GENEALOGY OF AKHUDU MBAYE aka KHUDUMBAYE "THE LEGENDARY WARRIOR OF ABAKHOONE"
In his book entitled The History
of Buluhya published in 1965, John Osogo reported that Abakhoone clan
during the period of Bunambo Kingdom, Cirka 1800 was a clan that was feared and
hated far and wide by other clans. No one dared engaged Abakhoone in war. From
the time they settled in Bunambo they fought and expelled tens of clans. In
fact Abakhoone used to believe that they were invincible since they had not
lost any war for centuries. And by the time they were fighting their final
battle that led to their defeat and subsequent dispersion in 1800, i.e., the
war of Esiadikho or Ifunikho, they had a number of great warriors who were
feared and revered across many localities by fellow warriors. These were
Mufula, the one eyed giant of man who was the most feared warrior in his time.
Other warriors fears him to the extent that even after they had speard him to
death during the Ifunikho war, they still went ahead and accorded him a descent
burial in revernce to his bravery at war. To day his grave be found in Munaaka,
near Bukoma Primary School in Budalang'i constituency.
There was Matsaaba who was a very
skillful fighter. There was Esakha Simyula who was a very brave warrior and
fast runner. There was Akhudu Mbaye aka Khudumbaye who was a legendary in
battlefield.
His name Akhudu was a nickname is
derived from Likhudu. Which means Tortoise in luhya language. He was given this
name because at times Akhudu Mbaye could walk in the battle field without a shield
and yet he could avoid getting speared by enemies. That is why people used to
joke that he is like a tortoise that moves around with his own house. I another
version to this story as told to me on 24th of January 2017 by Ex-Chief Malobo,
omukhoone mukhatimbo who lives at Lunyofu village in Budalangi, the name Akhudu
Mbaye is supposed to pronounced Akhudu Mbayi. On his legendary successes on the
battlefield, he said that some abakhoone warriors used to wear charms that
struck fear in the enemy making them feel powerless during an encounter in
war.
Mufula died in the war of Esiadikho.
He was killed in a battle at the present day Budala primary school in
Budalang'i and later buried in Munaaka near Bukoma Primary school.
Matsaaba too died in this very battle some days before Mufula was killed.
Esakha Simyula survived and he is the great great great grandfather of John
Osogo and Honourable James Osogo, the former MP of Budalang'i. Akhudu Mbaye
took charge of the army of Abakhoone and led Abakahoone in their escape from
Bunambo away from their enemies. Akhudu Mbaye and his cousin Ekobi and others
abakhoone such as Otunga and Wakoko, (the uncles of Ekobi and Akhudu Mbaye)
settled in Matayos before Ekobi other abakhone moved further north into Bungoma
to avoid the Teso attacks that had become frequent because that was the time
the Tesos were also moving southwards. Akhudu Mbaye settled in Elwero village
in the present Matayos constituency and built his fort (olukoba) at the current
location of Busia GK prison near Teacher’s Hotel at the junction of the road to
Mumia on Busia-Kisumu road. He lived there until he was very old. His great
grandson Kenga who was born around 1910 (Kenga is my grandfather) saw Akhudu
Mbaye when he was a very elderly man. In Kenga's own narration, Akhudu Mbaye
was so aged that in his last days, he had to be carried from place to place. He
said that he never ailed, but just died peaceful probably due to organ failure
occasioned by old age. It is speculated he lived until he was over 130 years.
Akhudu Mbaye belonged to the house
of abakhoone abaMembwe. His ancestors are as flow:
Namada
gave birth to Bwibo.
Bwibo
gave birth to Gonja
Gonja
was the father of Khoobi (I will tell you the story of Khoobi later on)
Khoobi
was the father of Khoone
Khoone
the father of Ngusa
Ngusa
the father of Kaya
Kaya
the father of Sirwa
Sirwa
is the one who gave birth to the fifteen sons that make up the 15 houses of the
Abakhoone clan (see the post on the genealogy of abakhoone)
Membwe was one of the fifteen sons
of Sirwa who make up the fifteen houses of the abakhoone clan (see the previous
post on the genealogy of abakhoone). He was the forefather of the house of
“Abakhoone abaMembwe”.
Membwe gave birth to Obusi
Mira-yaywa and Wekesa (also see the post on the lineage of Chief Sudi
Namachanja)
Obusi Mira-yaywa gave birth to
Alusiola
Alusiola gave birth to Mbingi,
Mbingi married two wives. The first wife was Nasubo gave birth to Akhudu Mbaye. The second wife was Naichong'i who gave birth to Odaba. This Odaba is the father of Walusala who is the father of Matayo after whom the constituency of Matayos is named after. Matayo had a younger brother by the name Conrad Amollo Walusala who used to be assistant chief of Matayos sub-location during the colonial days.
The sons of Akhudu Mbaye are as follows:
Okechi, Khabunga, Obanya and Makadia
I will be posting separate story on
the descendants of each of Akhudu Mbaye's sons on this blog.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4pfKkcT2jUdQm5aS3ExVTBFbUE/view?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4pfKkcT2jUdQm5aS3ExVTBFbUE/view?usp=sharing
Orie Luke,
ReplyDeleteI have stumbled across your very informative blog and I am very impressed with what I have seen so far.
There is very little written about our great clan. Keep up the good work.
Did Membwe have only two sons?
Would it be possible to show his family tree?
Thank you.
