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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
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Ugandan Maragoli set for state recognition

immage source https://www.softpower.ug

You know the kind of news that gets me excited. Last week, I pricked my ears at the news that the Maragoli people in Uganda may soon be recognised as one of the country's indigenous ethnic communities. The Ugandan Parliament will be considering an amendment to the Constitution to formalise the addition of the Maragoli to the 56 communities currently recognised as indigenous.

This development interests me on three main counts, a personal one, a cultural one and a historical one. The historical angle is the most obvious one to most of us. We have read or heard of the complex patterns of the migration of our peoples and their settlement in the regions where they live today. Yet a closer look at the historical constructs of our scholars can really startle us with their impact on contemporary practical decisions, as in the case of the Uganda Maragoli.

Part of the schedule to the Constitution under which communities qualify as indigenous Ugandans states that such people (or their predecessors), should have been living in Uganda as of the first day of February 1926. Now, some historical sources suggest that the Maragolis or their ancestors might have been on the ground in Uganda, settled in the present-day districts of Masindi and Kiryandongo, as far back as the 18th century (1700-1800)! That makes 1926 look like a mere yesterday.

But let us get on to the personal level of my own involvement with the Maragoli. I have a host of men and women of Maragoli origin among my many Kenyan colleagues and close friends. Indeed, trying to mention even a few of them, especially in the academic and literary circles, would sound like snobbish name-dropping, so I will skip it.

But I will certainly be discussing with them the significance of the Ugandan Maragoli phenomenon. Why, I might even be a Mulogooli who stayed in the old homestead as my more adventurous relatives moved further afield. I told you once of how I was struck by the similarities between Francis Imbuga's home speech and my grandmother's Runyakitara language.

On the cultural, and maybe political, front, the prospects of indigenous Ugandan Maragoli underline my constant advocacy of an open-minded and flexible understanding of our identities, whether these be ethnic, national or transnational. The "village-focus" mentality that brands anyone from across a stream a "foreigner" is simply untenable in a progressive, globalising world.

Article by Austin Bukenya via Daily Nation.
Shared for reference at saniaga.blogspot.com 

Comments

  1. Unknown9 September 2020 at 08:58

    Yes I remember the family of Horace Adolondo,who sold his land to the late Lawrence Kilunga Isigi and moved to Kigumba in Uganda to join his family.

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