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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...

She hates guest-house beds

Before it was insane to leave home and rent a house by the market it was also a sign of deviation for a married person to spend a night in a guest house. My aunt cannot get sleep on a bed that she knows not. She better lie down on a sack and spend it in the cold as she does while out for relative funerals. Maybe the rooms remind her about the girlhood days for she is not a precolonial child. I wouldn't want to sanitize her much.

Lodgings are perceived as leisurely places and those who provide the best of the services have been able to drive big cc's. Once as a staff we went for a holiday and it was a good time. When my cousin married it was shameful for him to spend honeymoon locally in his lion. My mother exclaimed regretfully that she'd have afforded them two day stay in Ambwere Plaza at Chavakali. In short she was saying.....

Necessity to have privacy do send people away even for hours. It was my cousin whom we got inquisitive on what he was doing with the lady who had visited. Peeping exposed them down on the floor. Chuckling exasperated him and he ran after us for some discipline. We were anxious to tell Mama and she looked at us in puzzlement.

With no difference to campus hostels, we grew up to know better what to do when a girl visited a roommate. It would be preposterous to ask a friend who spreads his bed at wake and changes the sheets after two days for his keys.

That aside, these rooms situated behind hotels and bars have been abused. Underage girls have lost their maidenhood by the  lure of pleasure. Believe it or not the men who ask for keys as they pay swindle in green vulvas to purify their rottenness. Underserved and stray spouses meet their needs there. No wonder increased STDs among couples.  Quickies are as short as a moment between a lady leaving to take a bus but the man piloting the motorbike overcomes her hormones. Some places don't offer a shower and the toilets too smelly.

The attending  lady, for the sake of employment is there to wash dirt and blood from sheets, close the door both after short and long calls lest a stranger silently occupies the rooms. I hate these beds, she groans. If you ask her whether nobody has ever managed to win her  in she smiles like a sheep.

Long journey travellers seek somewhere to rest. If  your car breaks on the way, you'd like to simply get over the frustration in a hotel. If bedbugs are present it's but part of a bad day. If the bar beside does not regulate vernacular music volume or drunkards who rock all night long the advice is to accept the situation quickly.
Your rich relative could ask you a night over. Always fall on that poshy bed expecting the morning arrives  quick that you go back home to the bed whose blanket and mattress is a product of your labour. Dreams be meagre and frightening.

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