THE HOUSE OF RACHUONYO
Rachuonyo was working for Chien as a herdsboy and when Chien died, he became an undertaker, jater, to the house of the wife of Chien called Omieri. Omieri was the youngest wife of Chien. When Rachuonyo and Omieri got a baby boy, they wanted to name him after Chien. And the children in the house of the first wife, refused that a child born with a worker, (jatich or jadak) could not be given their father’s name.
They disdained this relationship and the first house refused that this child could not be given the father’s name, and so they said it would be better he be named after the dog Sipul. Sipul was the name that had been given to a dog that belonged to Chien. Rachuonyo loved hunting and many times when he went to hunt, he took Sipul, the dog, with him.
Omieri was to invite1 her sister called Owaga to be a wife to Rachuonyo. Owaga then became Rachuonyo’s first wife as Luo customs dictates that chi atera, a woman of a levirate union cannot be a wife to a man who had never married.
Indeed, under Luo customs and laws, a single man should never take on the role of an undertaker, jater. Owaga and Rachuonyo begot Owuor and Obila, Omuoyo. Both Owaga and Omieri were daughters of Alego Kaluo, nyi Alego . After this, Owaga, Rachuonyo married Achieng from Alego Kanyajuok. Then he married Auma nyar Agoro (Alego). Auma was to insist that her maid also be married to Rachuonyo.
Under customs and traditions, this girl was known as nyar ot and not nyieke as was usual for co-wives, so that the children grow up in her house and under her custody. So Adwet was nyar od Auma, and for this, therefore there was an un written law that as the descendants of the house of Auma, they could never fight over any issue such as land, positions etc but that they would always unite in purpose because they were of one house.
Ogwelo or ogamo’
From oral history it is stated that Achieng was treacherous to Auma. It was whispered that she was killing Auma’s children through acts of wizadry, ne onego nyi thi Auma gi juok. She was not straightforward in her ways and in dealing with people. For such reasons, Rachuonyo went and built her a home elsewhere. After Auma had been moved into her home, she insisted that Rachunoyo marries her housemaid Adwet, which indeed, he did. Adwet was from Maragoli and they got one son called Ogol. Through Adwet, the genetic code of a community was rewritten. Some elders commenting on the community facing extinction stated that getting a wife from Maragol averted this tragedy and that they begin to thrive again in their lineage under the sagacity of golo kodhi mabor or kodhi mopogore
© Jane Achieng, 2021
