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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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Izava Walk : Where to sleep

You can't walk the whole day! The sun changed position and at  the back of my mind a conviction that I shall soon rest no matter the place grew stronger. During preparation, the thought of where I shall sleep received this approach : I shall enter any house at the approach of dusk, speak my case and get the response. People can still be trusted in the rural.

Where to adjourn the day needed be a good place to commence from come dawn. The nearby bridge was along Gahumbwa - Losengeli road. As much as I heard from Induraji stories of how a clanman would be stonned alongside the lover in accusation of incest, there was a conscious doubt whether sleep shall be harvested. Capricorns treasure it.

To start with,  I'd ask for any saniaga home. Saniaga's are everywhere, we believe. Speaking to a clanman would be speaking to one's brother, father or grandfather.  I counted on it as the greatest entry point. It would be god-send kind of visit.

But friendship dwarfs blood relations in practice. In Gahumbwa I have a Virongo. Virongo is that friend you are given during circumcision. On the great celebration day, our  age set was called Kwambuka - new millennium. It is expected for vorongos to continuously visit one another,  building friendship and so forth. He becomes your brother. That is where I went.

You'd ask why I did not head for Mudungu where grandma lives. Many things. It wasn't time to be asked how my father was doing when neither one another had said hello to either for a year. Family conflicts existed. And saying that I was following Izava would be a symptom of bewitchment of their learned son. I avoided.

Had I had friend the story could be different. Sacks for sleeping in and utensils for cooking would make the group leader tire more. If you want to go fast, go alone.

Food, phone recharge, a bed. If I was good enough  I'd have said 'Thank You' after a deep dreamy night. I only said Thank you.

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