This is a story of my close confidant Musa. My Musa is employed as a farm hand in one of my friend’s farms. Once, he suffered a misfortune and how he handled it introduced me to a Bukusu proverb on picking up the pieces ‘omubayi abechanga ne kumubano’; more importantly it taught me about resilience.
First, a quick introduction to new Bukusu words in this Bukusu proverb
For a beginner’s ease in into Bukusu language our post on embwa ya wele (dogs of god) is a great starting point to appreciate the richness of the language. To get on with learning Bukusu language, stop by our post on 100+ common Bukusu words and phrases meaning, translation and pronunciation. To expand your vocabulary, make good use of our free Luhya-English dictionary and thesaurus.
Omubayi
One who practices animal husbandry as a living
Kumubano
Knife
Brace yourselves, I am going to litter your lives with Bukusu sayings during the COVID-19 lockdown period. I have been researching on Bukusu proverbs and sayings and they are like a box of chocolates that never stop giving.
Especially during these uncertain times of coronavirus, they pack wisdom for navigating the trials of the now; and encouragement for tomorrow when will have to pick up the pieces. Take the Bukusu proverb kumutambo kukhunyoa buinda bukhakhunyoa, that challenges us to get our hustle going no matter our luck.
Musa my friend
Musa is this boy with a pleasant personality, sweet nature, soft spoken with a beautiful generous soul. We grew up together (remember the song by dove ‘Musa kimitwi sita’ that upset a certain Musa? Well, this is that Musa).We have been friends for most of our lives. I bail him out the same way he does to me when times are tough.
I dont remember going to Musa’s house and walking out without chicken, green bananas, sugarcane, fresh vegetables etc. The last time I visited Musa, he was happy to introduce me to his newly acquired heifer. Musa trades in animals. The bukusu call those who trade in animals bacheusi.
Bindu fall apart
Musa was talking about how he buys cows in January at throw away prices, fattens them and resells them in August or December depending on the situation. He said that even years are particularly lucrative years because in Bukusuland those are the years marked for circumcising our adolescent boys.
At the time of my visit, Musa was in the process of fattening one of his heifers with an intention of selling it at some profit on a later date. As we sat in his luya/luuya catching up, in the grazing field, a heifer that was just about ripe for market fought with a bull. Musa’s heifer was fatally hurt. It fell down and could not stand.
One of his sons came to call him to go check on the heifer. Musa looked for his sharp panga, a rope and cut few banana leaves and walked with them to the grazing area. He found the young heifer bleeding profusely from the neck. The bull that was fighting with Musa’s cow had long sharp horns. One of the horns had pieced the jugular vessels of the young bull.
Meaning of omubayi abechanga ne kumubano
Assessing the situation quickly, Musa summoned help from his neighbors to help in slaughtering the heifer and carry the meat home. The heifer’s tragedy was a big blow given that cow trading business was Musa’s mainstay.
However, through out as he picked up the pieces, he was composed and sounded calm. To punctuate his disappointment, my good friend finished the do by uttering the Bukusu saying omubayi abechanga ne kumubano; translated as: one who farms animals walks with a sharp knife.
This bukusu saying is used to give heart to animal farmers who meet the misfortune of their animals suddenly dying. When this happens, they are encouraged to get the sharpest knife, slaughter the animal as Musa had done. They are also to use the knives to skin and divide up the carcass. For sick animals, omubayi used the knife to conduct a postmortem before burying the carcass.
For us, the lesson is similar to that of the English saying, ‘when life serves you lemons, make lemonade‘. Pick up the pieces and make the most of it. When humanity emerges on the other side of this coronavirus pandemic, those who remain have to summon all they have, stand by each other and just like omubayi, pick up the pieces.
