The role of literature in African Culture:

Surrounded by all the modern pleasantries of life, there is a tendency to wipe it

out of our minds the fact that social life has been going on for millenias. If
evolutionary scientists are to be believed, social life in Africa has existed for as
long as humanity has lived on earth.
Life in the traditional society was radically different from what we have today.
There were no smart phones, no computers, no cars, no tv, no radio. Yet people
still communicated, travelled, learned, entertained themselves and chronicled
their history. How was this achieved?
The role of oral transmission of knowledge and culture has been downplayed in
the modern world. Yet it served an important role in social life similar to what
smart phones, computers and Tv do today. Orality was the medium through
which history, traditions, culture and knowledge was chronicled and transmitted
from generation to generation. The main medium here was oral literature.
Oral literature refers to spoken oral traditions such as music, poems, rituals,
stories, rhymes and many others. In a world where writing had not taken roots,
this was the main means of learning, storing and transmitting knowledge.
Having grown up in Western Kenya, and being privileged enough to have shared
in the life of my grandmother Gertrude, who was not only a great matriarch, but
also a great story teller and oral teacher. The overriding themes in her stories
were about social living.
What surprises me about her stories were the prevalence of Ondiegi (talking
ondiegi) who were bent on destroying the human society either with their greed
or uncaring attitude. The contemporary society has similarity in people who
occupy positions of power and whose actions are driven by greed and selfishness
to the extent their actions threaten the wellbeing and stability of the society.

Ondiegi in Luo culture generally refers to the

wild animals in the category of leopards, lions
and Hyenas. These were the most prevalent
fierce wild animals in the traditional Luo nation.
But the hyena happens to be the character most
prevalent in the traditional tales. The hyena
represents greed and selfishness and a
pathological love of blood to the extent it will
eat a wheelbarrow load of murram if it is
sprinkled with blood
In the traditional Luhya nation, the Linani (the
giant ogre) amanani (many), played a similar
role to the Luo Ondiegi. They were vicious
creatures bent on wreaking havoc and in some
instances destroyed whole societies.

The role of literature in African Culture:

The same applies to the traditional Gusii nation where we have chinnyangau
playing the same role, similar to the Irimu in the traditional Kikuyu nation.
In many traditional nations, such animal characters were used to represent real
characteristics of people in the society. The tales were meant to advise the
young against excesses and also to inculcate acts of selflessness for the sake of
social wellbeing. It was thus a categorisation of the good and the bad.
In one of the stories my Grandmother told us about Awino the clever dedicated
woman wo lived in a village with her husband and five children. The story goes
that there was once upon a time a great famine in the land. Rains had failed to
come and the land had dried into a concrete slab and trees turned into stumps
like pillars holding the roof of a palace. The crops had failed, animals had died
and people were starving.
Awino, a woman of great guile, managed to form a liaison with a mouse which
she saw carrying an ear of sorghum. Like a monk dedicated to the service of the
gods, the mouse agreed to share the sorghum with her and also agreed to show
her where she found the sorghum.
Awino went there and found that they had reached piny Ondiegi (the land of
Hyenas). It was a beautiful land in the middle of the forest. The surrounding trees
extended to the sky like spikes piercing the belly of the heavens. The air smelled
with sweet aroma of flowers and fruiting trees. There was an eerie silence which
seemed to pour gloom on all the serenity before their eyes.
The village had huge granaries, like oversized mountains full of different kinds of
grains and other exotic foods. There were granaries of sesame, groundnuts,
millet, cassava, and even Aliya (dried meat). There was an ocean of food, so
much food that Awino thought would be enough to feed the whole world for a
whole generation.
They saw sea like ponds full of fish which seemed to beckon them to catch them
as they swam merrily, now and then swimming to the top as if testing their
resolve while displaying the filleted sides which would dignify any table if served
with nicely fried chips. Awino watched all these in awe and wonderment.
The village was guarded by an old Ondiegi, whose days seemed to be over,
judging by his stooping posture. The rest went hunting during the day, for the
food in the village seemed to be for display rather than satisfying them,
according to mouse. Awino and Mouse helped themselves to sack loads of food.
But mouse told Awino that she should take only enough and make haste lest she
is caught and suffer the fate of many who had trod the same route. Awino
managed to carry some food home enough to feed her family for a few weeks.

The role of literature in African Culture:

