Pokomo people

The Pokomo ( Wapokomo ) are a Bantu ethnic group in Kenya who lives in Coast Province at the Tana River from agriculture and fishing. Their population is about 50,000.

The Pokomo came in the 17th century from the north due to armed conflicts ( in connection with the expansion of the Oromo ) in its present area. Today, they are divided into two groups, the Upper Pokomo on the upper reaches of the river ( about 75 % of the total population) and the Lower Pokomo on the lower reaches. The Lower Pokomo received Christianity from the 1870s through the work of missionaries and had converted to 1914 practically entirely to Christianity. The Upper Pokomo, however, are from the first half of the 20th century Muslims. Many pre-Christian and pre-Islamic traditions Pokomo be followed only by older people. The Upper Pokomo the upstream neighboring Korokoro are referred to in part as Pokomo; they only speak the language of the Orma, a smaller sub- group of the Oromo.

The Pokomo live in small villages with 10 to 60 huts with grass roofs. Their livelihoods are the cultivation of corn, plantains and sugar cane and fishing in the river. The neighboring ethnic groups of the Oromo in the west and Somali in the east, however, are mostly nomadic cattle breeders. Between them and the Pokomo have occasional conflicts over water and land.

The Pokomo - language belongs to the Bantu languages ​​and forms within this with Swahili, the dialects of the Mijikenda, inter alia, the subgroup of genetically related Sabaki languages. They can be divided into Upper and Lower Pokomo; the most archaic Malankote is these two variants of the Pokomo the next and is seen by the Pokomo as part of the Upper Pokomo, but is probably rather own linguistic fields Upper and Lower Pokomo form a dialect continuum between the ends of the differences in light of the number of speakers and are spatial distance considerably. They are influenced by the northern Swahili, of central Kenyan Thagicu languages ​​( particularly Meru ), Orma, Dahalo and bonuses, the Malankote also contains influences of Somali and at least one unspecified identifiable language.

A song of Pokomo, sung by mothers for their children, served as the basis for the melody of the national anthem of Kenya.