Abstract.

The Abasuba or Suba, a Bantu ethnic group of approximately 30,000-40,000 individuals mostly within Kenya Homa Bay County, embedded polygynous marriage, one man- multiple wives, as a part of their social-cultural life long ago. This is not a simple household arrangement, but a staging of clan alliance, division of labor in economic activities, gender inequalities, socialization of children, succession of heirs and maintenance of ethnic identity during pressures of assimilation by history. Developing in migrations to avoid Buganda Kingdom expansion in Uganda circa 1760, the Abasuba established themselves in Luo-dominated areas to gain access to strategic fishing as well as protective locations, which mixed their Bantu identities as well as boosting Luo population and resource bases. This paper breaks down these dynamics in terms of historical background, effects of assimilation, effects on economic strategies and gender role, family attitudes, children experiences, succession complexities, and contemporary losses and finds that polygyny is not only a survival strategy but also a source of identity.

Origins, Migration, and Strategic Settlement in Luo Lands

The Abasuba are descendants of Bantu migrants who came to cross Lake Victoria in their canoes seeking refuge and the death of Kabaka Junjo and the ensuing succession wars in Buganda and Busoga in modern Uganda in the year 1760. They selected Luo zones, namely Rusinga and Mfangano islands at the entrance to Winam Gulf, as good fishing grounds, fertile volcanic soils, and defense by isolation on their islands, which were added to their already existing agro-fishing economy borrowed off Kuria kin. This was not a confrontational expansion like elsewhere in the world: the Abasuba outnumbered Nilotic Luo who, due to her arrival in Sudan via Uganda, had been protected by the Wasaki against raider attacks, but at the cost of linguistic and ritual dominance. Polygyny enhanced this process; Abasuba men wed Luo women to establish connections, and Abasuba men wed Luo women so that they could have access to the lake, which had the gratifying effect of Luo territorial superiority and the constrained Abasuba to shrinking island enclaves, creating a hybrid Luo-Abasuba identity by the 19th century.

Assimilation Dynamics: When, How, and Impacts on Luo and Abasuba

The pace of assimilation increased since the mid 18th century, reaching a peak in the 1850s to 1900s with one-sided intermarriages in which Abasuba women married Luo men by far outnumbering the reverse as a result of Luo numerical dominance and colonial policies supporting Luo administrative systems. Luo expansion forced a linguistic and cultural boghead uprooting of the Abasuba to the interior and introducing Dholuo language, tooth extraction initiations and patrilineal exogamy rules, and ousting Olusuba (which now faces imminent extinction, with less than 10,000 speakers fluent). Influences on Abasuba,  cultural dilution e.g., the rejection of circumcision in favor of Luo rites, created identity losers, and old men such as Japheth Riogi cried out that we are still Suba, not Luo, in the 1970s era of autonomy demands. Gains to Luo consisted in demographic swelling through the inflows of Abasuba labor and genetic diversity, but there were also some tensions at the edges. Luo fathers considered Abasuba wives exotic allies to get prestige, and their sons frequently faced the problem of having to negotiate between two identities. Abasuba wives acquired security and lost independence, bittered by the fact that Luo husbands favored unique co-wives of Luo. Sons of mixed marriages would be heirs of Luo but Abasuba fishing heritage whereas daughters were subject to two strains, Luo ideals of beauty conflicting with Suba matrilineal reverberations, reinforcing gender inequalities in intermarried families.

Economic Foundations and Gender Relations in Polygynous Unions

Polygyny increased the economic survival of the Abasuba in their lake economy, since the different wives optimized fish processing, sorghum agriculture, and cattle husbandry of bridewealth to ensure that the homesteads were self-sufficient to face ecological disasters like Nile perch overfishing. The women of a man would signify wealth, and therefore, they would permit extensions of the clan, which would ensure that children would not be lost. This went further with intermarriage, where the Luo husbands learnt fishing techniques of Abasuba wives, and this boosted their household production by 15- 20 percent higher production by co-wife as per the ethnography surveys. However, it was a patriarchal gender order: mikaye (first wives, most often Luo in mixed marriages) were responsible of granaries and rituals, Abasuba wives in the junior group were employed in hierarchies with a lot of jealousy. Suba endogamy was hated, but Abasuba women in Luo families were assured of the co-wife protection upon widowhood, Abasuba women as Mama Phelister Anyango points out were assured of the co-wife protection but denounced emotional deprivation, and 2-3 times more HIV risk in plural bed arrangements. Through mixed lineages and levirate (widow inheritance), wives used to plot marriage to fathers as a means of financial survival, making them the greatest beneficiaries of prestige.

Familial Perspectives: Fathers, Wives, Sons, and Daughters

In the eyes of a Luo father in an intermarried Abasuba homestead, polygyny was pious procreation, Mzee Japheth Omondi Riogi (72, four wives) brags, "My father had nine; and polygamy gives Luo clans voice in Luo councils, and Suba works give me 29 children to guarantee a fishing-right. This was repeated several times by Abasuba fathers, who needed not to assimilate but to identify by marrying Luo women to make Luo-proof lineages, but feared that assimilation was eroding Suba songs. Women went in other directions: Luo Mikaye vetoed new wives, considering Abasuba juniors as necessary liabilities to alliances but liabilities to resources; Abasuba wives, such as Mama Roseline Akumu (six co-wives) bore the burden of hierarchical and accepted that childcare with others in the midst of favoritism hurts. Sons, half-siblings, even though of women of Abasuba, struggled with loyalties, as Luo sons of Abasuba wives, heir to their patrilineal pride, but Suba endurance, usually against polygyny as barbaric by their urban employment. Drowned in the intrigues

of being bridges of clans, daughters were pressured to intermarry: Luo daughters were taught Abasuba dances in order to balance, and Abasuba girls learned Luo exogamy in order to delay autonomy but obtain cross-clan networks.