A few weeks later, when the food she had
brought run out, she embarked on the journey
once more to the dangerous but enticing land of
ondiegi. This time she brought her husband,
Osumba, with the thought that they would carry
enough food to last them a long time so that
they do not have to keep endangering their
lives.
When they reached the land of Ondiegi, they did
not stop to admire the beauty and riches but
embarked on packing some food ensuring that
they were not seen or heard by the old sentry,
who like an old tree swayed by the wind,
seemed to have stooped much further. Osumba
climbed into a granary full of sesame and was
amazed at the sheer awe inspiring quantity of
food. He decided to eat some, and like a crazed
warthog, soon embarked on eating and forgot all about packing and the mission
that had brought him.
He ate and ate and the more he ate the heavier he became and soon he found
out he was as heavy as a ten tone piece of lead and could not climb out of the
granary. Meanwhile, Awino was getting very worried since it was getting late and
she knew soon the Ondiegi would be back and all hell would break lose. She
rushed to try to find her husband and in her haste alerted the sentry to their
presence.
To her horror, the stooped sentry bounced to his feet. There was commotion as
the old ondiegi tried to catch her, but she managed to twist and turn like a thin
wire spring and out run him and together with the mouse, they slithered away
and left her husband lying in the granary. Soon the other Ondiegi came back and
managed to pull him out of the granary, happy at the sheer weight of the food
they were going to have for dinner.
Osumbas sheer horror at the sight of what he saw caused a tremor in the land of
Ondiegi. Meanwhile the Ondiegi lit a huge fire and they teased him and told him
they were going to roast him for their dinner. He pleaded with them to save his
life and promised he will deliver his entire family to them if they saved his life.
On hearing this the Ondiegi agreed to spare him but he was to escort them to his
village.
The next morning, he escorted them there and they ransacked the whole village
and carried Osumba and his family back to the land of Ondiegi. Osumba looked
at his family and his head dropped; he was a beaten man. Long gone was the
taste of sesame that had landed him into abyss. When they arrived, Osumba was
instructed to roast one of his children as dinner for the Ondiegi that night and to
continue doing so every day until he himself roasts himself as dinner.
He trembled and sweat flowed from face like a waterfall. He could not believe
what they wanted him to do. He cried and begged Awino and his children for
forgiveness, realising what problems he had caused them due to his greed.

The role of literature in African Culture:

Awino thought quickly and went about preparing dinner for the Ondiegi. She told
her husband to stay with their children and went out and got a young banana
plant. She cut the trunk into small chunks and then mixed it with pumpkin and
some aliya and caught some fish from the pond. Shen then made a huge kwon
(Ugali) and left everything ready for the Ondiegi. She then went and hid one of
her children in a nearby hole in a tree trunk.
She did this until all the children were safely hidden and then hid herself, leaving
Osumba alone. The next day it was the turn of Osumba to turn himself into
dinner for his hosts. He cried, he trembled, and begged. He wailed and asked
how Awino had done this. He cursed himself for the trouble he had caused his
family. Awino heard his cries and came out of her hiding. She instructed him to
go inside the tree trunk.
She then hastily cooked the banana stem, and pumpkins and aliya and fish and
then went back to hiding. She had hatched a plan that night and put some
portion and wine in the food. The Ondiegi ate and soon were fast asleep in their
huge dining room. Awino called Osumba and together they set fire to the houses
killing all the Ondiegi and thereby saving themselves and their children.
The story to me highlighted the role of oral story telling in the traditional setting
as a tool of imparting moral values to the young children in society. My
grandmother Gertrude would never elaborate on these stories or their moral. We
would be left to reflect on our own.
Osumba here clearly portrays a remarkable degree of resemblance to modern
leaders in our societies. They are put in positions of authority for the benefit of
the society, but no sooner have they landed there than they completely forget
their role and resort to fulfilling their own selfish desires. But selfishness does not
benefit anyone, it endangers the society and impoverishes the population.
Hunger and starvation have been the hallmark of human relationship especially
the poor and the rich or even the so called developing world and the developed
world. In the story Awino represents the millions of starving citizens of the world.
The cause of their starvation may be due to a myriad of reasons including
environmental factors as well as human factors. Yet hidden in a certain part of
the forest is this affluent locality where the Ondiegi are hoarding food and
wealth. Food and wealth that they clearly do not need.
The situation of desperation is apparent with Awino even willing to negotiate with
the mouse. Yet her fears are confirmed when her husband is caught and the
whole family is endangered. The whole human society is endangered, for with
their demise, there will be an end to human existence in that part of the world. It
is easier to give in to despair as Osumba has clearly done.
Human ingenuity and creativity is fundamental in overcoming adversities. Awino
could have let her children and herself be roasted and served as dinner in those
huge platters, but she said no. She knew there was always a way out and she
came with this novel idea of cooking young banana plants and pumpkin and fish.
Through that she manages to save her family and her society. She does not end
there but brings a fundamental transformation by ensuring there is a revolution
and the reign of Ondiegi is brought to an end.

The role of literature in African Culture:

Little did I know that grandma Gertrude would be highlighting the plight many of
us would face later in life; of leaving our mother and fatherland and coming to
live in lands far far away. Although we have not been asked to roast and serve
ourselves as dinner, our lives is, to a large, extent that of self-sacrifice and selfdenial. Our ultimate aim, like that of Awino, is to ensure we safeguard the future
of our children and ourselves through determination, creativity, resilience and
hard work.
But ultimately, we should all strive to bring a transformation in our society that
ensures our basic needs are met and we enjoy equality, dignity, and
opportunities to develop and transform ourselves positively. This is the same
everywhere, for us in the UK, in Africa and fundamentally in Syria and Iraq today.
Tom Wema 2016.
Dedication:
To grandma Gertrude, to Rose, Sue and Tyler.