In Maragoli language, bananas (the fruit or food) is known as ligomia. Magomia is what we call the banana plantation itself. In our culture, a seasoned eye can look at the stem, leaves or poise of magomia and come to a conclusion to which ligomia it will bear. Ligomia can be: mulalu (good only for ripening), linamagodo or lisiaramulee (best for matoke) or ligomia l’logooli kisigame or simply ligomia lulogori. The first two types are your regular banana, the last one is of great importance to Mulogooli. Meet ligomia l’logooli kisigame, the original traditional banana of the Maragoli of Western Kenya
What makes ligomia l’logooli kisiagame so important to the Maragoli?
Kisigame is the one variety of banana that any home claiming Andimi ancestry from has to have. It is the banana considered worthy for cultural use. In any traditional Maragoli ceremony where one has to gift another ligomia, it is kisigame that it must be.
The picture above is from a hand of ligomia kisigame that my mother came bearing as gift for my family. We recently moved houses and she had yet to come visit us in our new home. Her coming over from the village with a bunch of kisigame said all that can be said about a mother’s love.
Why do I make such a proclamation? Well, consider what the future holds:
In years to come, if we do get there God willing, my mother will come visiting again bearing gifts that will include the most mature bunch of kisigame she can find. When that time comes, she will come accompanied by a bus of women from the village: my children’s senjes and mothers partaking in the traditional Maragoli marriage ceremony of kuruta. Kuruta, is a high honor bestowed to her woman, her husband and the fruit of their loins by the women of her matrimonial relations. It is a cap that seals the maturity of a marriage and celebrates its fruitfulness. A gift of a bunch of ligomia l’logooli kisigame is an important part of this ceremony.
Have it all
With these examples, it is easy to see what ligomia l’logooli kisigame represents among the Maragoli: power femininity. It being that traditionally, bananas were cultivated from suckers of a parent plant, and such, there is a reasonable chance that the kisigame being enjoyed on the today is a descent of a mother plant from yore (grown from suckers passed on down the generations through the women of the clan) being gifted the fully formed mature fruit of kisigame to enjoy is like being invited to feed from the garden of Khaliyesa herself. I talk of Khaliyesa the wife of Andimi and the mother of the Maragoli people.
Enjoying kisigame is therefore, not only a way of celebrating all things female, but also saying: ” You can have it all.” Especially considering that among the Maragoli, women are not allowed to plant bananas – particularly the first crop which is planted by a patriarch of her husband’s clan. As such, having the freedom to enjoy ligomia L’logooli kisiagme as katogo, matoke, with sifuluko or however you like, can be taken to be a moment symbolizing the ending of such like feminine struggles and that full equality has been achieved.