My recent trip to Usindire village in Kyagwe near Kampala City in Uganda, in search of my Abasuba roots was not only fulfilling, but very inspiring thanks to the encounter with their rich history, culture and politics.
Even before starting my second journey of self-discovery from Nairobi to Kampala by day bus through Busia border town and then crossed into the Pearl of Africa, as Ugandan had been christened by the colonial power, Britain, I had the privilege of knowing them closely by virtue of being a relative.
My maiden trip was in mid-1987 and it took me over 30 years later to make the second trip. My late mother, Mary Aoko Orlale’s father, Eliazaro Odhiambo, was an Abasuba, who are Bantus, and could “dhum (speak the foreign language)’ a little. My father is a Luo, who are Nilotes. My mother had a cousin, Frederick Ochieng On’gola, who was born in Rusinga Island, one of the areas dominated by Abasubas in Kenya, before he decided to relocate to his ancestral land in Uganda, where he was welcomed and later elected as Local Council 2 head (chief) of Usindire village in Mukono District.
Mzee Eliazaro, as he was fondly known, was grandson of Kimuma and the son of Kimko Odongo Radier, who was a polygamist with three wives. His other siblings were Apiyo, On’gola, Fanuel and Ogejo.
The Abasubas live on both sides of Lake Victoria, in Uganda where they originated from, in Kenya and Tanzania, and are among some of the ‘dying’ tribes of East Africa, according to United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).
Historians have reported that Abasuba are a sub-tribe of the Baganda; who are Bantus, and are a minority tribe in both their original homeland and in Kenya and Tanzania where some of their relatives migrated to and have since been assimilated.
In search of Suba roots
During my second visit to Uganda, I also visited the Kabaka tombs, also known as Kasubi Royal Tombs, in the outskirts of the Ugandan capital city, Kampala, where the remains of the former royal family have been buried. Our tour guide, who doubled as a security officer, took us around and shared the story of the royal family of the Baganda and added that he was not sure whether one of the fallen heroes could have been the one the Abasubas may have rubbed the wrong way leading to their being forced to flee to neighboring East African countries for safety.
While at the tombs, I was also honoured to meet one of Kabaka’s 50 or so wives, who live on the expansive protected and secluded compound on a hill overlooking Kampala Central Business District (CBD). She imbibed her gourd of fermented porridge as we exchanged pleasantries as it took a photo with her before departing to Ggaba beach to cross the lake to my uncle’s home for his funeral and burial the following day.
The Kenyan Abasuba were reported to have fled following an abortive palace coup after the reign of Kabaka (King) Junju of the Baganda, in 1760s. They have since assimilated into Baganda culture and language leaving very few of them, especially the elderly ones, speaking the Abasuba language.
The ones on the Kenyan side settled on Rusinga, Mfangano, Remba and Ringiti islands and the mainland in Gwassi hills and Migori County and have suffered the same fate due to intermarriage with Luo women and dominance of their neighbours who promoted Luo language and culture on them.
Mfangano is the biggest and most densely populated of them with a population of 30,000 people, mostly Abasubas who are spread across all the islands near the Kenya-Uganda border in Homa Bay and Migori Counties.
Among the most prominent Kenyan Abasubas is former trade unionist and powerful Kanu Secretary General, Tom Mboya, who doubled as a Cabinet Minister; former Mbita Member of Parliament and Cabinet Minister, Peter Nyakiamo among others.
Mboya’s legacy 50 years later after the famous Mboya airlifts of over 100 Kenyans to the US for further studies is former US President Barack Obama, whose father, Barack Obama Sr., was a beneficiary together with Mzee Dr Jacob Mwangi, who returned to Kenya and together with some investors started the famous Rusinga Group of Schools in Nairobi in honour of his friend and mentor, Mboya. Another beneficiary was Michael Okeyo, an Abasuba from Rusinga Island, who is a former Kenyan Ambassador to the United Nations and a Permanent Secretary.
My trip to Uganda in June 2022 was my second over 30 years after the first one. It was not only exciting, but very enlightening as I had an opportunity to meet and talk to several Abasuba elders and hear their side of the story before ‘The Great Migration.’
Treated like royalty
The first visit was an eye-opener as I spent a week with my nera (maternal uncle) On’gola on the island where he was the Local Council 2 (chief) and I enjoyed the trappings of power as a kind of ‘royalty!’
To access Usindere village, I first went to Kampala City then boarded a taxi (matatu) and later a boat ride to his home, which is opposite Ggaba on the shores of Lake Victoria. My nera was very happy and welcomed me for the first time with a mighty handshake and smile. He then fondly reminded me that my parents, Enos and Mary, my elder brother, Kenneth, and sister, Diana, had visited him two years earlier.
My mother and uncle’s memorable re-union in 1985 had also been marked by tears of joy as they shook hands and hugged before exchanging greetings from their other relatives in Rusinga Island.
For the next three days as his guest, I was treated like royalty in a relaxed environment with mature plantations of trees, bananas and a variety of fresh vegetables and fruits at my disposal. From the verandah of his beautiful home’s front yard I could see airplanes landing and taking off from Entebbe International Airport across the channel as passenger and goods ships crossed to dock at Port Bell, the getaway to the landlocked country from Kenya and Tanzania.