Children's Experiences: Sons, Daughters, and Gender

The Abasuba family is a polygynous family, and all the wives were referred to as mama by the children. The biological mother was mama mako and the co-wife mama min. By developing fabrics of loyalty by virtue of the fact that they shared fatherhood they formed a sense of unity but this resulted in rivalries among the mothers that created divisions. The sons possessed some benefits. Turning of responsibilities made them stronger, and even intermarriage emphasized the hierarchy of the Luo. Mothers of sons who ended as ritual performers often were sons of Luo, and sons of Abasuba netmakers and tailors had their part. But half-siblings demanded bridewealth, which 70 percent of urban young people can no longer accept. Daughters, with the help of all the mothers, came to terms with their situation. Elders claimed that a good wife was supposed to share so that he could expect her to be rich. Mixed Luo-Abasuba girls had a decision to make between tooth pullings and shrines of Suba, and this would frequently lead to an earlier betrothal at the age of 16 to 18 to form an alliance. There were also improvements brought by intermarriage. Luo sons learned fishing with Suba and this reduced poverty, which was high in 46 percent of the separated polygynous families. But daughters were struggling with identity problems. The differences between ideas of Luo beauty and Suba independence heightened emotional pressure in mixed families.

Succession, Inheritance, and Imbalances in Progeny

Abasuba polygyny is patrilineal and when one dies, the land, boats and cattle are shared among the sons of the person (Regardless of the mother) with the eldest son of the Mikaye taking the custodianship of the shrines which would continue the clan. Daughters receive goods which are movable (goats, tools) and none of the land, which can be redeemed through levirate of the brothers. Sons outnumber daughters to increase work and heirs, and decrease conflicts; a man who has 10 sons by five wives would strengthen against Luo land grabbing. Too many daughters too, there is economic stress, high bridewealth outlay (20-50 cattle per daughter) with no male labor inflows, induces strategic polygyny among sons, or marrying out to Luo (relieve dowry) but will cause clan dilution in case daughters marry away all at once. In the mixed homes, Luo fathers preferred equal portions of sons because of prestige but Abasuba mothers pressured their mothers with emotional appeal to have portions of daughters because of the tension between equality and hierarchy in polygyny..

Identity Politics: Polygyny as Suba Resistance Amid Assimilation

Polygyny persists because an Abasuba identity offers defense against Luo absorption, a homestead with separate wife-houses represent Bantu autonomy, not that of Luo who is now no longer monogamous following the missionary conversion (1900s). The elders refer to this rejection of co-wives as Luo betrayal, which they relate to the Suba Bible revival programs like the 2011 Suba Bible. This is politicized through intermarriage. It is said that Luo politicians buy Abasuba votes through polygynous alliances, which are not welcomed by youth as a poverty trap, inspiring the 2020s cultural festivals on Rusinga to re-suba-fy. To families, it is like cement; fathers call on the ancestors and their many wives to be together, wives curse power through descendants, children get the heritage of hybrid pride, and the shadow of assimilation and polygyny is now a curse in Luo choruses.

Conclusion: Polygyny's Fading Echoes and Enduring Legacy

Ultimately, in the Abasuba world, polygynous marriage not only crossed bedrooms and bedrooms but also created the threads of survival and selfhood of the abortion of Luo pacts through bride alliances, economic engines through fish drying empires, and gendered battlegrounds through mikaye queens as arbiters of jealousies and sons and daughters as meddlers of loyalties in the hybrid hearth. The two-sided blade of assimilation gave the Luo clans the power of Subas, but it also destroyed the Abasuba language and rituals. But polygyny defied its patrilineal citadel, son-shares even, lakeshores protecting their daughter's dowry, huge homesteads not to be submerged by the culture. Although today polygamy is becoming extinct although Kenya has had a marriage law since 2014, the law still permits polygamy. Its downfall shows the true sufferings: further poverty, increased risk of HIV, and even loss of the sense of Suba identity. Yet resilience remains. During the cultural festivals at Rusinga Island, the old people continue to sing of the ancestors who took wives on a date with the lake, and how they were very proud, and yet the fact was fading away of the system that used to create great clans through canoes and cattle, and large families. That world is fading away like the morning mist over Winam Gulf, and the Abasuba are gradually coming to know how to find their strength in fewer and smaller homes, and not one man having so many wives under his roof.

Ocholla-Ayayo, Andrev BC. Traditional ideology and ethics among the Southern Luo. 1976.

Ayot, Henry. A history of the luo-abasuba of western Kenya from CAD 1760-1940. Diss. 1973.

Ogot, Bethwell A. "History of the southern Luo, volume 1: Migration and Settlement." (1967).

Moseley, Christopher, ed. Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger. Unesco, 2010.

Articles by Caleb Kingwara’s Profile | the Standard (Kenya ..., muckrack.com/caleb-kingwara/articles. Accessed 8 Dec. 2025. 

Potash, Betty, ed. Widows in African societies: choices and constraints. Stanford University Press, 1986.

Shipton, Parker MacDonald. Bitter Money: cultural economy and some African meanings of forbidden commodities. No. 1. American Anthropological Association, 1989.

Okumu-Oloo, Bernard. An ethnoarcheological study of burial practices among the Abasuba of Rusinga island, Lake Victoria, Kenya. Diss. University of Nairobi, 2006.

Kingwara, Kevine Omollo and Caleb. “How Abasuba Accepted Luo Love and Lost Their Culture.” The Standard, www.standardmedia.co.ke/the-standard-insider/article/2001386038/how-abasuba-accepted-luo-love-and-lost-their-culture. Accessed 8 Dec. 2025.