HAVE FUN WITH SHIRO BUT FOR GODS SAKE DONT MARRY HER! Oburu Odinga was blunt and a little undignified in his comments about Shiro during the funeral of Fidel Odinga at the weekend , nevertheless there is a vital message he was trying to send which was lost in the cacophony of condemnations. The message he was trying to pass is practically all of us from Western Kenya (Luos, Luhyas and Kisiis) have been shamelessly socialised to share the same prejudices about marrying a Shiro from our childhood. Granted that a woman is a woman is a woman, and will give you the same pleasure or pain regardless of race or tribe(dont they all nag? ),however, every community has values and norms which have been shaped over aeons.Women are products of their communitiesvalues which contribute in shaping them and giving them their outlooks on life.Eg for the Luos, Kisii and Luhyas, children are the property of the husband and his clan (which is why Luhya chics will dump on your doorstep a child you illegitimately sired with her),consequently the children are given names of the husbands ancestors. Now picture yourself marrying a Shiro who was brought up knowing that her son should be named after her father, conflict starts from day one. As an adolescent visiting your granpa in the village during school holidays, your Sokoro one day takes you around so that specifically you see an old man ambling along in the village path, mumbling to himself in a dejected manner. You see him?, yes that old man. He was once fabulously rich and married to a Shiro. Shiro and her relatives took off with all his children and wealth. Now he has nobody to bury him when he dies. When you hear that from your Sokoro, you shiver in trepidation as you know that the old man will die an outcast, buried like a dog. You see, during burials, we regal in parading a mans family. We are proud in that a patriarchy died with over 200 grandchildren and 50 great grand kids. A funeral will take the all day cos the grandkids who couldnt make it from Minnesota or Texas for the burial will all demand to be put on loud speaker so as talk with their American accent on phone during sokoros funeral as the mourners listen in admiration. Now this one will be buried in 5 minutes and the brothers quickly divide his land amongst themselves and he is forgotten forever all because he married a Shiro.The message has been passed loud and clear! In the evening, your Sokoro will remind you of your uncle, the son of his brother. You remember Nyangaresi? . Of course you do. He was the DC who worked in Muranga for long. When he died in an accident, his wife,a Shiro came with the children on the burial day. She disappeared after burial never to be seen again . Its now 10yrs and Nyangaresis name is forgotten.Such examples abound in the village and the community makes sure you are aware of them so that you dont become a victim. Amazingly, the girls can marry anywhere (well, I remember there was a caveat against Luo men, according to my grandpa, it was because Luos were parsimonious and gave out a few skinny cows, by contrast the Kipsigis were generous and could make many a Kisii boma full with cows).
Posted on: Tue, 13 Jan 2015 10:40:54 +0000
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