Customary Land Tenure and Food Production in Seme Sub-County in the Pre-Colonial Period

This paper investigates the historical systems of customary land tenure and food production among the Jo-Seme people of present-day Seme Sub-County, Kisumu County, Kenya, during the pre-colonial period. Drawing on oral traditions recorded from clan elders, women farmers, and fishermen between 2017 and 2024, as well as ethnographic accounts and archival sources (Ogot, 1967; Odhiambo, 1995; Mbiti, 1969), the study examines migration trajectories, settlement challenges, territorial acquisition, land allocation, dispute resolution, ecological adaptation, and gendered divisions of labor in agriculture. Respondents were purposively selected against explicit criteria of age, lineage standing, gender, and occupational knowledge, and oral testimonies were verified through cross-respondent comparison, archival corroboration, and a structured thematic coding procedure. It argues that the pre-colonial Seme land tenure system, anchored in lineage-based rights, communal ownership, and ritual legitimacy, structured access to arable land, supported sustainable agricultural productivity, and fostered resilience to food shortages, while also accommodating recurring internal contestation along lines of gender, generation, and lineage seniority. Environmental resources, crop diversity, and gendered labor specialization collectively underpinned the socio-economic stability of the Jo-Seme prior to colonial incursions, even as access to that stability was unevenly distributed within households and between autochthonous and incorporated lineages. By triangulating oral testimonies with written historical records and subjecting both to thematic analysis, the study demonstrates that customary tenure was not static or uniformly equitable but a continually negotiated order that dynamically adapted to demographic, ecological, and inter-ethnic interactions.

customary land tenure, Jo-Seme, pre-colonial agriculture, Luo migration, food security, communal ownership

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