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Chahilu’s Funeral; Logooli Culture in action

Guuga Chahilu was respectfully laid to rest at his home on Saturday 14th June 2025. Having passed on at Mbale Referral Hospital on 31st May 2025, the two weeks leading to his burial were full of cultural discussions. His passing on is a great loss to the Logooli Language and Culture Family as he was a custodian and informer of Luhya Indigenous Knowledge. An observation as to how the funeral proceeded leads us to revist Logooli traditions amidst modern realities.  One, having left the house alive and now coming back in state, Chahilu was to be taken inside the house, placed muihiilu for a moment and then officially taken out in wait for earth burial. His casket was able to enter the doors. There are cases where the dead would find it difficult to be taken in and then out due to an oversized casket or thin door. A man or a lady of his house who died out of home has to be taken in the house for a last ritual mark. But if the person had died inside, he or she would not be brought bac...
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I am Simon Makonde

I will agree with fellow bloggers that Simon Makonde's story was too deep for  lower primary brain. Some learn to pass a stage and others learn to unlearn. I appreciate the economical, social and political views related. But I have a contribution to make. I want to be brief. 

To me, the story is a poem. I may not express the telepathy. Words are too shallow and the interpretations unending.

A summary would be that we start life at birth and end at death. Eternity is your own gambling. The time aspect, fixed, awaits as in life vanities of naming, marrying and sickening. For what is good in marriage when you can fall ill on a thursday?

The boy is named two names- a traditional and a christian name. A person born of 'unknown' parents, unknown culture, mixed identity and adopting a christian wedding style that could not be honest enough- whoever brought the STI- for him to fall ill. He therefore comes into the world of confussion- too much TV- and computer- with least time for self. No soil owns the boy anything for he belongs to none.

Good that Makonde prayed in no day. Why should you pray? Good that he married- I do not know whether she was a virgin-or whether he himself was-whether he left an orphan unborn when he died-we don't know as we don't know of the wife. If you asked me, Simon hurried to marriage/sex, a life that kills the unsteady though their hearts still beat. Social connections are killer opportunities. Great men love solitude. They seek company for convenience. He could have died unmarried- for what is the reward of being?

I know where I am in the stages of Makonde. Do not tell me about philosophy, religion or reality. Tell me about nothing as you wait for my dirge. And that is the Sad story of I, Makonde.

Comments

  1. Unknown7 December 2021 at 08:31

    This hurry hurry is affecting our young generation

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous29 April 2022 at 04:29

    do you have this book?can buy it

    ReplyDelete

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