The lingua franca there was a mix of Luganda and Abasuba, but I could not tell the difference as I was not conversant with any of them. Thank God my nera and his two wives and children spoke to me in Dholuo and a little English, the Kenyan way. But I could sense the difference whenever my nera was speaking to his immediate family members and when he was addressing his subjects, the Ugandans and other locals.
Triple heritage
Fast forward to my June 2022 UG visit, I have struggled three months later, but I have been unable to get names of prominent Abasuba who have made a name in national and local politics, in the public service and in business.
However, the exception has been two LCs, my late uncle and one of his successors, Daniel Maziga of Mpatta sub-county, also in Mukono District, where he has served for past 12 years. The best I could get was list of Abasuba pioneers who re-migrated from Kenya to Uganda and could dhum (speak Abasuba language fluently). They were Lazaro Okomba whose wife was Susana who relocated from Kaksingri; Pharis Onyango married to Priska Onyango who hailed from Rusinga; Wandago and his wife Nyengo from Wakula in Mfangano; Onyango Pembe also from Wakula; and Peter Augo and his wife Damaris Awuor from Ramba.
Among the pioneers some became clan leaders: Wandago and Onyango Pharis, Petro Augo for many years and their children and grand children inherited the leadership roles. Some became councilors and Local Council (LC1 and LC2) leaders among others.
Among the Abasuba elders who I met and shared their culture, history and heritage were: Joseph Kaiga Mutende, 70, who was born in Bulunga village, after his father relocated from Mfangano Island; Joseph Ogala Abade, 80, was born in Rusinga lsland and relocated to Usindere village. The two both spoke Abasuba, but not their wives and children.
Another elder was Martin Yongo Agiro, 68, who was born in Jinja City when his father was working for British American Tobacco (BAT) Ltd and Bernard Onyango Ssenjou, son of Mzee Odongo Riwa from Mfangano Island; he later decided to settle in the outskirts of Kampala City.
According to the interviewed elders, they were very concerned about the rate at which the Abasubas in Uganda were losing their language and culture as they continued to assimilate with the majority Bagandans and neighbouring Banyankoles. Says Abade: “It is very sad that at this rate of assimilation, our Suba language and culture is dying at a first rate and might disappear within the next decade or less!”
Council of elders
The same concerns had been raised in Kenya by Abasuba leaders and elders led by former Cabinet Minister Peter Nyakiamo, as he rallied his community and lobbied President Daniel arap Moi, in the 1980s to recognise the Abasubas as a tribe, hive and create a separate district for tem and also direct the national broadcaster, Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC) to allocate special radio slots to promote Abasuba language and culture to the public.
The memorandum to Moi was written and delivered by Nyakiamo and the President gave it a nod leading to the hiving of Suba constituency t from Homa Bay District, thanks to a roadside declaration thereafter.
To date, KBC still runs a daily Abasuba radio broadcast for a few hours; a private investor has also launched a commercial FM station in Mfangano Island that also caters exclusively for Abasuba listeners.
Asked to translate key words and numbers from Dholuo, which we all spoke, to Abasuba, the elders were glad and proudly obliged as follows: morning (ukiere); evening (werrire); bye bye (ekurinde); lake (enyanza); man (omsaza); woman (omkazi); food (emerre); child (omwana) and death (okufa).
Numbers one to 10 are as follows: endala (1), eviri (2), esatu (3), ene (4), etano (5), mukaga (6), musangu (7), munane (8), chienda (9) and 10 (ekumi).
The encounter with the Ugandan Suba elders reminded me of a similar trip in 1986 to Mfangano Island, when I visited my mother’s aunt, Karen, in Mfangano Island and heard for the first time Abasuba language being spoken by her husband, Mzee Mariko Odera. My maternal grandfather was fluent and at ease promoting the language, his culture and heritage. On my part, as a journalist, I enjoyed listening to him as he “dhum” with baited breath as he occasionally switched to Dholuo whenever a ‘jaloka (foreigner), passed by.
In contrast, most of my relatives in Rusinga Island where my mother was born and raised, including my two grandmothers, Aska from Kasgunga and Dorina Rimba from Wayando, hardly spoke that language, the same applied to my mother and her siblings.
Indeed, the saying that if you want to know a people’s deep culture you can never go wrong by attending their funeral to see their rites and traditions. And that is exactly what I did when I attended my nera’s funeral and burial at his Usindire home. The entire funeral programme resembled the ones in Kenya among the Luos; the wailing, ‘barking (speaking in tongues and running wilding around the compound chanting and accusing anything and anyone of being responsible for the death)’ and other rituals seemed like a cut and paste from Luoland.
They also included the religious mix where mourners were allowed to shed tears, pray and sing hymns before the casket was finally lowered in the grave and the immediate family poured soil over it to conclude the ceremony.
My second UG visit confirmed the triple heritage of my Abasuba relatives: their history, assimilation into culture of the majority tribes around them plus embracing the Christian faith, western culture and education among others.
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