Negotiating Belonging: The Abasuba and Cultural Transformation in Western Kenya

This paper examines the processes of cultural assimilation among the Abasuba of Mfangano Island in western Kenya, focusing on how sustained interaction with neighbouring Luo communities reshaped Abasuba cultural identity over time. Prior to intensified contact, the Abasuba maintained a distinct Bantu identity expressed through language, kinship systems, initiation rites, naming practices, burial customs and economic organisation. However, prolonged engagement through intermarriage, trade, shared settlement, missionary activity and colonial administration gradually altered these cultural institutions. Guided by Cultural Assimilation Theory, the study traces how unequal power relations and everyday social interaction facilitated the adoption of Luo language, customs and social norms, often as a strategy for social acceptance and access to resources. Using a qualitative historical research design, data were collected from 62 respondents, with 10 regarded as key informants, through oral interviews with elderly Abasuba men and women, cultural custodians, and key informants, complemented by archival records and relevant secondary sources. Thematic analysis reveals that assimilation occurred incrementally, affecting family life, identity markers, ritual practices and patterns of social organisation, while certain elements of Abasuba heritage persisted through clan memory, selective ritual observance and ancestral consciousness. The findings demonstrate that assimilation among the Abasuba was neither abrupt nor total, but rather a negotiated process shaped by proximity, interaction and adaptation. The study contributes to scholarship on minority communities in East Africa by highlighting how cultural change unfolds through selective incorporation rather than complete cultural displacement, underscoring the importance of recognising indigenous agency in historical processes of cultural transformation.