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poster featuring filtered image of mannequin on the floor with a broken neck and titled: dead men tell tales - an intro to bukusu death rituals.

Dead Men Tell Tales: Khukhongokha Likosi, Khumina Chimoni and other Bukusu Death Rituals

Bukusu Culture, Luhya Culture /

When it seemed fairly certain that natural death was imminent, a terminally ill person was placed in front, or the center of his first wife’s house. In Lubuksu, munju mwo mukhaye simakulu. Family and friends were informed about the impending matter. All kith and kin were expected to come and pay tribute to the ailing […]

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poster featuring image of a bird with long neck that appears to peep illustrating the sly ways of men emblematic of this maragoli folktale value to epidemiology

Why Maragoli Men Would Disappear Every Other Last Week Of May: Insights From A Maragoli Folktale Value To Epidemiology

Luhya Culture, Luhya Folklore, Maragoli Culture /

This story illustrates a Maragoli folktale value to epidemiology. It is months like May that make Christmas sneak up on us. May is a dull, action dry month. It is not planting season like February, Easter season like March or April; not even likembe season that August gifts us. The fifth month of the year,

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poster image of luhya traditional homestead depicting the Maragoli building and construction traditions of kuvika kesegese

Maragoli Building and Construction Traditions: Why Every Married Woman Should Demand For Her Kesegese

Luhya Culture, Maragoli Culture /

Among the rituals that are the body of Maragoli building and construction traditions, the requirement that the wife be present during “kuweka kofia”, kuvika kesegese, reigns supreme. The kofia (kesegese) is the ‘cap’ that is placed at the apex of the thatched roof of a traditional Maragoli hut. It is the equivalent of the ridge

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Trees with cultural significance among the Luhya - Learn about these special trees & their link to proverbs, taboos & other Luhya folklore

From prophesying colonization to treating gonorrhea: Meet shrubs, herbs and trees with cultural value among the Luhya

Luhya Culture /

From kumfutu, chingayu, kumusiola, kumurembe and more. Meet shrubs, herbs and trees with cultural value among the Luhya. By the shade of a mango tree upfront my parents house, we have grown. They, our parents, growing up just as they have with us, got counseled there. Its shade know not only our ways, but the

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poster of Maragoli proverb of significance to medical anthropology inyundu erondera kehegerete with image ofof sad African child afflicted with small pox in the background

Meet The Maragoli Proverb of Significance to Medical anthropology

Luhya Culture, Luhya Folklore, Maragoli Culture /

It’s not often that one can link African oral literature with the modern science of epidemiology. Such an intricate exercise is within the realm of medical anthropology, whose practitioners locally shouldn’t fill the fingers of one hand. But for an ‘old’ disease like smallpox, you could be in some luck. It shouldn’t therefore be lost

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painting of garden of Eden a place where in Lubukusu we might expect to find embwa ya wele, the dogs of god

Embwa ya Wele: A phrase that succinctly captures the richness of Lubukusu

Luhya Folklore /

Today, lets talk Lubukusu, the language of  Mubukusu.  Lubukusu is rich: lustrous when spoken, immensely expressive in song and damn descriptive in capturing the quintessence of our ways such as when naming our children or when tying the knot as in khuboa chinyinja.  Look, I am Bukusu who was majorly schooled in Maragoli land.  I am one

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poster eulogising Ngori the great Maragoli traditional circumcisor

Luhya Rites: When a Traditional Circumciser Dies

Maragoli Culture, Luhya traditional circumcision, Luhya Culture /

Given its esteem as a corner of the world replete with cultural treasures little wonder then that, justifiably curious, we watched on when the logooli nation of mulembe nation mourned its fallen son mkevi Ngori. Ngori was a respected traditional circumciser who was the last kind. I had expected a much larger crowd. But, amwavo this

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Image of motorcycle rear mud guard with maragoli proverb imburi yu mudaka yivura amalongo dave

IMBURI YU MUDAKA YIVURA AMALONGO DAVE: Of luck & goats among the Maragoli

Luhya Culture, Luhya Folklore /

There is a Swahili saying that’s similar saying to this Maragoli proverb. It goes, ng’ombe ya maskini haizai mapacha. But I find the Lulogooli version, Imburi yu mudaka yivura amalongo dave, more pungent. Simply because twinning in goats is naturally a more probable occurrence than in cattle. Science has it that the incidence of twinning

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