Kamanyasi Chronicles

Witchcraft? Tradition? Culture? Which of the three words best describes kamanyasi in the context of luhya myths on infidelity?

A teacher of thought once clarified to me that witchcraft is set aside from the body of a community’s knowledge by the explicit intention of harm by those involved. So is kamanyasi just harmless mulembe culture? We went searching for stories, legends and anecdotes in attempt at an answer. This is what we found.

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Kamayasi Isn’t Just Herbs and Concoctions. So What It Is?

First, the simple translation of the word kamanyasi is medicine. The various verbs used in today’s oral literature on kamanyasi in the context of luhya myths on infidelity, hint at kamanyasi being anything from an ointment to a bath additive. It’s also is most likely something that can be taken orally.

The truth to what form it assumes could be any of the above in singular, or combination.Such that partaking kamanyasi can include: taking something orally, and/or applying something and/or adding something to your bath.

Therefore, it’s easy to picture kamanyasi in any of the forms that we have become accustomed to with modern medicine. But can you picture it as food? Even our take on meat and luhya myths on infidelity didn’t prepare us for this one. In our search for answers, among the Bukusu, we found the most curious characterization of kamayasi in the context of luhya myths on infidelity.

Walubende the Rat

Among the people of Masaba, there was mention of a type of rodent, a rat, known as walubende. This rat is eaten as manyasi by newly widowed women found on the wrong side of luhya myths on infidelity when divorced or separated.

Curiously, in everyday life, walubende is nothing but a toy – a marionette. Hard to tell whether the use of this word here is symbolic, but my knowledge of the depth of lubukusu points to intentional, specific use.

Maybe, Manyasi Is An Item Of Clothing

We had trouble writing this one without cracking our ribs with laughter. So we are going to issue a set of instructions, no questions asked, no explanations offered. Kindly follow the instructions if this is your kind of thing. If it’s not up your alley, make a mental note for it must just save someone.

This is what to do when you husband dies and you have been eating rats:

1. Take his underwear
2. Turn the underwear inside out
3. Put it on. If it’s a couple of sizes too big, find an ingenious way of fastening it in place. Safety pin? Maybe likongwe? Your choice.
4. Keep his underwear on from commencement of death rituals throughout the duration of mourning and burial. No washing. No nothing. For, literally, it’s your time to wear the pants now.

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THERE’S A METHOD TO KAMANYASI

Like most customs, and this where kamanyasi finds similarity with witchcraft, there has to be somebody who ‘dispenses’ it. The concoctions cannot be self administered and for good reason too. Just like modern medicine things can go wrong – overdosing, wrong drug for condition – that kind of thing.

A Story On The Need For An Independent ‘Dispenser’

What follows is the story told by a woman on the inter-webs on kamanyasi.

It happened to my brother in-laws wife. The husband died through a road accident, we rushed the body to mortuary. Unfortunately, the wife came late and wasn’t able to view his body.

The following morning she approached me “Mama Harrison, please accompany me to the mortuary. I have to see him to believe that he’s gone.” We got to the morgue and as soon as they drew the sheet covering his face back, my mulamwa collapsed in a heap. Eyes closed and making a snoring/grunt like noise.

Afterwards, hospital staff assured us that they couldn’t find anything medically amiss with her. So I hailed a boda boda to get us home. Along the way, my sister-in-law continued to ‘snore’ not once opening her eyes.

Getting home only seemed to amplify her ‘snoring’. Two hours, three hours, four hours. She’s still unconscious. And ‘snoring’. This prompted some mourners in the know to wonder in loud whispers if she had been eating chimbeba.

Fearing the worst, kamanyasi to wake her up were concocted by some women. But it didn’t seem to work. We had to await kukhu to come the following morning and give her some herbs. She took some by mouth and others she bathed with. After this, all was well like nothing had happened.

Meet The Dispensers

Often, the ‘dispensers’ of kamanyasi would be women of stature. These women would ideally be done with childbearing. Women who if anything happened to them, would ‘die only the feet, but their head will remain alive’ given the long list of their progeny. But still, it shouldn’t just be any woman or person. This next anecdote reveals why.

I witnessed when my bro died my sister in law almost died on the day he was buried,so one of my grandmas said bewabwe balendafu mala bamanyile Bali alelukha khungo nebasecha.

Please Pray That You Get The Right Manyasi Or Else……

This story is (said to be) set some decades back, in Ndivisi, somewhere in Webuye East constituency, Bungoma county Kenya. The story demonstrates why you can’t just procure manyasi from wherever.

Now this mature old mama lost the husband though not everyone was mourning with her. Some conniving old lady in the village had waited most of her life for a chance to shame her. This is because the new widow had eaten a lot of rats, including the hubby to the herbalist. So she, the herbalist, decided to dispense the wrong manyasi. And as sure as rain, when the body of the old man arrived for the customary overnight vigil as per luhya burial rites, the wife collapsed and joined her husband in the world of the living dead.

The Proof Of Kamanyasi Isn’t In The Tasting

I know, it ought be as simple as Popeye and spinach or superman and kryptonite. All you have to do is partake the manyasi and you are good to go. Sorry to be the one informing you this, but nothing is cut and paste in African culture. Some advice:

Hey guys, even after using kamanyasi, you shouldn’t dance by the grave side on the upper half where his head and torso will rest. Meaning, if you insist or going by the graveside, kindly shed your crocodile tears by his feet not his head.

By now,

MANYASI? TOP 5 QUESTIONS MODERN WOMEN ASKED ABOUT KAMANYASI IN THE CONTEXT OF LUHYA MYTHS ON INFIDELITY

We put it to a random sample of women what they thought of kamanyasi and luhya myths on infidelity. Understandably, most of the women had questions rather than answers. We identified common themes and here’s what we came up with.

1. Where can I find seeds so that I can plant in my new flower pot?
2. Is it possible to stock manyasi? If so, I’d like to fill up my freezer. You never know, I may just bump into Idris Elba. Is it any good frozen?
3. Where it comes from? I’d like to be educated on the source. Can you show me?
4. What if my husband isn’t luhya, does all this still apply?
5. What happens to my children? Do they have to take kamanyasi? What happens if they don’t

Subsequent parts of this twelve part series will answer these questions and a lot more. Therefore, keep it here as it’s going to be hilarious as well as informative. But before we embark on this journey, one last word on kamanyasi.

NEVER TOO OLD

It’s easy to think of kamanyasi as part of the troubles of youth. It is even far more comforting to the mind to assume that since you got away with eating rats and didn’t get caught, it’s all forgotten. Not too fast adulterous person. As the following quote from a person we spoke to about this reveals, one is never too old; nor is an indiscretion too forgotten, for kamanyasi.

This thing is real. My aunties pulled away my stepmom when burying my dad.

Series Navigation

<< Is it True That a Woman Who Has Been Unfaithful is not Allowed to Nurse, or Mourn in Close Proximity to Her Husband In The Event He Dies?How Religion Compounds Luhya Myths About Infidelity >>