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Heavy responsibilities for elder aunt among the Logooli

With Seenge Fonesi. She is the elder grand daughter of Isagi and elder daughter of Amugasya. She is often present in functions involving the family of Amugasya. Pic taken on 18/4/2024. The elder sister soon becomes the elder aunt. It is this “seenge munene” (elder aunt) tag that she is tied to many cultural responsibilities – back home. To her marital family she may appear as any other woman, but she is not so in the eyes of her people. Marriage does not steal her away as it would happen with other daughters of the old man. To her, as days go and the old man and woman of the estate are dependents, she becomes increasingly present.  Her brothers also need her for almost all traditional markings. They are marrying, she needs to welcome the new wife. They are giving birth, she needs to come to midwife or “bless” the new born. They are paying dowry she needs to lead the women delegate. There is a conflict she needs to come for a hearing.  And many others. Traditions does not expect her to
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The girl deserved the beating

Grandma said that she deserved the beating when I asked her whether the girl lying down with a bandaged leg, wounded hand and a making up face was helped. It is the going to Nairobi, where every mistake can be discussed otherwise that made me ask the foolish question.

This is the story;
There was luvego in the village. Luvego is a traditional anniversary for a man or woman, who had children marked to send him/her off sometime after burial. It is believed that the slaughtering of the bull (spilling of blood on the grave) cuts the person from the Earthly to spiritual world. And the event is marked by a night at the home and later a short ceremony in the day. It is the night that youths love.

The girl silently closed the door behind her. At least she did not use the window, the boy’s door. She was on her way to where her father, a young villager who could not be in the house even if sick when such an event was on. He looked and saw his child. He looked closely and confirmed that his girl child had risked to be in open in dangerous times. His slightly drunken eyes kept gazing at her every moment.

Alas! The girl was being led by a grandchild of the home called Vodoti. Boys of nowadays don’t know taboos. He couldn’t honour his grandfather by staying close to the fire.

Slowly the father followed and saw where his girl was led. He saw him open the door and her enter. Blood rushed, the alcohol composition diluted and for the first time, maybe second time, he wanted to swallow somebody alive. What was the fifteen years old girl going to do with the boy?

A knock and the boy vanished. His fate is awaiting. A bang and the girl screamed. He took her by the hand, in fatherly love and yearned to give her a scar. In such moments there are no rooms for counseling or negotiations. The victim received her portion. Up from the house, a cross roads, down to their home, father and daughter accompanied each other, one in the pain of being denied respect and the other in the pain of crossing a danger line.

Whether he coiled her hand or inserted her head in between the legs and clung to the neck for maximum beating, it is not an issue. Households were woken up in the tense night by a death scream of the mother. She was not against discipline. She feared that the girl was in a comma, dying.

She was held in a crouch position, wiping the blood on her face and legs. Aunts looked and got puzzled. Yes, the mistake was great and the punishment greater. She needed to see a doctor.

Our story ends there though the girl still lies on the bed.

Girls in my village start sex as early as nine years old. Penetration sex comes two or three years later. It is evidenced by the number of teenage pregnancies and promiscuity among the populations. Young mothers and fathers leave the task to their parents who are poor. The absence of strong and ‘wild’ parents leads the young to take the way of vanity early in their lives. The fear of punishment is the beginning of caution. As her sisters witnessed, only the blind will mess. And for the boy, will he again pass by that route?

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