Owiny Sigoma
Luo · mortal · mythic past · Recorded classification
Owiny Sigoma stands in Southern Luo tradition as the archetypal conquering leader of the second, more militant wave of Luo settlement. Leading the Jok-Owiny out of Busoga and across the lakeshore, he defeated the peoples in his path and established a settlement named Sigoma after himself in Alego; the reputation for aggression won his descendants the honorific clan name Karuoth, 'those of the king'. He is remembered as the human founder of a royal lineage rather than as a divine or superhuman being.
Domains
- war and conquest
- royal authority
Powers
- to lead the Luo in armed conquest
Sources
- Owiny Sigoma is the legendary warrior-leader of the Jok-Owiny migration into western Kenya, eponym of the Sigoma settlement and founder of the Karuoth royal clan of Alego.: Bethwell A. Ogot, History of the Southern Luo, Volume I: Migration and Settlement, 1500-1900 (Nairobi: East African Publishing House, 1967). (secondary); William R. Ochieng', An Outline History of Nyanza up to 1914 (Nairobi: East African Literature Bureau, 1974). (secondary)