Modes and Types of Maragoli giving, payments and acquisition of goods

A boy carrying a chicken. Pic source; jeremywoodhouse

The traditional way of payments, gifting and appreciating someone was through goods or service and not money. The different ways as listed below are all significant and important to the building and upholding of interpersonal relationships and maintaining law and order.

 Kihaanwa – this is a gift given to someone for their good work. Kihanwa can also be an award, a token of joyful appreciation – not a perishable good. It can be an animal or an item. When someone is celebrating an achievement, they are given Kihanwa. A child can gift an elder, friends can gift one another, an elder can gift a child, a winner is gifted so.

 Kumanura – this is an appreciation given for a service rendered, a show of indebtedness. It is given to express gratitude. If perchance one wronged another, by show of reconciliation, he or she can offer the victim something. 

 
 Mulo – this is what is paid to a traditional circumciser for the surgery. There are also other payments in form of goods when the person being circumcised does not conform to the regulations. This is in cases as being circumcised when you are older than the preferred age, a repeat in a first failed surgery, having been born twins, being a lame person and other such cases.

  Evaane – this is contributing in kind or service towards supporting a mourning family. The deceased family is supported by food from neighbors and well-wishers.  Labour is provided for by neighbors and friends which includes splitting firewood, fetching water, cooking and washing utensils, keeping vigil and other such assistance.

Mwoodi - this is a gesture, in kind or act offered to a bereaved family as an expression of regret for the fallen one. It includes offering both short and long term assistance and promises as taking care of the young children left.

 Kisyuvilu – this is a give-away pay to a person whose service is rendered unclean [to cleanse]. Yes the person has been of use but not a noble one and pro-life. When a person for instance digs a grave, buries a suicide victim, one who cleanses a curse, one who reports a tragedy like the finding of a dead body are all given kisiuvilu. What is offered is meant to be killed, destroyed or eaten, not to be taken in the care of. It is also what is given out to avert danger and bad omen. That if perchance one was killed, the killer can indirectly support the family of the victim in burial needs and in that way cease from being evaane to kisiuvilu.

Uluvaanze - this is a payment to be made, a debt of some kind, an invoice today. The goods or amounts which a person owes another. It is not easy to rub off some debts like a cow remaining from dowry payment. Efforts must be done to pay.

Ulume- this is an advance payment made to a herbalist or traditional doctor when he presents the first installment of medicine to a patient to encourage the person to keep taking medicine. It is a sign of faith and good gesture for a healthy relationship between the patient and the doctor. It is expresses

Kusolola - this is door to door, market to market movement by parties to seek voluntary contributions. It happens when a person is in need and the community sees the need to help. An example is helping to rebuild a burnt house. The collection party would blow horns, whistle and beat drums to increase attention from people. Kusolola was often done by boys once freed from the rite of circumcision. They visited relatives and were gifted with items as hens, sugarcane and eggs. Brides also visited relatives to beget from them gifts and goods in preparation for their wedding day.

Kugaanga - accumulation or begetting of goods or property through feudal means as stealing, lying, extending boundaries and all means improper. Kuganga is synonymous to uvuivasi, vikuukula and viambeti which all describe bribe and bribery methods.

Madanyi - this is a profit begotten from selling or reproducing of goods. A farmer can offer a cow to a starter farmer in expectation that for two first calves, they will be for the owner. The keeper can benefit from milking and dung too.

Kusoonga - the act of donating one's share to someone you feel did not have enough. It also refers to a situation where one person is greedy and he is left to have a greater share of a thing.

Imbisi/kwaganira kirago/Kwaganira ingavi - this is wealth begotten by luck, generally without much hard work or having had an expectation of it.

Chegoba - this is a thing/good of value borrowed from someone. The lender is expected to have it returned but not necessarily with profit.

 Asoya – this is a secretive and queer pay meant to favour someone against a happening or shifting blame. It is given to someone in authority to offer a biased rule or give priority to the least deserving. Often it is believed that such people who receive such pays in the end becomes victims of similar injustice. They take that which has no blessings and custom never forgets to debt, sicken and kill those that replace justice with conspiracy.

