Obama Follows In Luo Footsteps
By Akena p’Ojok
It has been a long time coming, Barack Obama
said on election night. He was right. The US President-elect has roots in a
long line of African kings and leaders of the Great River Nile Basin.
The world woke up to a great occurrence in
modern political history. Is it or is it not to be? The world watched and
waited with tears of joy and hope as well as tears of lost dreams.
It revealed itself fully on November 4. The
United States of America, the most powerful state in the world, was to have
its 44th president, and this time with a bang, with a difference. The 44th
president was to come from a different race, a race that has known nothing
than endurance, slavery and spoliation; and he was to be called by a strange
name ‘Barack Obama’.
The people of the US elected its first
African-American President. The subject of African resistance and heroism
has at last assumed its rightful historical place.
It has been long coming. Obama’s roots in
Africa can be traced to goat-breeders, yes! (But how many great and
excellent leaders have had very humble beginnings?) Obama’s roots can be
traced further to a cluster of a sub-set of African peoples who have social
and ethno-linguistic similarities called ‘Luo’ or ‘Lwo’.
The Luo-speaking peoples inhabit the Great
River Nile Basin which extends over 2,500 km from Gezira in the Sudan to
the eastern shores of Lake Victoria in Kenya and Tanzania; and 2,000 km
from Gambella in Western Ethiopia to Bahr-el-Ghazal in Western Sudan.
The Luo-speaking peoples have long produced
some of Africa’s great leaders in the past and in modern times in the Nile
Basin that might have been neglected by history. The Great Warrior King of
the Nile, Rath Nyikango of the Chollo (Shilluk) peoples at Pachodo whose
kingdom was ravaged by Turko-Egyptian expansion, slave trade and the
Mahdist wars is survived by his lineage Rath Kwongo Dak Padiet (1992) who
leads his people today.
The Great Warrior King Nyie Gillo, Ocwudho, who
founded the Anywaa (Anuak) Kingdom on the Nile tributary rivers
Sobat/Baro/Akobo, whose lineage is Nyie Akwei-wa-Cam and Agwaa Akwon, and
others have led their people to modern times. The kingdom’s people
eventually migrated southwards into present day Uganda. The Anywaa Kingdom
was devastated by wars, livestock raids and slave trade through Ethiopia
and colonialism.
At the same time there was a Great Migration of
the Luo-speaking peoples southwards along Bahr-el-Ghazal and through
Wau/Rumbek in the Sudan up the Nile outlet from Lake Albert at Pa’Kwach in
Alurland, where some sections established the Kingdom of Ukuru/Atyak (in
Uganda/Congo) and the royal lineage there was manifested in the late Rwoth
Ubimo Jobi II.
From settlements at Pa’Kwach, a royal clan
calling itself the ‘PaBiito’ crossed into Bunyoroland and made a subtle
entry into the leadership and established the ‘Ba’Biito’ Dynasty over
Bunyoro-Kitara. The first king of the Biito royal clan is remembered as
‘Rwoth’ Omukama Isingoma Mpuga Rukidi l Nyatworo.
The Biito Dynasty abolished the primitive and
backward caste system then practiced and established a society based on
egalitarian principles in which human beings were considered to have equal
birth rights. The people married freely and mixed and the population
increased rapidly. It introduced agriculture side by side with pastoral
livestock keeping.
It abolished the barbaric practice of
slaughtering princes at coronations and introduced the politics of
structured segmentation as a means of diffusing political tension in the palaces;
and expanding the kingdom.
As a consequence the Kingdom of Bunyoro-Kitara
grew into a powerful and prosperous dynasty that ruled over an area that
stretched from Lake Albert to the shores of Lake Victoria. The Royal Biito
Clan lineage is survived in the modern times by Omukama Kamurasi; the great
warrior king Kabalega who fought the British for 22 years; Tito Winyi II
and the incumbent King Omukama Gafabusa Iguru I.
The royal Biito clan established many separate
royal villages in the various communities, each with a core membership made
up of a particular sub-lineage of the ‘father royalty’ and a replica
administration of the ‘mother’ kingdom. They sent out royal princes to live
among the people they learnt to lead.
Prince Kimera Rukidi was sent out to ‘Entebbe’
in Buganda from where he succeeded in building a powerful kingdom for
himself, accumulated wealth, built an army and eventually declared himself
the King (Kabaka) of a separate kingdom known as present day Buganda. This
royal lineage is survived by King Kabaka Mwanga who also resisted British
colonisation, Sir Fredrick Mutesa who became the first President of
independent Uganda and the incumbent King Kabaka Ronald Muwenda Kimera
Mutebi II.
