Riwruok E Teko: Cultivating Identity in Colonial and Postcolonial Kenya

Riwruok E Teko (Unity Is Strength) was the slogan of the Luo Union, an East African ethnically based welfare association, for all of its nearly sixty-year official existence. From its origins in the urban centers of colonial Kenya to its official demise in 1980, it sought to forge and govern a broad-based cultural identity among a diverse Dholuo-speaking population, yet in the context of contemporary Kenya, its image and popular memory induces little social debate on the components and control of Luo identity. Instead, mention of it more commonly evokes tributes to the famous football clubs that it sponsored and to accusations of being a "tribalist" breeding ground for ethnic politics. By closely examining its activities, the historian of East Africa begins to see beyond football and regional politics to the evolution of Luo cultural identity.