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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...

Identity or Heritage? Which one?

-: To find out the claim of saniagas relation with sakwa kamnara, we need to know in which year the coinage of 'kamnara' was popular, then estimate the time the saniaga came to maragoli. The tale that saniaga is a relation of sakwa kamnara is a strong  one in fact. A fact we need to understand is whether before separation, the two lived in vihiga, Nyanza or kalenjin lands. To me it looks like it was a cycle of a wonderer trying to settle. Then as a result of wondering, generations were born, maybe only one or two because this is history that is not so much a distant past. Then brothers separate, one choosing this destiny and the other one that. Though they still remain with the understanding that they are related, they pass it on and it becomes a common theory among the families. Another jocker is here, saniaga are among the clans referred to as avamenya among the maragoli. The meaning is obvious, our knowledge of maragoli lands must  have been earlier before the coming of murogori. But the fact that some murogori descent clans like kizungu are many and seem to be of many generations before may not qualify murogori to have come to maragoli earlier than saniaga. A question I paused is why the saniaga seem to know more of maragoli history than even the murogori descent clans. An answer could be in the fact that saniaga were this wondering brothers, who like a father will lay claim to several pieces of land here and there, this son is told to go here, and the other one there. In the end they are living apart, this one adapting this language and the other one that. In the end they seem to be two different people when they are actually one. The reason why I use the the word wondering may not actually mean they lack a place of abode, rather that they move together as a family until legitimacy of ownership to land is established. Then this is told 'go back here' and this one there. Therefore accordingly , saniaga settlement in maragoli was a come back rather than an original settlement. Please look at this. @Lung'afa .

-: Kazi kwetu...

-: Puzzling. And I would ask, could Saniaga be an identity rather than a heritage? That during the name coining 'all those who seemed so' became Kamunaras?
- We are into it!

-: Pray, enlighten me.. What's the difference!!?

-: It is like saying you were of Axis side during a world war and in forgetting it was a come together over time. Like what NASA is. 😆😂😁

-: Still at sea 🤷🏾‍♂🤷🏾‍♂🤷🏾‍♂😃

-: Rove quicker. Your boat too slow.

Saniaga could have been an identity. What I mean here is a people brought together by situation/circumstances. It could be a geographical place, physical nature, a language, a ritual, a philosophy. Back then I mean. We got to research.

And not likely a heritage, the claim of one ancestry. And this would raise eyebrows.

How is the weather now at sea? Rove, rove harder! 😁😁

-: Oooohhh!!! Ah!

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