Maragoli tribe (Luhya)

The Maragoli, or Logoli (Ava-Logooli), are now the largest ethnic group of the 6 million-strong Luhya nation in Kenya, numbering around 2.1 million, or 35% of the Luhya people according to the last Kenyan census. Their language is called "Logoli", "Lulogooli", "Ululogooli", or "Maragoli".

Maragoli also refers to the area that the descendants of a man called Mulogooli (also known as Maragoli) settled and occupied in the thirteenth century AD. Maragoli clans include the Va-Gonda, Va-Mavi, Va-Sachi, Va-Saniaga, Va-Vulughi, "Va-Ndega","Va-sari", "Va-ng'ang'a" Va-Yonga. (The prefix Va- refers to people, and is sometimes written Ba-, Ava-, or Aba-.)

Origins

Oral history

Maragoli history records a migration from North-East Africa. The story of the Maragoli people begins with a man called Mulogoli. He was descended from Kintu, who led the progenitors of the Luhya to their current area from an area they called Misri, now known commonly as Northern Sudan and Egypt.

When the Luhya progenitors first arrived in what is now northern Kenya, Southern Ethiopia and Southern Sudan, the ruler of the Luhyas at the time was Kitanga. The Turkana people later came to occupy the area where the Luhya ancestors had settled, and called it Lok-Kitang meaning 'the place of Kitang.' (Lokitaung is a modern town in North-Western Kenya).