I am not on facebook, but my sister Janet
Osiro has drawn my attention to our brother Oby Obyerodhyambo’s excellent Facebook
Post on the Luo concept of time and numbers.
In my blogpost on Friday 30th
December 2016 titled “Why I Do not Make New Year Resolutions” (http://kenyancrossroads.blogspot.co.ke),
I sought to demonstrate that the idea of a “year” is always religious, and that
the January New Year is foreign to Africa: this fits well with Oby’s point that
in Luo cosmology there is no twelve-month cycle.
Oby’s highlighting of the Luo use of base 5
rather than base 10 has confirmed what I had suspected for some time.
Oby’s exposition of the Luo focus on
seasons rather than years is “right on”. In my blog post I had also highlighted
the fact that even the ways in which weeks are understood all over the world is
religious. We have three popular weeks in Kenya - the Muslim one beginning on “Juma
Mosi (moja), the biblical one beginning on the so-called “Sunday”, but which
the Bible calls “the first day of the week”, and the civil week which begins on
Monday “Wuok tich” (“the day people set out for work”), “tich ariyo” (literally
“work two”), “tich adek” (“work three”), “tich ang’wen” (“work four”), “Tich
abich” (“work five”). I would appreciate any information on the Luo week, if
even such a thing exists!
Oby’s outline of the way in which the Luo
divided the day is excellent: it agrees with what our late maternal grandmother,
Posia Yiembe Odera, had told me when I was doing my oral literature research
for my A levels and undergraduate work in the 1980s. My only reservation is
with his use of “saa” which is a semitic word (“shaa” in Hebrew, “saa” in
Arabic”). I would therefore simply delete “saa” from the divisions of the day
as he outlines them. Well done dear brother! Let us proudly continue to examine
our cultures and correct the myriad lies unleashed on them by Western imperialism!
Brother, thank you for adding that religious dimension. I also really appreciate the weeks: wuok tich up to tich abich followed by ngeso-basically chieng ngeso or shopping day.
ReplyDeleteReading, listening, learning. How many days in a Luo week, six?
ReplyDeleteOby,this is a good thing!The only word that you should research on is "ngeso" which in my mother tongue would translate to "top up or addition" as opposed to shopping.The usage of this word in reference to days is derived from the fact that it was an extra day for those who had not accomplished their work within the attributed five ones.
ReplyDeleteThank you. I suppose we do not share a mother tongue because the word 'ngeso' has made its way to Dholuo usage from Kiswahili- ongeza which is top up/ add. In our language 'ngeso' is to purchase/ buy. When one goes to the market odhi ngeso. Its a coincidence that the Swahili use ongeza to mean add that is what we do swhen we shop.
DeleteIs there even a concept of "week" in Luo thought? Counting week days from Monday probably began in the European settler farms where our grandparents worked rather than in Luoland.
ReplyDeleteMy brother Oby, does "Ngeso" not come from the Kiswahili "ongeza"? Even when I go to the market in Luoland, the seller will usually say "Angesi" ("I have added you".
ReplyDeleteNgeso has different meanings, just like many words in the Luo language. Ngeso can mean a special kind of grocery, specifically meat. "Mama odhi ngeso" means that Mama has gone to buy meat. Meat was a special meal for Saturday, hence the name chieng ngeso.
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DeleteJaluo Kenya, it seems to me that "Ngesa" comes from the Kiswahili word "ongeza".
ReplyDeleteYou are very correct, omin mar an (as the Acholi would say) Reginald Oduor my brother, 'ngeso' is from ongeza. In Dholuo to 'top up' or add is 'med' or 'pong'. However, the context in which the latter is used suggests fill up to the brim, not just add. We also have, 'bug' - which we use commonly in re-filling with soil, but figuratively and artistically could suggest a rather over-enthusiastic stuffing. Dholuo, like any other language, borrows words and concepts; this is not unique. There are times when I think that the drive to 'prove we had a word for it' is driven by a sense of feeling inferior or 'out-worded'. When judged current standards there are so many things that different language communities did not name because the were outside their experience. It did not make them less civilized, educated or human. For instance, the Luo never had a word for, snow because we did not need it. The Luo experience did not need to communicate about snow. We have words for rain - koth, drizzle - nyidho, for/mist - ong'weng'o, dew -tho and even hail - pe - a rather complex way of dealing with precipitation if you asked me. Language is functional and names are given to ideas, concepts and objects that exist. Coinage is acceptable as part of growth in language. In Kiswahili today we have words like 'Rununu', 'Tarakilishi', Runinga', 'Kiyoyozi' 'Foronya' so the language is growing and is by no means less important than any other. I have seen in a different forum someone ask what was the Dholuo word for Female Condom or Carburetor!
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