Suba people (Kenya)

The Suba (Abasuba) are a bantu people in Kenya who speak the Suba language. Their population is estimated at about 100,000, with not that many fluent speakers left. They migrated to Kenya from Uganda and settled on the two Lake Victoria islands of Rusinga and Mfangano, and are believed to be the last tribe to have settled in Kenya. Linguistically, the Suba are highly influenced by the neighbouring Luo, to the point of a language shift having taken place among large portions of the mainland Suba. As a result, their own language has been classified as endangered. Despite this language shift, the Suba have kept a distinct ethnic identity.

Suna Girango or Abagirango is another group that is usually erroneously grouped together with the Luo Abasuba since they also call themselves Abasuba. But, this is because Girango had a son named Musuba (Suba) and this Musuba had many children than his other brothers Tegi and Gire hence descendants of Musuba calling themselves Abasuba meaning Musuba's people. Suba clans in Suna include Simbete, Sweta, and Wiga; and they have a clear and distinct ancestry that goes back to forefathers who crossed red Sea from Misri as illustrated below:

Ragwe<--Siora<--Montheya<--Girango<--Musuba

Their language is also distinct and very different from the Olusuba language spoken by the Luo Abasuba. The Kisuba language spoken by the Suna people is very similar to egikurya. Kisuba language of Suna people is very similar to the Suba-Simbiti language that their brothers the Simbiti, Sweta, Surwa and Hacha people of Tanzania speak. But, currently those who claim to speak Kisuba actually speak igikuria (bunchari dialect) which is 85% lexically and syntactically similar to Kisuba (Kisimbiti).

General Information

There are also people in Tanzania (Tarime, Musoma and Rorya Districts, Mara Region) who call themselves Suba, and its believed that they are part of the same ethnic group as the Abagirango since their language and cultural heritage is very similar.

The Suba people who settled on the islands include smaller clans called the 'Chula', meaning the people of the islands, while others were called the Fangano. Other clans began forming when the people did much more expansion onto the islands. For example, there are three other clans whose clan names were distinguished by their new geographic location. The clan that predominantly lives the closest to Lake Victoria and is the bigger of the sub groups is the people that go by the name Gwasii and they happen to reside upon the Gwasii Hills. Another group that resides on a hill are the Uregi who reside on the Uregi Hills of Meari which is a town in the Nyanza province of Kenya. The Kaksingri live in a small fishing village called Sindo, and they are closed related with Uregi who live in the Uregi Hills. Today many people in the islands and the highlands subsequent to Lake Victoria still retain the Suba dialect that is closely related to the Ganda language although it is heavily influenced by the bigger Luo Language. Further information upon the tribesmen's expansion remains pretty unclear considering that the Niger-Congo family has the largest number of dialects within Africa. Distinguishing the different dialects become rather difficult because they all predominantly use the noun class system. With that being said it has become rather unclear as to how deep into Kenya the Suba people managed to travel being as distinguishing them from other dialects becomes harder and harder as the language is slowly being influenced by its neighboring language, Luo. Other suba speakers are found in the Southern shores of the Lake in Muhuru Bay. They are generally called Muhuhuru People and they also speak the Suba Language. Some pockets of Uregi, Gwassi, and Kaksingri are also found in Muhuru Bay.

Even though the greater Suna people usually identify themselves as Suba. They are not in any way related to the Luo Abasuba from Suba district. Suna people are actually the Abagirango or Girango people that is why they also call themselves Suna Girango or Suba Girango. Girango had many sons who are named after the sub-tribes of suna for example Musuba,Tegi,Gire. Musuba or Suba son of Girango is the reason why Suna people like to call themselves Suba. However, the correct name for this community is ABAGIRANGO, meaning Girango people In real sense, the term Suba was used by Luos to refer to smaller bantu groups that occupied areas around lake victoria as most of these bantus were splinters from their main tribes of Kisii,Kuria and Suba and the term later became the name of a group of people who migrated form Uganda escaping the expansion of the Buganda Kingdom. They settled in Kenya as refugees and they had a well formed and a very organised language, political system and economic activities. The Suba in Suna, Kenya refers to a mix of Bantu and Nilotes especially the Luos, and Kuria who settled in Kenya. A clear evidence of this is a town named Suba Kuria in Migori, Kenya. The Suna Abasuba include the Wasweta (Kadika, Katiga, Kakrao,), Wasimbete (Bahiri kiberi, Bahiri ng'ong'o, bahiri Nkena, Miaro, Nchogu)and Wiga (Wakwena, Nyasasi, Wanje, Nyathocho, Kamsuru).

Their original language is Kisuba which has several dialects such as sweta,simbiti,surwa,kine etc. Currently they speak a language that includes a combination of kisuba and egikuria language -especially the bunchari dialect, and many of the communities interact freely with the Suba people in Tanzania (Surwa, Sweta, Simbiti,Hacha, Nguruimi, Kine etc.) and the Kuria (Rianchoka, Banchari, Batimbaru etc.) people.

2010.

Culture

The culture of the Suba People is very distinct from those of the Luo. The Suba people practice circumcision as an initiation process from boyhood to adulthood. Mostly boys are circumcised. In some clans, even girls are circumcised. Suna Girango circumcision process is very similar to their neighbors the kuria even the saro names for instance Nginaro, Misungu,Gitang'osa, Kirina, etc.

The Suba people are cattle farmers- a culture that they borrowed from the Luos. Even though the Luo no longer keep large herds of cattle, the Suba still keep cattle in large numbers. This is especially common in Migori District in Suba west division where cattle rustling between Kurians and Girango people is common. The Abasuba also commonly practice polygamy, some of the members of the clan are named to have had even ten wives.

Politically, the Suba were subordinate to the Luo even though they are sceptical of the Luo culture. They have constantly voted with the Luos of Kenya much to their disadvantage.

The most renowned Suba and Girango leaders include:

Language Barrier

One of the biggest issues relating to the Suba language declination is the sole fact that Kenya viewed the language as inferior. The education system is teaching English and Luo to the newer generations of Suba children thus impairing the possibilities of the language to come back.[1] Some even say that the fluent language speakers are middle-aged and have yet to establish a system to rebuild the language so that it may take proper footing as one of Africa's many languages, thus it has established a language status of at risk. Many blame the elders as they do not take proper measures to ensure the language's existence by teaching their young ones from an early onset. The biggest concern deriving from the pressures of reviving the language is the fear that their children will begin to build an identity crisis while attending school, considering that it is taught in either English or Luo.[2]

Sources

Heine, Bernd & Brenzinger, Mathias (eds.) (2003) 'Africa', in UNESCO Red Book of Endangered Languages. (Suba entry)

a book wrritten in Abasuba and translaten in Kiswahili.

References

  1. ↑ Otieno, Jeff, "Extinction of languages in East Africa worries Unesco", The East African, Nov. 2010
  2. ↑ Muindi, Matthias, "Languages: living on borrowed time", News from Africa, Apr. 2002

3. ^ Amadi Allela student at the Technical University of Kenya. www.twitter.com/allela_amadi

Did you know Suba is at risk? (n.d.). http://www.endangeredlanguages.com/lang/4789

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