Margaret
Ogola’s charming novel The River and The Source is a tribute to the African
woman. In a list of acknowledgements, she says it is partly based on the life
and times of her own great grandmother, and she also names a living person,
Grace Hagoma Okumu, as most closely portraying the spirit of the book – that of
the undefeatable womanhood of Africa. The novel opens with the birth of a baby
girl who screams all night and soon acquires the name of Akoko – the noisy one.
Her birth occurs early in the 20th century, “about thirty seasons
before that great snaking metal road of jorochere, the white people, reached
the bartering market of Kisumu.” The book immerses us completely in Kenyan
tribal life. The luo tribe worshipped were,
“the god of the eye of the rising Sun.” and they were steeped in their
tradition, which they called chik. Chik governed every aspect of the life of
the people…without chik to tell each person where he fitted in the exact order
of things, where he came from and where he could expect to go, there would be
confusion and apprehension.
When Akoko reaches marriageable age, formal
proceedings begin for her betrothal, and after negotiation between her father
and chief Owuor kembo entourage she becomes chief Owuor kembo’s wife in
exchange of thirty head of cattle – an unprecedented amount. Owuor becomes so
devoted to his wife that he takes no other, even though in luo cultural
practices a monogamous man was an unknown animal. When he dies, she mourns him
with solemn dignity: she dons his monkey skin headdress that he came courting
in almost thirty years before, takes his spear in one hand and shield in the
other, and sings dirges in his honour. The narrative also tells of changes to a
way of life which had existed for centuries. Many of these concerns changes in
religious beliefs, the transition from traditionalism to Christianity,
leadership and administration, cultural changes and changes in education. In
this chronicle of a family and really of a nation, over the course of the 20th
century, Akoko becomes a legend, and so in a way does Wandia, the girl from the
hill country who becomes a physician and is given the highest academic award at
the school of Medicine the University of Nairobi can bestow. Vast changes takes
place in that century, but members of the family whose destiny we follow
illustrate clearly that no matter what the changes, self-discipline and
strength of a character are always virtues to be prized.
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