Chahilu: Family and language knit in “Utagwa Kilage” book.

a diagram representation of kins in Utagwa Kilage book

By chance, the legacy of Bernard Chahilu to Valogooli is the penning of the book, “Utagwa Kilage” (2021 Manuscript). He takes us back, to a pure Logooli time, full of adventure, traditions, humour and unaltered Logooli family philosophy. 

Though in two or three instances Chahilu fell to the temptation to ‘over-tell’ as is common with Logooli people, the story however is catchy from start to end; with well-kept mind notes as if it were a twisted movie you are watching. Sub–titling the chapters would make a good editorial input.  

Briefly, the clan of Siihiza prides of great a fighter fore father, Ugwiguluunya. It is his grandchildren that are now the elders of the land. They are respected in the larger Masaazi tribe. Of the eight clans of Masaazi, Siihiza and Fwogoto clans are given more characters in the book. To distribute attributes and character, the men and their wives from various Masaazi clans are provided.

Mugeendambala the priest takes his name from “a disassociate”, same to Kasiavuchi a “breakaway”. Mwizamili is a “blind believer” while Mahavava is “quick to wrong”. Ling’unyuli is “luke-warm” and Azanziani a “trouble-brewer”. They are all brothers. Sons of Musigani (“kusigana” is to be of one determination) of the house of Ugwiguluunya. 

Beefed with flashbacks, play and music, incidents and accidents, Utagwa Kilage is basically a story of two lovers meeting (Seledi and Ahendamwoyo), community plans for marriage and a wedding. Chahilu did evade the “heroic” antagonist-protagonist nature of storytelling, balancing all steadily.

Logooli society is portrayed as harmonious and complementary in the story, family as extendedly extensive. Men and Women are collaborators and the young ones as ‘able inheritors’. Care is taken by the older generation not to be only angry but also not to say a bitter word – in open or in proverb. 

Titling “Utagwa Kilage”, can come out therefore in two ways; ‘do not dare’ or ‘take caution’. Whereas the former might capture the translation swift, the tone of the story speaks otherwise. Chahilu does not focus on the ugly. Conflicts are well handled, no one dares another, traditions are well kept. Perhaps it is caution not to do any other way other than what is - as in the story. 

Reporting, Chahilu decided to use “alavoolaga” to mean “he/she then said” for the direct speeches. He did not use “alavoola” (he/she said) or “aavoola”/yaavoola/ (said), which is a passive form. To tell a story in Logooli you have to keep the listener engaged, showing a continuous of report. This is unique. 

It is on that foot that Lulogooli is conceived as a family language and well birthed by Chahilu. Words are extensively agglutinated as Prof. Arthur Luvai, a dear friend of Chahilu, observed while reading the manuscript. This would well straighten the hairs of a native in enjoyment, combing through the tale. 

To an L2 however, determined to learn and break words into singular parts of speech units, will have to understand that much apostrophe ( ‘ ) usage is to enjoin parts of word that would either be separated by a spacing or serving an omitted letter – which if it were not so, the reporting (readership) would not well capture the aesthetics. 

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Utagwa Kilage is now in structure format, a rewrite that is hoped to translate the book to English in a click of a button.