a manager in a European company.
Today, diseases that were unheard of in the Luo community have ravaged the entire health system to its knees.
Diabetes, hypertension, cancer and other metabolic ailments not forgetting HIV have devastated the whole community.
If you go to Kisumu today, the high-end hospitals of the city of Nairobi have pitched camp there with huge billboards
"Best cardiology hospital."
"Best kidney hospital."
"We have the best physician."
The entire population swallows these lies line hook and sinker as they endlessly enrich these hospitals.
"Omera, I spent 150,000 to see that cardiologist. Don't joke Omera."
He doesn't see a problem here.
"Omera, I drive this E-class"
"Bwana, this wine is called Scala Dei, I bought it in Italy."
"I am an Engineer, with a PhD in engineering mathematics."
- and so forth and so on...
While he continues to show braggadocio of how he is spending thousands of money treating his liver, kidney, heart or diabetes, he loses his wealth and finally his health and then his life ends there.
If the Luo man does not wake up from this gentrification, the entire community will perish into alcoholism, debauchery, debts and eventually poverty.
Education without wisdom is useless
