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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...
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Izava Walk: Wamasimba Mkivanda

Apart from not marrying a clan member, the woman fetching soil near Izava did not know more about practices or customs. She only knew how to poke the jembe deeper into the sides for white soil. Sometimes before the houses in the village used be plastered with white clay during Christmas season.

A man whom she called muramwa, msuva, was by the valley bottom to get some matagaro. He had goats and they'd not be allowed in a shamba he didn't own.

On the other ridge was Wamasimba. Masimba was a village elder. He owned a big stretch of land that is evident without the parallel fences running up- farm. Down the farm, we were circumcised in 2002. The very place I stood as a man, seeing my foreskin  vibrate and vanish, is now clear with eucalyptus. Guava bushes were many and it was a bird's Haven.

Izava finds it hard to eat in the banks because the soil is clay. It therefore narrows on while banks get greener with grass. A long jumper would easily  cross. Trees that bend from side to the other would offer a curious child a way across.

Welibuga has a dense tree planting that darkens in the day. Birds were happy here. But birds chirrup not so lively without a cause. I met Prof ahead who said there is told of a snake that harbours the stretch, big like no other, afraid to approach. Had it been the  bird's spectacle and communication to me?

Wandae was another spring facing Wamasimba  endangered by the lack of rain.

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