Skip to main content

Featured

Posted by

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
Post a Comment
Read more
Posted by

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.

Comments

Post a Comment