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The struggle with many a rigid Logooli cultural practices

  The Logooli community is one of the deeply cultured societies – with near everything supposed to have been done as per custom – to allow another custom to follow. One example is that for a mature man (with a child or more) to be buried, there must be a house structure at home. Another is that a boy must be circumcised and nursed in father land. If maternal family decides to, the boy will have a hard time reconnecting with father people - a dent on his masculinity. There were two children who got burnt to death in a house in Nairobi. The single mother had left for night work. Elders were told that one of the children was Logooli. The other, the woman had sired with someone else. The Logooli family wanted to burry their little one and long discussed the do’s and don’ts. Of a man who died childless and the grave was placed as if he had died as a man with children. It should have been dug on the sides, the grave. A real thorn should have been thrust in his buttocks, his name go...
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One thing leads to another

You happen to be a reader and as one day you went to see a friend who sells books there cometh a second hand book dealer. Among the books he carried was Out of Africa by Karen Blixen- a book that I have been looking forward to find. One quickly jumps to a longed for moment. The book would then take a next sit as I quickly finished the present one. The rest on the shelf could wait a little longer. 

It would be that as I read the book did the otherwise normal environment started being seen by an inner eye. One develops thirst to experience things as the author experienced them either in agreement or disagreement. Ngong Hills would be the place to cycle to and Karen Blixen Museum no longer a strange place. Here is a diary that has 11th June booked for the hills. 


And such is the kind of life we lead. Though I would not term it a circle I would agree with a person who thinks that it is. There are new moments in one’s life; experiences gained from independent sources like dreams and accidents. These experiences may not really add to the circle but will surely enrich instances. 

If my friend had not scored a B+, he would not have joined University of Nairobi. If he had only sat in class and never joined a handball team, he could have never met the person he calls his wife. She was also a handball player. Today they took their two children to church as a tradition on Sunday. 

Another instance goes that my brother had this beautiful girl as a classmate. They were really fond of each other. I guess in solving each other’s assignment problems. He used to visit her as she visited back. After graduation, he jokingly told the girl’s mother –whom he had become used to- how it is hard to get a job. It happened that a vacancy was in the seminary where the mother worked. That is how he earns his living. 

How the circle starts that leads one thing to another may be something blurry to the character. Sometimes it starts at birth. Maybe it started a long time ago with the first fish that later was Australopithecus. Maybe the circle starts with God himself if He is not part of it. It could also be as open to ends as finding one’s family hierarchy.

In denying the circle then what can we say of such things? Speculate? Though human mind is susceptible to seeking patterns and their relevance in life we should not keep to the roll that that is how things happen. The happenings are nothing but one’s will to do something. From there a new experience will develop that man has to decide whether to follow or not to. Whatever the choice one may take  there is least connection between it and its herald.

It may not follow suit if you are not adventurous or rather employed (monotonously engaged). It is about positive risks that sometimes cost you without an assured reward.

And does termination of one cause the circle to curve in? Would it be an end to an inner circle? After ten years of a struggling relationship they decided to divorce. It is over. The beginning was not when they first met. The beginning was in their individualism- something that may go back as far as you may trace. But is that the end? Well, you may take a ‘yes’ and a ‘no’ as the neighbor thought. Not even in death can we get full confidence in a Yes.

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