Kind regards
Fred
Mulembe muno mwanawefwe Fred. As you can see, the History of Abakhoone is great, but neglected in the history books. I am very happy to know that you are a mukhoone of the house of Membwe. If you are in Nairobi, we can meet and try to construct your family tree starting with your sons going back up to Membwe. In case you are from Matayos, I can easily get your lineage all the way to Membwe because all the abakhoone of matayos trace their lineage to Mbingi who was the great grandson of Membwe.
ReplyDeleteOrie Luke
ReplyDeleteThank you very much. I come from Port Victoria and my grandfather was Huberto Makokha a descendant of Membwe. John Osogo was my uncle. I will drop you a connection request on Google+ and we can collaborate further as I am abroad.
Mwanawefwe Fred.
ReplyDeleteI can see that Osogo is your uncle. Now that means that you descended from the lineage of Esakha Simyula. Esakha was a great warrior. He used to be very swift on the battle front. He was a very fast runner. Osogo's mother is a great grand child of Esakha. Esakha was mukhoone mumembwe. I think if you trace your lineage from Esakha, you can easily establish a full linkage up to Membwe. When abakhoone returned to Bunambo, Esakha resettled in his original of Mudembi. That is where most of his descendants live today. (These details I was told by a lady called Owado in Budalangi, who is a direct descendant of Opetu Owado who was ruling Bunambo during the war of Esiadikho. When I met Owado and informed her that I was a descendant of Akhudu Mbaye, she could not believe it because most Abakahoone who returned to Bunambo after the war believed that apart from Esakha, all their main commanders including Akhudu Mbaye died during that war. It took a lot of convincing and phone calls to my elders in Matayos for her to believe that indeed Mbaye did not die in the war).
Opetu Owado had strategically settled his main battlefield commanders for the purposes of protecting the empire. Mufula, the General himself lived near the King's palace between Budala primary and Erukala (the seat of power). On the Western side of Bunambo, Akhudu Mbaye was settled in Marenga. Esakha was settled in the Mudembi to take care of the Northern front. Matsaaba lived on the north eastern side towards Magombe to take care of abakhoone's arch-enemies, the Abaongo. To the South east, the Crown-prince Opetu lived in the fortress of Ikobo to take care of Abalawani and Abanyekera who threatened to attack from Yimbo near Ramogi hills (then called Lumia hills). Towards the lake to the southwest in Lunyofu there was a commander by the Ndubulire Ekwachi. he was a omukhone from the house of Miini. Until today the story of his bravery at war is still being told. When I met Mzee Andrea Muyinda, the elder brother of Charles Muyinda who is the High priest of the Sumba shrine, Andrea had a lot of praise for Ndubulire. These were the main commanders who led the war of Esiadikho.
Ewe Omugonja Fred. Ndumirekho ibarua khu email yange ino khukachule:
lukke7@gmail.com
My brother Luke, this is so insightful. As a mukhoone from Bungoma, this is insight into our ancestry is eye opening. I has helped me dismiss the many myths about our ancestry as bakhoone. I will be making my contribution on the exploits of Bakhoone descendants of Ekobi who moved to Bungoma. As the great grandson of Chief Sudi, the articles on this blog have given me the motivation to dig out the history of Bakhoone in Bungoma.
ReplyDeleteSudi, I wholly understand you position above. I have met a number of our Bungoma brothers and it is quite disappointing how they distort our history. What annoys me further is the fact that some of them are even working hard to kill their abakhone identity so as to fit in the Bukusu one. I wonder why they feel ashamed of being abakhone?
DeleteBut upon my further readings, I have come to realise that ababukusu have set up a propaganda machinery to kill the spirit of omukhone in Bungoma. They claim that Ekobi was a homeless mutura boy who was simply herding people's cattle. They further claim that abakhone do not fit in Bukusu leadership because they took the leadership from Batukwika and Balonja.
All this has made abakhone to develop an inferiority about their identity. They want to be assimilated so that they can disappear all together.
But historical facts are different. Ekobi was a great leader from Bunambo. He came with Akhudu Mbaye the legend and secured land for the abakhone who had been displaced by the genocidal war of Ifunikho.
One thing those lamenting that abakhoone took the leadership of ababukusu seek to distort the fact that Ekobi and Abakhone brouhg superior leadership skills that had developed over several centuries unlike the amorphous leadership structure that most bukusu clans used to have. Abakhoone brought the concept of standing army, construction of the forts in river valleys instead of hill tops as many luhyas used to do. a centralised power to coordinate the various aspect of the principality. All these good things were brought buy Ekobi and his abakhoone.
I only want to urge my Bungoma brothers to reclaim their rightful position as leaders of Bungoma.
Look at my recent post of 28/March/2018 about the importance of acquiring and holding onto political power. It is very important. Political power does not only bring economic prosperity. It also generates a better, free living human being.
Almost all the families in Bungoma of the Abakhoone clan are now profiled. I have been using your flow charts in your posts and managed to draw other flow charts and tables showing how we are related to each other. However, there are a few gaps which I wish we meet in person and assist one another to address before I can submit to the elders for correction.
DeleteNext time you come home, call me on this no. 0724906077.
I am Omukhone, the descendant of sudi Namachanja, am a grandson of Tela. I find this history very amazing yet very new. All my life and I know this goes across to many others of my age, I have always known that the bakhone are the bukusus. Trust me, I now have more questions than answers. I think I need more information on this.
ReplyDelete