Opinion / Columnist
Watching our customs and traditions vanish
16 Jun 2019 at 14:01hrs | Views
A new baby in the village, a new person, another family member. Elderly women would make a bee line to see and welcome the new arrival.
Out of tune welcome songs would be heard, gifts and pronouncements of clan ancestry would be announced for all to hear.
The centre of attraction, mother and child, seated in the far end of the mud hut are spoiled with village goodies. If its a girl the mother is shown how to make and tie-on waist beads and the old practice of massaging the lower end behind to encourage posterior growth and protrusion.
This is what African men want in a woman but all that is now melting away with time.
Black girls now look 'plain' like Caucasians. When emotions overwhelmed one of our own and there was suicide in the village, death by hanging. The elders would loudly scold the deceased in the presence of everyone to discourage possible similar cases.
The ill-fated tree would be cut down to 'confuse' and chase away the spirit of death by hanging. The body of the deceased was taken for burial without a funeral wake at his home because the person was considered cursed and not worth a night vigil.
Today its a different story, funerals are now time for drink and 'dressing to kill'. Dying without a child, one would be buried with a BIG rat strapped to his back, you heard me correctly, his back.
So guys out there do the right thing and avoid 'rodent burials'.
Thomas Murisa. Chinehasha.
Out of tune welcome songs would be heard, gifts and pronouncements of clan ancestry would be announced for all to hear.
The centre of attraction, mother and child, seated in the far end of the mud hut are spoiled with village goodies. If its a girl the mother is shown how to make and tie-on waist beads and the old practice of massaging the lower end behind to encourage posterior growth and protrusion.
This is what African men want in a woman but all that is now melting away with time.
The ill-fated tree would be cut down to 'confuse' and chase away the spirit of death by hanging. The body of the deceased was taken for burial without a funeral wake at his home because the person was considered cursed and not worth a night vigil.
Today its a different story, funerals are now time for drink and 'dressing to kill'. Dying without a child, one would be buried with a BIG rat strapped to his back, you heard me correctly, his back.
So guys out there do the right thing and avoid 'rodent burials'.
Thomas Murisa. Chinehasha.
Source - Thomas Murisa
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