Your Space Magazine

04/11/2024

One Christmas Eve.

So last week, Jane, my little and youngest daughter reminded me of a Christmas gift and school items that I had promised her. As I get into delivering these her, it has reminded me of a day in the earlier years of Christmas.

Christmas mood would fill the air starting from school closing days. Speeches and prayers would be laced with Christmas themes and need for us students to celebrate with caution. Though, as soon as we left school gates behind, the thrill of Christmas celebrations would run through our heads like fire.

As we looked forward to receiving gifts, we would also form work groups and save money for attending tea parties of the month of December. We would also be excited to see our friends from the big cities who would start to arrive with their parents in our villages, for Christmas celebrations.

So on this particular Christmas eve, we prepared ourselves as usual to go for evening mass at Madiany Catholic church. Our home was near the main road to the Catholic church and we could see many people who carried mats as they were going to spend their Christmas eve at the church.

We hurriedly took the road to the church,but on reaching Madiany Market we stopped to watch two young men who had put an open air show by the roadside. The young men, Okwayo who was from Nairobi and Jakoyo who was from Mombasa were competing on the latest dance moves by then. They had put a double speaker radio cassette and were dancing to the music that came from it. The music was so good, even though the dance moves were so strange and interesting to us. That was when I and some of my friends learnt of Electric boogie and breakdancing.

There was no clear winer, though. And, they never charged us . It came to us as a gift.

24/10/2024

Of Woke Soyinka and Our Village Elders.

'Jagongo, I want you to help write my euology' it came to me as a shock. I could also see uneasy faces of my customers who were present in my cyber cafe.
That was Mzee Jared Amuok Aburu, requesting me for help on his eulogy, though he had never died. He was so calm and meant business. He had been one of my trusted customers in my cyber cafe and friend, at Madiany. The job was tricky as I had only helped people write eulogies of their dead relatives but not like this one that I was about to do.

I remember helping three other elders with their own eulogies even though they were still alive. We also had one man near Lweya primary school who prepared his own grave and bought a very expensive coffin for himself as he happily waited for his death!

Presently I came across an interview of Larry Madowo with one of Africa's finest writers Wole Soyinka. The writer of 'The Road' said that he had made arrangements for any eventualities to include his death. He was so composed during the interview and just like Mzee Jared Amuok, he was so much at peace with himself.

The author of 'The Lion and the jewel', 'The strong breed', 'The man died' amongst many other books is now 90 and is fine as mature wine.

One thing in common amongst them is their positivity towards deat

22/10/2024

One Night At L. Victoria Beach.

Have you ever been at a point where you can observe Lake Victoria at night? For a first timer, it looks like a very beautiful city dressed in its magnificent lighting.

It happened to me too and only to be told that these were lamplights used by fishermen to trap 'omena' or dagger fish. The curiosity in me never stopped there, so on a weekend my parents allowed me to visit my relatives who were residing at Wichlum beach market

By those days, Wichlum beach was known for producing lots of 'Omena' and 'Mbuta' (Nile Perch) fishes. This made the beach to be one of the fast growing beaches in Siaya District by then.

I remember seeing fishermen who were busy mending their nets or selling their fish at the fish banda. Others plus their women had spread 'Omena' on fishing nets to dry under the Sun. There was good music blaring shops and people were just so happy.

In the evening a bus that was branded as 'Roya' came with many people who could be seen alighting with fishing gears and huge fish baskets. Where the bus had stopped, huge basket loads of fish could be seen by the roadside ready to be loaded into its overhead carrier.

The moon was so brief up the sky and I could hear people saying that it would be a good night of fishing as there would be no moonlight to interfere. I begged my host family to allow me to go and see, and down the beach we went with my two nephews to their friend's boat.

Lots of things happened, including us rowing the boat and setting the nets plus the lamps. It was just another world of its own. It was just so exciting. After that a fire was lit at the beach to warm ourselves. We roasted maize, potatoes and made some tea as we waited for 'Omena' to get trapped enough for pulling out.

I never got to see the end process because of a thud and a shout of 'HIPPO!'. It was enough for me to find myself running towards my relatives' house.

If you see them selling their fish, please buy and pay without credit.

02/10/2024

Sting of Bees and Honey

'THUD' was the sound that was heard in the priest's living room. The bees had camped for several months in the priest's roof ceiling and it was causing so much fear amongst the church faithfuls.

This was at Madiany Catholic Church Parish two and a half decades ago. The expert honey harvester who had gone up the ceiling to harvest bees had just fallen down like a sack of potatoes in the living room's sofa.

