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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 pleasure of deviation

Humans are different from animals simply cause they can ‘deviate’, writes my favorite author, Paul Theroux. Otherwise there could not be a source to derive the so called virtues. To be indeed human is to be perverse. Those who break the law, find the guts to reproach status quo, appeal to the minorities and later majority. Talk of Socrates, Jesus, Malcom X, Gandhi and you!
I left my volunteer job last April. I needed to be paid and it wasn’t forthcoming. I am disliked to this very moment for ‘walking out on them’. In search for a job I came to learn of similar quack organizations that did not only refuse an application but also put one off due to his tribe. To get one I shall be forced to bend further.
The freedom that people seek has strange experiences. Just like humans are unpredictable so is tomorrow. Even before change knocks our doors there is always a greater part of us ready to tackle it. Only a child can I restrict the chance to go into the wild.
By accident science thumps about inventing this and that. Many projects start as impoosibles, are highly criticized and if persistence thins not people come to appreciate the results. By rebelling his parents, Farhan in the movie 3 idiots went to become an accomplished photographer against his parents who demanded an engineer for a son.
What we call progress and success in the modern world is accumulation of wealth- both material and mental. If a private developer constructed a super subway in Nairobi it would be jealous for Karma to account for his source of funds. Fundraising for a church won’t care whether your last coin was contributed in the basket. You could have saved it for food.
Tragedy and shame are harvested huge in deviations. Imprisonment, addiction, assassinations, loss of property, lack of employment and loss of friends are but a few. Whether it is worth to deviate or not is debatable but the pleasure is real. She wanted money and she got it, he lacked sex and masturbated, you revenged on your enemy fatally. Whether the events took you behind the bars or not, we have our human element to blame.
As we make history even in our time thinking that what we are doing our best to make the world a better place, there shall come a people who will scratch our undoings. Reproduction could be a good thing but overpopulation is a deviation. Feeding is a need but killing animals for food is a show of our dark side. So fickle is human nature that Viktor in his book introduction to logotherapy is ashamed of human flesh consumption days after he was transferred from a nazi camp. In such a scenario, where a person loses his perceived element of virtue and vice he descends to what he naturally is - valueless.
So it would be assumed deviation is a human creation as is order. It only matters as much as this post does- when you get concerned with it.

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