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Growing up in Kisii A beautiful lesson in adversity and enterprise

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Published on Tuesday, 26 April 2011 07:01

A significant number of the Abagusii professionals are products of harambee schools mainly built by clans"

 To many of my city friends, mention of Gusiiland evokes the image of bananas. Whenever we go out for lunch, friends always order a dish of matoke for me without consultation.

  And they always remind me to get them a bunch of bananas whenever I take the occasional trip to the village.But they also draw my attention to heart-wrenching news on television about witch hunting and lynching by vigilante groups like Sungu Sungu somewhere in this county.

A friend once told me that whenever a young Kisii man expressed interest in a girl from the other ridge years ago, emissaries would be sent to the suitor's village to find out whether his mother is a witch.

It was only after the man passed this due diligence audit that marriage negotiations would begin.

Matoke, witchcraft, female genital mutilation and aggression are some of the stereotypes which have long been used to define the Abagusii of western Nyanza.

My "cordial" relationship with matoke is understandable having grown up in Nyamache district of Kisii county where every homestead is expected to boast a banana tree.

On reflection, growing up in this hilly and fertile countryside-playing hide-and-seek in tea or coffee bushes and the occasional stroke of the cane for allowing the family cow to stray to the neighbour's maize farm-is a beautiful lesson in adversity, accommodation, endurance, enterprise and responsibility.
Miracle healer tree As youngsters, the major headache was the rainy and muddy season when we could not venture out to play football and the thrill of harvesting loquats (ebirangwati), chinsobosobo (gooseberry) guavas, and berries of Omonyangateti-the tree now made famous by Tanzanian "miracle healer" Ambikile Mwasapile of Loliondo. The highlights were the December circumcision parties during which animals were slaughtered and villagers drowned pots of busaa using orokore (straw).

Youths stole ributi (immature sweet busaa), a day early.

Not even the risk of your ears being pinched by Seventh Day Adventist parents could keep you away from ributi.

The season was a great convergence point for girls and boys on holiday from schools such Kereri Girls, Sameta, Suneka, Cardinal Otunga Mosocho, Kisii High, Moi High School Gesusu, Nyabururu, Itierio, Nyamagwa and Kioge.
Most popular buses Market days in Nyamache, Mogonga, Igare and Nyacheki, Keumbu, Suneka and Keroka were unforgettable features in our diaries.

  So too were the days when then popular club Shabana played against giants such as Gor Mahia or AFC Leopards. Colleagues Elias Makori, recalls that Nyantika Maiyoro, the trailblazing Kenyan athlete was the stadium manager.

Young people also looked forward to attending the Kisii Agricultural Society Show. Their main attraction was Omega One Disco and Fikus with DJ Hafiz Khan.

Travelling to visit relatives in the city was a rare occasion we looked forward to. Then the most popular buses were OTC, Kenya Mwenda Safi to be followed recently by Gusii Deluxe and Obuya Express.

But the story of growing up in Gusii is also a sad commentary on declining agricultural and education standards.

A significant number of the Abagusii professionals--yes those owning beautiful homes on the outskirts of key towns-are products of harambee schools mainly built by clans. Because of rivalry, all major clans have built schools with the support of the churches, especially the Adventists and the Catholics.

  This partly explains the higher literacy levels in the part of the country. Remarkably, a number of graduates of these schools proceeded for higher education in India and the US, and constitute a considerable percentage of the Public Service. Most of them trained as lawyers, teachers, accountants and administrators.

  The Abagusii in the diaspora are among key pillars of the rural economy at home. Most parents used proceeds from tea, coffee and pyrethrum sales to pay school fees for most of these professionals.

Today, the sad thing is that many of these harambee schools have been run down. In fact, a number of sons (headteachers) have been accused of killing schools that their parents built.
Road to progress And few parents can today pay schools fees from coffee and pyrethrum sales due to poor management of the agricultural subsectors.

  But on the other side, community's enterprising spirit has seen its members make inroads into key sections of the economy and spread their wings across the country and beyond. It is this spirit that the new county leadership should exploit to put Kisii firmly on the road to progress.