 Kusuminya – this is an act of kindness to a visitor to go away with some food or food items from your home. It is a show of generosity and good inter-personal relationship. It can be sugarcane to a visiting child, cereals to a relative or a hen to that whose visit was first or so treasured. Sometimes a person can take off to visit a longtime friend or relative and with them take some food items. It is Kusuminya.

Imbusu - this is savings for the sake of tomorrow. When the providence is handsome, there is need to save for another time when things might be hard. It is wise to keep some good safe for emergency or to share them with special guests during a party.

Kudisa - this is offering animal meat, blood and sometimes accompanied with cereals in pouring libation to appease the spirit of the dead. It could be as a result of observed bad omen at home and to people and thought that the cause is a disappointed spirit.

Kwituriza - this is the free will to give out a good or part of one's wealth without obligation. It is a show of humility and generosity. The person does not necessarily give in feel of pity to the receiving person or party. This can also mean offering a sacrifice to god for thanks giving.

Vwihani - this is harambee contributions to a project or a course. Involved people search amongst them on the needs and resources available. Then people commit and fulfill their promises.

Engeso - this is a voluntary contribution from the proceedings of a harvest. People were expected to take part of their first harvest, the best of it and offer for community courses and use as a way of expressing thanks to the gods and nature for the harvest.

Kudasa - this is an extra good or item given in addition to an amount. It is an extreme show of love and expression to give more. A person may have come for one good and the offering one added on an extra thing out of love. An example is an egg given on top of vegetables that a neighbour or relative came for.

Ekeremera /koremera/ - less-pay of expected amount. if a person was to be paid or measured a certain amount of goods and they were found not amounting to the expected measures, it is said koremera. Meaning some measures were left out. It can account as a future minor debt.

 Kuhiora – this is a set kind of pay, where a person who is guilty is required to offer an animal or such payments that the elders who deliberate truce shall take with them. The victim is rarely paid for their losses or inconveniences. It is not a blessing to be paid by one who harmed you. When a person breaks a custom (not necessarily harming another) is expected kuhiora.

 Mitungu – this is payment for offered labour or service. It can also refer to general exchange of goods for service rendered. When a person works for another, he or she is given mitungu. It is however not what is expected when a person offers service in kind. They are right to refuse pay when it is offered to them saying it was out of lending a helping hand.

 Vufuva – this is exchange of a kind deed for another, mainly labour or service and not goods. An example is when people team up to build a hut for one and then in exchange the person goes to join others in building theirs. A lady can plait another’s hair as it was done to her. This is a valuable and hearty kind of giving back a service that was given to you.

Mwandu/Miandu - this is wealth begotten from inheritance. It can be land, animals, buildings, harvest, a wife and any other things that the deceased accumulated in lifetime.

Egeka - this is to be in possession of someone else's property as safe keeping or providing room. It often refers to when livestock are taken in from another person to be herded and taken care. The receiver may benefit from the calves but in most cases the first two calves are given back to the owner of the cow*.

 Vukwi – this is exchange of a bride with goods but redefined as appreciating the family of the bride for raising a wife to be. This is in Maragoli culture setting where a man marries a woman. The people who set the price are the bride ones. The groom side bargain to an understanding depending on the value of the lady as virgin, childless, good mannered, beautiful, from a stable family, healthy and forth. Not many people prefer to pay the bride price as agreed in full but fairly give out a large share of it and over the years as life goes on and the two families keep together, the rest is paid. When a man dies without finishing to pay in whole, the children, his sons, are required to pay. If the woman dies first, the man having least paid a thing, the family of the bride has a right to take her back, in state. Shame to the man. It is also that if the woman is found sterile, incorrigibly stubborn or adulterous the man’s family can debt back the bride price. If the woman is harshly mistreated she has the right to run away. When all is good and the man has finished his set price over time, his sons are gifted a goat from the maternal side. It is called imburi yu rusara.

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