ABAKHOONE FOUNDATION: THE PEOPLE OF BUNAMBO KINGDOM

Throughout the history of abakhone, one narrative has remained consistent. This is the narrative of the bravery and fearlessness of abakhoone people. I always wondered how this trait become ingrained among abakhoone to the extent that even their enemies acknowledged this quality by nicknaming abakhoone, Abaofu, meaning blind men. My research on the origin of this quality too me to the situation in the west. It has largely been acknowledged that white men in the West are largely fearless the things that other groups of people are fearful of. Research by Kahan (1994) on cultural differences when it comes to risk perception could be used to explain the abakhoone fearlessness. Kahan (1994) has identified a phenomenon called "the white male effect". This phenomenon is such that white men tend to be less fearful of the things that other races find scary. A similar observation was made by Flynn, Slovic and Mertz (1994).  Kahan says that "Perhaps white males see less ris

After fighting wars with the tesos, by the way wars with the tesos were so vicious that our abakhoone forefathers had decreed that there should never be intermarriage between the two tribes. It is only recently that intermarriage between abakhoone and tesos started getting popular. Anyway, after the status quo had been established, abakhoone settled in their areas around Elwero. Sieke Okado and his brother established his home where the Busia airstrip stands. Khabunga the son of Akhudu Mbaye, was the uncle to Sieki Wamaya and Okunya lived at the present day Khung'ungu village nears where trailer tourist inn hotel currently stands. Wamaya lived in Esiteko.. Ong'eesa and Obayi lived at Elwero. At around 1860, there was a vicious raid by Basoga. From the narative I got from Olwande son of Sieke (he died 1990 aged about 125 years), the Basoga raiders arrived at Sieke's just about midday. In old tradition of abakhoone, one person had always to climb the tallest tree while ot

Despite abakhoone having only settled in Matayos constituency in 1800 onwards, the above are currently the most populous clan in Matayos even more than the original inhabitants such as Abaguuri, Abachimo, Abamenya, Abamaani and the likes. The following are the settlements of abakhoone in Matayos. I am going to present each settlements with the abakhoone elders whose descendants currently occupy. By the way for each elder I am mentioning here, there very very many descendants of theirs who now occupy these villages in hundreds. Most of these elders are people who were born in 1880s and most of them are now late. 1.Esirisia village: Makadia and Mbingi 2. Emujuru village: Omoto 3. Emurumba: Sirili Kunguru, Antony Adiedo, Paulo Sikeraki, Achong'a,  Amboko 4. Nabisiongo: Juma Ware and Egessa 5. Busende: Ambrose Amollo and Oluba 6. Matayos village: Walusala, Akotse and Odaba 7. Buyende: Wabidonge 8. Egero: Israeli King 9. Ebwicha: Khaseke 10. Sigwata: Okunya 11. Namwichula:

I am very sure the title of today's post looks weird to most of the readers of this blog. But this title is driven by the recent groundbreaking phenomenon of the nullification of the reelection of President Uhuru Kenyatta on the 8th of August 2017 by the SupremeCcourt of Kenya headed by Chief Justice David Magara. Soon after the verdict was read, I went to Senior Common Room of the University of Nairobi for tea break. Senior Common Room is the canteen for lecturers at the University of Nairobi. Immediately I entered, my friend Dr. Ben Nyanchoga, a Historian lecturing in the department of History stood and shook my hand saying, "my friend I now believe you... You bakhone are brave and daring". So I wondered what had happened because I did not even know that the Supreme Court had nullified Uhuru's victory. My friend Dr. Nyanchoga went to tell as me, "Do you know that Justice Maraga is Omunyakone?" I said, "No." Dr. Nyanchoga confirmed to me tha

The people of the Chwezi Empire were known as AbaChwezi . The word "chwezi" means "lawgiver" or “ruler”. The abachwezi were believed to be having divine powers and therefore were capable of performing miracles. The Chwezi Empire's most military belligerent ruler was Emperor Ndahura I kya-Rubumbi [known in Rwanda as Ndahiro , and in Buganda as Ndaula ]. Ndahura had a royal kraal on Rweisamba Hill that overlooks the crater lake known as Lake Kikorongo , in what is now Busongora County in Kasese district (the seat of the modern day Busongora Kingdom), in the Republic of Uganda. In 2012 Lake Kikorongo merged with the larger Lake Matsyoro [a.k.a Lake George], but is still visible on account of its perfectly round banks despite being flooded by the larger lake. Ndahura was a warrior-king and empire-builder, and so he was constantly leading his armies into battle. One day while on an expedition, Ndahura and his guard unit had become separated from the

Of all the shrines of the Abakhoone, the Ndekwe shrine is the most revered. When the oldest ancestor of the Abakhoone, Namada arrived in Bunambo, he first settled in Bunambo. This was around the year 1350AD ( though records being oral, it is my suspicion that this might have been around 1450 AD when looking at the generational difference of circa 30 years, since it said that Khoobi brought back the Abakhoone to Ndekwe around 1550 AD ). Namada on arrival found the Abalanda and the Abalusere. Their arrival shocked the Abalanda and the Abalusere because they did not understand how such a large number of people could arrive out of the vastness of Lake Victoria. Out of suspicion, the Abalanda and the Abalusere were a bit unsettled and unwelcoming. As a result, Namada and his people relocated to Igoye (Lumia hills or modern day Ramogi hills). It is here that Namada, his son Bwibo and grandson Gonja died and were buried. However, the spirits of the ancestors came and told Namada's g