Great culture chapter two, by Boniface Maiyani

     

                       CHAPTER TWO

    The region has been led by several leaders but

 the most prominent one was Lopejo. Lopejo was a

 tall, energetic, handsome, black skinned, wise and

 brave man. He had shanty, unkempt hair which

 was as black as charcoal.

 Apart from Lopejo, the region has also been led by

 other leaders such as Saruni, Lorok and Lapuroni.

 Saruni was said to have helped our community to

 tender a large herd of cattle and flock of sheep

 during his reign. He was a man of principles and

 was ready to listen to any one. But this!!!!!  The

 animals became fewer once a great drought enveloped the vicinity. 

The drought was severe that it made all the animals

 that it made all the animals lay topsy-turvy; a scene

 denoted from the looks of carcasses. Saruni was

 now hated for people said he was a lummox and

 had annoyed the ancestral spirits. Another claim

 was that since he married from a neighboring

 community, a social activity which was greatly

 discouraged by our community proved that he was

 putting too much food in the mouth than he could

 chew. 

   Lorok was black as his name suggest. He was

 different from Saruni in that he had many wives

 which were from our community. Lorok had many

 children such that it was difficult for him to master

 all of them. He must have suffered a great loss

 since any young man or lady would request the

 father to child attention which he had no guts of

 refusing. They would be enveloped under the

 pretext that they were his children.    However,

 Lorok had to cope with all this since at times it was

 unavoidable. It was too difficult to be easy for

 Lorok to distinguish among his children.

 Furthermore,   this was directly counted as a

 blessing from our creator. 

He led the people to of our community in peace till

 he joined his forefathers in their comfortable home

 of no return.     The other leader was Lapuroni. His

 name means that he was a thief and that is why

 not so many people liked him. In fact if research

 were conducted it could only be shown that it was

 his closest men who were always ready to support

 him in exercising his ambitious, greedy corrupt

 leadership.      

 He got the leadership ties through theft as it was

 his younger brother who was supposed to be the

 next ruler. He never had the lack of ruling people

 for long like his predecessor prominent Lopejo.

 Lapuroni would organize raids of cattle to the

 nearby community who were less powerful. In so

 doing, Lapuroni, made our community to have a

 warlike tradition. Lapuroni was also a singer and a

 harpist. During his leisure time, he would sing

 many songs which were about war, love,

 leadership and also the environment. These songs

 were sung when the prescribed activity was taking

 place. A song of war was always sang by Lapuroni had the following lines.        

 Come ------come ----- come,                       

  Come --- come --- come my people,                             Let’s go defend our land.

Chorus,     

      you and I, are united by the fact,                              That we are all tribes mates.

 Come,                            

Come my folks, let’s go and defend our land.  

                           Please! Please! My commander, 

               Ensure that you are well equipped,   

            With deadly weapons from our kedong,                     Arsenal.    

       We must show them that we are,                            Brave than lions, and that they are,                               Cowards like hyenas.   

  Other songs such as love songs were sang when a woman was being led to the Altar. Leadership songs were sang when a new chief was being given the leadership position.  

    Lapuroni was hot tempered. When he was

 furious, even his closest buddy would not try to

 mollify him. Everybody knew the ultimate.

 Tyrannical!  One would be fined either a steer or

 pay two ewe. Of course this was inhumane! He

 would remain mute and dump as though he had

 his nose cut and hen’s beak attached instead. His

 commander was only allowed to be beg him to go

 and be in the arms of Morpheus when time to rest

 his body which now was increasing at an

 astonishing volume arrived.   

 However making Lapuroni raise his back was as

 difficult as having the Sahara desert reforested in a

 single day. It would happen but only when

 something very detesting happened. One fine

 morning, as it is said, Lapuroni woke up and

 organized a fight with the people from the east

 who were a hostile desert tribe. People from the

 east were tall, brown folks. People now started

 hating him for organizing such raids when

 everyone was busy concentrating on how best they

 could increase the number of flocks. 

  In our community, one was actually recognized by

 the number of animals he had. Everybody was

 now asking the creator God to provide us with a

 leader who would rule with justice and equality.

 They anticipated him to never organize war with

 any folks. Whenever elders would stand in a

 gathering and give speech, it was always revered

 and no one would turn his head away from their

 sentiments.   An old man who was wiser gathered

 people one fine morning and told them that their

 Lord Almighty, their sustainer and provider had

 heard their prayers.

 A young man, who would be their leader, is sent to

 the people so as to rule them. This statement made

 the people ears to be gravitated towards the old

 man. He went further and noted that the man

 would help them tend their livestock well an

increase them to a large number. 

Activities such as cattle raiding would be counted

 as useless activity.      All were glad to hear his

 gooey words that left everybody smiling happily

 with a package of expectations. He added that the

 young man would not need any grouchy person as

 this would make him lose all his wisdom. He had to

 be pious so as to make his entire dream come to

 happen. 

He was to have cavalry which was to defend the

 region from external aggression and an infantry to

 annihilate any rebellion that would arise in his

 territorial boundary. Rebels who would refuse to

 capitulate, once put behind the bars, would either

 be killed or sold as slaves whichever the young

 man would put across. The people came into a

 conclusion that the description of the young man

 was eligible.    They summed up the gathering by

 agreeing with the adage saying where there is a

 will there is a way. 

Watch out for part Three (Boniface MAIYANI)

Please share and comment