saying? Yah...Dorsila says that when she heard that we had come she walked all the way to see us. She brings
greetings from all the people of her village.”
Dorsila and I shook hands, and I mentioned that I’d met her older brother in Kendu Bay. She nodded and spoke again.
“She says her brother is very old,” Auma translated. “When he was younger, he looked just like our grandfather.
Sometimes even she couldn’t tell them apart.”
I agreed and took out my lighter. As I pulled at the flame, our great-aunt hooted and spoke rapidly to Auma.
“She wants to know where the fire comes from.”
I handed Dorsila the lighter and showed her how it worked as she continued to speak. Auma explained, “She says that
things are changing so fast it makes her head spin. She says that the first time she saw television, she assumed the
people inside the box could also see her. She thought they were very rude, because when she spoke to them they never
answered back.”
Dorsila chuckled at herself good-humoredly, while Zeituni went into the cooking hut. A few minutes later, Zeituni
came out with a mug in her hand. I asked her what had happened to Sayid and Bernard.
“They’re asleep,” she said, handing me the cup. “Here. Drink this.”
I took a sniff of the steaming green liquid. It smelled like a swamp.
“What is it?”
“It’s made from a plant that grows here. Trust me...it will firm up your stomach in a jiffy.”
I took a tentative first sip. The brew tasted as bad as it looked, but Zeituni stood over me until I had gulped down the
last drop. “That is your grandfather’s recipe,” she said. “I told you he was a herbalist.”
I took another puff from my cigarette and turned to Auma. “Ask Granny to tell me more about him,” I said. “Our
grandfather, I mean. Roy says that he actually grew up in Kendu, then moved to Alego on his own.”
Granny nodded to Auma’s translation. “Does she know why he left Kendu?”
Granny shrugged. “She says that originally his people came from this land,” Auma said.
I asked Granny to start from the beginning. How did our great-grandfather Obama come to live in Kendu? Where did
our grandfather work? Why did the Old Man’s mother leave? As she started to answer, I felt the wind lift, then die. A
row of high clouds crossed over the hills. And under the fanning shade of the mango tree, as hands wove black curls
into even rows, I heard all our voices begin to run together, the sound of three generations tumbling over each other
like the currents of a slow-moving stream, my questions like rocks roiling the water, the breaks in memory separating
the currents, but always the voices returning to that single course, a single story....
First there was Miwiru. It’s not known who came before. Miwiru sired Sigoma, Sigoma sired Owiny, Owiny sired
Kisodhi, Kisodhi sired Ogelo, Ogelo sired Otondi, Otondi sired Obongo, Obongo sired Okoth, and Okoth sired Opiyo.
The women who bore them, their names are forgotten, for that was the way of our people.
Okoth lived in Alego. Before that, it is known only that families traveled a great distance, from the direction of what is
now Uganda, and that we were like the Masai, migrating in search of water and grazing land for great herds of cattle. In
Alego, the people settled and began to grow crops. Other Luo settled by the lake and learned to fish. There were other
tribes, who spoke Bantu, already living in Alego when the Luo came, and great wars were fought. Our ancestor Owiny