Another royal Biito Prince, Mukama ‘Namutukula’
of the ‘Baisengobi was sent to Busoga and established himself on Kagulu
Hill with the Balamogi. That line is survived by the incumbent Mulookis.
In the modern times, the young and ambitious royal Biito Prince Kaboyo was
sent to live in a royal village on the mountains of Tooro.
He quickly pronounced himself King Kaboyo Olimi
I of Tooro Kingdom, surprising his loving father Omukama Kyebambe III of
Bunyoro-Kitara. Omukama Kaboyo Olimi I is survived by the youngest King in
Uganda; King Omukama Oyo Nyimba Kabamba Iguru Rukidi IV, son of the late
Omukama P. Kaboyo Olimi VII.
Rwot Abok Awic of Payira lost his Rwotship to
the British.
The structured segmentation form of governance was at once the strength of
the Biito Dynasty but also its weakness and undoing.
The bulk of the Great Migration of the Luo-speaking peoples proceeded east
from Pa’Kwach and on the way established settlements of the ‘Kidibane’,
Lira, Kokolem, Jo’Padhola and finally settled as Ja’Luo on the eastern
shores of Lake Victoria in Kenya and Tanzania where they multiplied in
great numbers. This is the place where you may trace Obama’s nearest
relatives.
The Luo-speaking peoples have been progenitors
of these superb kings and leaders, and have of recent times also provided
modern religious leadership. Three of Uganda’s Anglican Archbishops,
were/are of Luo-speaking. They are; the Most Rev. Janani Luwum (martyred),
the late Most Rev. Yona Okoth (RIP), and the incumbent Archbishop the Most
Rev. Henry Luke Orombi.
Kenya’s first Kenyan Anglican Archbishop, the
Most Rev. Festo Olang’ was of fine Luo stock.
There is also a good array of Luo leaders in
modern politics. Dr A.M Obote was the first Prime Minister of
post-independence Uganda. He then became the second President after
President Kabaka Frederick Mutesa. Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, the well known
freedom-fighter, became Kenya’s first Vice President at independence. Other
distinguished leaders are Tom Mboya (assassinated) , Argwing K’Odek
(murdered), Robert Ouko (murdered), Oceng Oneko and now the Prime Minister
of Kenya, Rt. Hon. Raila Odinga.
Until the close of the colonial era it was
fashionable to portray Africans and their descendants everywhere as passive
and generally grateful recipients of the benefits of European authority and
systems. The struggle for freedom and equality in the Americas and the
Caribbean influenced events in the liberation movements in Africa and all
had the cumulative effect of decolonising the African mind and
historiography. It is worth invoking the spirit of some of Africa’s greats
in the liberation and freedom struggle; Kwame Nkurumah, Sekou Toure, Abdel
Nasser, Patrice Lumumba, Augustino Neto, Ahmed Ben Bella, Mwalimu Kabarage
Nyerere, Jomo Kenyatta and Nelson Mandela and more.
Given those prevailing conditions of struggle,
this array of leaders would tell you that to be a leader you must be strong
and courageous, have dignity in the face of adversity, benevolence in place
of cruelty, but also be charismatic, inspirational and spiritual. These are
some of the qualities that Obama, the ‘child of destiny’ exuded at all
times beside his natural compelling intelligence and oratory. He is an heir
to the struggle.
For the African-Americans, nothing could be
nearer a miracle than an African-American President of the USA. It has been
a process, a struggle in their new found land of collaboration without
submission. It is a change; it is a fresh hope for the future. It is a
fulfilled dream. High up in his mountain-top- of-hope, Martin Luther King
Jr may look down in wonderment and whisper to himself ‘Hallelujah, religion
should not be incongruent with change’, and return to his grave in peace.
The real ‘march’ has begun from oppression and
humiliation to freedom and performance. I can see the day when President
Obama would embrace Kabaka Kimera Mutebi and Omukama Oyo and Omukama Iguru
I, and whisper to each others ears and say, ‘Yes, it has been a long time
coming, brother. We have met, at last’.
The psychological impact of Obama on the African is yet to be fathomed.
Mr p’Ojok was minister of power, posts and
telecommunications in the Obote II government
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