Bees are wild and when they mean to start working at you, you will never know when you decided to run away. These ones just like others were so lethal that at one time they drove worshippers away when the Bishop had come to visit the Church. These bees had no respect or mercy as worshippers ran away like scared little rabbits as each tried to save their own lives.

One who was not lucky was a visually impaired choirmaster from Aluor Parish who got trapped in a barbed wire fence. He got rescued though by other people who had heard his painful cries.

In our primary school days, hunting for honey became much of our hobby. It was easy to know whoever had gone for honey on Mondays. We would go to school with swollen faces, heavy tongues and club like fingers. Later, we would be stung by bees during our honey harvesting activities and neither our faces and fingers got swollen nor our tongues got heavy. Had we got imuned from the bees' stings?

I remember, our love for honey started when our elders gave us raw honey and bee stings became a non issue! Then again I'm told that honey helps to support memory, release stress, soothe sore throat and helps in digestion.

I'm also told that bees' stings might help in the treatment of asthma and arthritis. Researchers, where are you? We want to start selling bees for stinging doses!

26/04/2024

When I Met Owino Rachar.

I remember women singing dirges during my grandmother's memorial ceremony. Lots of food were brought and prepared for people to eat on that day.
Then there was this woman Omethe Nyalila, a renowned alcohol partaker. She was old but no one would compete with her in taking alcohol. On this day she had come with her own container and was demanding to be given 'Owino Rachar''.
This was a traditional gin nicknamed after a famous Luo Benga musician.
Nyalila got what she wanted in plenty and blacked out.

Years later I and my elder brother used to visit , a man from our village nicknamed Major Gowon. His real name was Gowi Sombe. Gowi got the name , Major Gowon after having led a group of KANU youths who went to meet General Major Yakubu Gowon of Nigeria when he visited Kenya in 1971.Gowi or Major Gowon was a very talkative man and so we used to hang around him during weekend's at his place of work or house . Gowi or Najor Gowon was a stone cutter at Ongata Rongai.

So one Saturday as we were in Gowi's house, we found him discussing work matters with one of his work colleagues.
The man was no stranger to us as we had always seen him work with Gowi. He used to drill holes with a shaped up metal bar on rocks. The holes were for putting dynamite to blast off the stones, and so made it easier for the stone cutters to do their job. The man was slightly built but had so much strength in him. He used to drill the holes alone while others worked in pairs. He was always smart in his dressing and kept a stylish afro hair.

The man was Owino Rachar as we got to know on that day! The soft speaking Owino Rachar had that distant gaze on the horizon whenever we tried to ask him about his music career. Something might have happened that made him to abandon playing his great music. A friendly man though he was.

I learned of his demise years later over Ramogi FM . A legend whose great music lives on.

29/02/2024

NIGHT RUNNER IN SCHOOL!
One time in High School ( Usenge High School), I had been granted permission to go home and seek treatment as I was so sick. Take note that this school is at the foot of Usenge Hills, near the shores of Lake Victoria and by then there were so many mosquitoes that fed on our blood during prep time. The most affected were the Form One pupils who had not gotten used to the kind of the school's surrounding climate.
The two weeks that I was given was nearing the end and I had to go back even though my body was still weak with Malaria. I packed my remaining medicine into my bag and went back to school. By prep time I saw fellow pupils with sticks that they had taken from the kitchen's firewood store. When prep was over and we went to our dormitories, I still saw them going to bed with sticks. This was so strange to me.
I felt mild headache as a coughed too I took my medicine and went out and sat at the doorway to get some fresh air.
'Jagongo, why did you come back as I can see that you are still sick, there is a night runner in this school and you are exposing yourself to danger by sitting there' One of my friends had told me so.
I replied that I would just be fine and would be getting into my bed in a short while.
It did not take long when I had noise coming from Warom II dormitory, by then I was in Mboya II dormitory. My dormitory mates went silent and as I saw someone, who just passed as if flown by the wind in front of our dormitory. It was the same person with fire.
I crawled to my bed on my knees and did not cough till the next day!
The suspect changed to a new school, and we did not experience the night running thing again.

19/02/2024

Hey, Get your copy here,

Jimmy, who was a married man, landed a job at Naipul farm where he met a frustrated casual worker and widow, Milly. Their work experience bound them together or was it fate? This is where jealousy, tribalism, all sorts of discrimination, greed and all other evils play side by side. Read and find out...