The Alur are one of the various ethnic groups that inhabit the West Nile part of Uganda. They live amongst the Okebu, Lendu, Kakwa, Aringa and other ethnic groups of West Nile. However, unlike their neighbours who are Sudanic, the Alur are Luo. They are Nilotics and they belong to the same language group as the Acholi, the Jopadhola, the Joluo of Kenya, the Shilluk, the Anuak and other Luo of the southern Sudan.
Origin
Alur tradition states that they migrated from the southern Sudan with the other Luo following the Nile banks. Their original homeland is said to have been Rumbek on the confluence of the Nile and the Bahr-el-Ghazel rivers. They moved south along the Nile to Pubungu whence they dispersed, some moving on to Bunyoro, others to Acholi, yet others to eastern Uganda and on to the Nyanza province of Kenya, while the Alur moved westwards to West Nile. Historians claim, however, that the Alur are not purely Luo, but that they are a product of intermarriages between the Luo, the Lendu and the Okebu. But since the Alur maintained the Lwo speech and other Luo customs they should be grouped that way.