ABAKHOONE FOUNDATION: THE PEOPLE OF BUNAMBO KINGDOM

The young men who were at the age of joining the army were known as "abasoliri". The bravest and most fearsome among them were known as "abalulu" meaning the "fierce one". The most elite warriors were called "abaofu" meaning the blind ones. These ones were fearless warriors who had been tested by killing a hippopotamus single-handedly. Among the abaofu different houses were allocated different roles during the war: House of Ndekwe also called House of Ng'ang'a formed the core leadership and provided some warriors too House of Membwe were the producers of weapons and formed the bulk of the elite warriors. They used to have furnaces for smelting iron on top of Singwe Hill near the modern day Bukoma Beach House of Khokosi also produced warriors but their main job was to mop up the battlefield to prevent any enemy who might might have faked death during the battle from escaping. House Khulang'u mainly supplied the warriors with food ...

In the book entitled "The Luhya Nation" by Shadrack Bilimo (2006), he described the Abakhoone military as having been mighty and legendary. John Osogo (1965) in his book entitled "History of the Baluyia" said that of all the Luhya clans and subethnic groups, there is no one single clan that did more to shape the modern Luhya socio-political structure than the Abakhoone clan. Osogo (1965) says that the Abakhoone were a large and very powerful clan that lived at the mouth of River Ndekwe. They arrived there around 1350 AD from Uganda   by crossing Lake Victoria. Their migration to this place was not much different from the migration of other Luhyas. The main difference between the Abakhoone and other Luhya clans was their approach to conflict. While other clans or subtribes used to engage in mere skirmishes and taunts during war, sometimes with hardly any bloody confrontation, the Abakhoone introduced the concept of military warfare. Their military underwent...

Mufula was the general in charge of Abakhoone army during the war of Ifunikho in 18oo. This is the war that led to the emigration of Abakhoone from Bunambo. As I had mentioned in an earlier post on "The war of Ifunikho", Mufula was a feared warrior. He was a brave one-eyed giant. He was killed during the war of Ifunikho at the present day Budala Primary school near Ndekwe. At his homestead which stood between Budala Primary and Erukala, there is very big African Teak or in Kiswahili  it known as " Mvule " tree. In luhya language is known as " Murumba ". Scientifically known as " milicia excelsa ". This tree has a long history. In the early 1700 when slave traders from Buganda used to cross lake victoria to capture slaves on the shores in the Budalang'i, abakhoone warriors used this tree as their sentry. They used to send a young warrior to climb on top to observe the oncoming boats far away in the lake. The mature experienced warriors ...

As I had earlier posted on this blog the genealogy of Akhudu Mbaye the son of Mbingi. In that post, I had said that Akhudu Mbaye had a number of sons. There was Okechi, Obanya, Khabunga, Makadia, Wabidonge and Suucha. I will now present the descendants of Okechi. Okechi gave birth to Sieke Okado, Wamaya, Okunya and Ong'esa. SIEKE OKADO  Sieke married his first wife called Namwaya. They gave birth to Mbaye who is the father to Timoteo Okado. Sieke married a woman from mariachi called Nebere. They gave birth to Radoli and Ademba. Sieke married his youngest wife, Nabonwe. She was nicknamed "Okoya Kosi" because she was married quite young and had the childish behaviour of acting coy all the time. Okoya Kosi is derived from a Luhya phrase " okhukoya elikosi" meaning to coyishly throw the head around. Nabonwe was from the clan of ababonwe from Wakhungu village in Samia. Nabonwe delivered the following sons: Okechi, Okuda, Mumuli and Olwande  aka kachenga who S...

Once a baby was born, the father in law was not supposed to share food with his daughter in law for at least four days if it was a baby boy or 3 days if it was a girl. During this period all the left over food eaten by the new mother was simply thrown away lest it get mixed with father in law's food. For example where ugali is recycled. This practice was driven by the belief that if the father in law shared food with his daughter in law, then it will bloc her from getting more children. If the born baby is a  girl, the baby was supposed to be kept in the house for 3 days ( 4 days if it is a boy) then it will be taken out and laid near the granary for public viewing (those days homesteads used to construct a special type of granary). On that the relatives of the girl visited with grains and chicken as well as gifts for the baby. On this day, the paternal aunt also visited to shave the baby off the hair it was born with. This hair is called lifanda. The Shaved and bathed the baby...

Amongst the Abakhoone, it should be noted, death always took a gender dimension. A woman's corpse was supposed to lie in state for two days with the burial taking place on the third day. For a man, the corpse remained in state for three days and the burial was on the fourth day. On the day of the burial, the eldest son of the deceased was handed his father's spear. A bull was brought by the graveside. His son would then carry out a mock spearing of the bull. The bull would then be led away to be slaughtered. After slaughtering the bull, the corpse was wrapped in the skin of the bull for burial. Normally, the most preferred colour of the bull for this function is reddish-brown in colour. In the event this was not available, then a blackish-brown bull (Known as “Rapenda” in Luhya) would be procured. Polygamy was common amongst the Abakhoone. Therefore, a man used to build his special hut in the middle of the homestead. This hut was called " lichibi ". Sin...

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. ...