WTH???????

I have always believed that our ancestors meant well when they provided us with a list of the do’s and don’ts years ago. For some time they served some important purpose but over time some of them have quickly become redundant.

I don’t really know much about other Kenyan tribes but as a Luo I will be the first to confess that following the laundry list of rules set by some one who by now is probably manure in some shamba is exhausting. One friend of mine who was marrying a man from my tribe jokingly asked me if she could get a manual explaining all the rules. I think out of all the Kenyan tribes, we probably have the most cultural practices, beliefs and rules to follow.

Growing up they(older family members) would tell us things like if you cup your face with both of your hands while eating your mother will die.  

I’m guessing it was meant to encourage good table manners.

Grandma or grandpa was not supposed to sleep in the same house as their married children with their spouses. 

I believe this started when people didn’t have bedrooms so it was kind of awkward to be sleeping on one side with your spouse and your parent on the other side- its simple common sense.

You were not supposed to sit on the same seat that your parent usually seats on.  

Well, then people didn’t have underwear except for a simple loin cloth. So again it was kind of gross to sit where your parents have just left some epithelials- again its commons sense.

But now thanks to modernization we have bedrooms, we wear clothes etc hence the need to let go of the moribund customs already. You all read what happened to Okonkwo's character in ‘Things fall apart’ when he tried to resist change. I suspect most people have a foreboding feeling when asked to abandon some of these cultural practices as they see it as loosing their identities or feel like sell-outs.

I was appalled this week when some family decided to bury alive an 8 month old calf next to an old man. They claim it was because he had not been paid dowry while he was alive so they thought killing the poor animal by asphyxiation will appease him. 

Wait, it gets worse, they were a family claiming to be staunch Christians. Really people? Really people?

The last time I checked there is no curse so big that our dear Lord cannot save us from. You can’t chew gum and sugar cane simultaneously. You can’t receive Jesus and profess Christianity then still continue to practice those redundant cultural practices.

The old man was not even the father of the bride, he was the big brother to the lady and he felt he was owed the dowry since their father had passed on earlier. It is also funny that when he was alive there was no money to buy the cow but now that he is dead... voila! They get the mullah!

Just when I think no one can come up with any more bizarre events... just when I think I have seen it all... BAM! I get hit by this. We really need to stop this madness people. gawd!