The Non-Logoli descendants – Part II

There were counted a minimum 38 non Murogori descended tribes namely; AvaSaniaga (Kamnara), avaSuva, avaVurugi, avaSanga, avaGihayo, avaDamayi, avaFunami, avaSagara, avaGisunda (also called avaVai in Tiriki), avaKuvera, avaMasaza, avaMugezi, avaMigango, avaYonga, avaGusuhi, avaMoyi, avaMenge, avaGuga, avaMuku, avaGisinde, avaMuruga, avaTemburi, avaTuri (avaDuri), avaSaria, avaKivuta, avaMarova, avaMuri, avaMuharia, avaNg’ang’a, avaDindi, avaKizuza, avaNyonyi, avaMagambi, avaNdega, avaZarare, avaSamia, avaMahero and avaIdare as recorded. The prefix ‘ava’ implies the children of, tribe of or descendants of.

A tribe as a people held together by kinship ties or as a people that affirm themselves as a distinct community, obligated to combine in warfare against opponents so must have been the relationship that earlier existed between the documented Murogori /Mulogoli/ and the rest of the tribes. For counting, the 38 listed tribes are way more than the rest of the clans emanating from children of muSali, muKizungu, muKirima and muMavi.

It is also undoubted that by the nature of the spread of some of the clans/tribes, some are indeed indigenous to the area before the wave of ‘Murogori’. Who may have also come along with ‘other clans’ that he met/found on way. The first to the thirteenth in the order of mentioning above are clans spread out in Maragoli, Tiriki, Nyang’ori and beyond. With live talks of who lives where, relating to them, near and far. Links that are slowly dying due to reduced intergenerational focused interactions and changing lifestyles but should be revived

It is said that avaDamai and avaKizuza are related to avaSaniaga. Reasons as to parting are not known clearly but there have been efforts to ‘regroup’ as one real case of 1960’s. A letter came addressed to the chairperson of AvaSaniaga Welfare Association, Matayo Ndanyi, it asking the avaKizuza tribe be incorporated into the Association where Matayo replied and the pamphlet from Hezekiah Kisia notes;

‘It should be investigated; if the Kizuza have married Saniaga girls, or the Saniaga married Kizuza girls, the request cannot be granted. If they have not, the request may be considered….. incidentally the mother of Nathan Ayodi Madahana who died in 1998 at the age of 87 was a muKizuza. Meaning by early 1900’s the Kizuza were intermarrying with Saniaga.’

Exogamy aimed to keep a tribe/clan distinct from another. The logoli name for a marriage partner is ‘musigu’ – directly translated to enemy. And it is supported by radical ways in which a clan/tribe was formed. It was not a procession of peace to declare so can now marry so. But a killer man who was banished, him and his immediate family, declared enemies. If not for situations where cases of marriage started to appear and sub-clans emerged.  A non-harmful but at first refuted shift from brotherhood to ‘enemy’.

Where clans mingled as a result of sharing an immediate environment and resources as wells and grazing fields, there was a tendency to pacify the ‘enmity’ tag, regarding each other as brothers and sisters. Boys asked not to marry from that ‘sister’ clan. For reasons to prevent marriage in the neighbourhood. A man was expected to ‘look further’ when seeking for a marriage partner and there were several sayings against people marrying from the neighbourhood. This may have also formed new identities in the years following land occupancy in Maragoli as well as previous times, during the formation of clans/identities.

Lately, the vaSaniaga and vaKevembe in Bugina sub-location referred to each other as ‘brothers and sisters’, the vaSaniaga in Gavudia sub-location referring to avaRiero in a similar way, to prevent intermarriages and the proximity conflicts/disrespect that follows.

Saniaga youths, 2018, during a Maragoli Cultural Festival Day, December 26th.