Reports By,Leo Odera Omolo
Elders from the Suba community have launched their own Council of Elders, which a spate entity from the power struggle ridden Luo Council of Elders.
The new Council of Elders has already been registered by the registrar of the societies.
Its members comprises of elders from Mfangano and Rusinga Island region within Mbita district. Others are from Gwasi and Kakisingiri regions within the Gwassi district. Other members come from Lambwe and Gembe locations on the mainland..
The group’s interim officials are as follows. Mzee Apollo Okeyo Omuga is the chairman with, Ex-Senior Chief Thomas Okang’a of Gwasii as the Vice chairman. The secretary is Samuel Oketch while vice secretary is Nicholas Ouma Ajwang’. The group’s treasurer is Mzee Asher Abonyo Ochieng’. Nicholas Ouma Ajwang’.
Speaking at Mbita point Mzee Okeyo Omuga explained that the aims and objectives of the new group is to restore the Suba language which is fast vanishing and to press hard for the language to be taught in all schools located in the Suba community dominated from class one to class four.
The group, He said is very much concerned that the Suba culture and tradition is being diluted and concocted with the Luo culture, and yet the two communities have their own way of life, although there has been a lot of intermarriage between them.
The group has cited the politically infested Luo Council of Elders as a discredited organization which can no longer work for the welfare of the Suba people. But its members are free to maintain their individual membership of any political party of their choice.
Mzee Okeyo said that his group is also going to liaise with the national vernacular radio stations to ensure that Suba programmes are aired regularly on those stations. It will do so by way of sponsoring Suba language in other stations including those airing mainly Luo programmes.
Suba language is dying fast and it is only spoken in patches of land around Kakisingir, Gwassi and Mfangano Island. Most people, especially the current generation preferred Dho-Luo and the majority of the younger people do not understand. So the group want this language revitalized and restored for the future generation.
The group says it will sponsor a series of cultural events in the WSu8ba inhabited areas like Muhuru Bay and Suna Migori, just for the purpose of promoting and reviving the Suba language.”We shall press hard and even work hard to sensitize the Suba Language and ensure it is taught in primary schools from Standard one to four and even books published in that language. We shall encourage others and sponsor more people of Suba origins to write books so that the language is stored for the future generation.
The committee members are also drawn from Gwassi, Kakisingiri, Mfangano and Rusinga Islands,Gember and Lambwe locations.
Ends
leooderaomolo@yahoo.com
I am a pure Suba myself with parents on both mothers and fathers side able to speak suba fluently, but none of our 7 siblings aged between 25 and 45 years can speak the language. we must admit that the forces of assimilation have worked against this language and has rendered it socially, academically and commercially unviable.
Its wrong for the Okeyo Omuga group to want to force this language on the current generation by introducing it in lower primary. Who tells them that all children who attend primary school in Suba are Subas anyway? If a language is useful for commerce, religion or other social functions, then people will struggle to acquire and master it, but we cannot resist culture change.
I call myself Luo-Abasuba to capture my double culture and heritage. I care less what Okeyo Omuga and his group says. they are just positioning themselves for political rewards and attention
Abasuba Council of Elders was formed earlier than being reported here to among other things manage partnership with the Abasuba Peace Museum. The insinuation that it it a splinter council of elders from that of the Luo council of elders gives a false impression that its formation is as a result of the recent issues of leadership in the Luo Council of Elders.
Both the Abasuba Council of Elders and Luo Council of Elders should continue with their noble activities for the mutual benefit of all.
Language is an important aspect in the life of an individual and without it a person cannot express himself or herself culturally, socially, politically and even economically. Therefore if the Suba people are pressing for their language to be restored, this is a need that even their political leaders should take with a lot of seriousness. Tell me!, who can one lead people who have lost their identity to other people. According to me it is not logical to claim that you are a leader of such a such people yet you (yourself) identify yourself with another group altogether. I am not campaigning for division but what we should uphold as Kenyans is that all of us are equal be the eyes of God and therefore there is no culture or language should be taken as superior than the other one.
The Abasuba council of Elders is something important just to begin with. sincerely speaking God created different cultures with a purpose and anyone who does not see the logic behind being proud of his or her culture i can say he or she is brainwashed and blinded. Why would someone, for heaven’s sake be proud of other people’s culture and forsake his or her culture?If you know the kind of person you are, you cannot afford to just see being assimilated like that! please my fellow brothers is high time we arise and preserve our culture and language.
It is campigning period and politicians are moving up and down trying to win votes from their constituents whom some of them have not been bothered about for the past four years. I would like to be helped here, can humanity live without a culture? Our leaders need this time round to come up with sure strategies to convince that they are representing the Abasuba in the parliament too. Even though culture is dynamic, but as African, we still embrace communal culture and this communal culture should be respected by people especially who have been brought up in it. Practically, a person is first known by his or her local identity and that is why leaders first seek acceptance from their local own people before one shows up to the his or her nation. In a nutshell, the Abasuba council Elders deserved to be heard and this issue of language death(Okombo andFranz 1986) be addressed with agency.We cannot ignorantly abandon our identity as Abasuba and we abhor being refer as Luo-Abasuba, no tribe in Kenya is so-identify with a compound noun or name—I beg to be corrected if there is any!!!
Those calling themselves luo-suba I guess are experiencing identity crisis. I mean, how can you be Luo and Suba at the same time. Anyways, Ekisuuna dialect spoken by the suba bordering Kuria of Renchoka sub-tribe near the Tanzania border is even more threatened with extinction. Since a lot of literature available is based the dialects spoken in Mfangano and Rusinga Islands which really sounds more like luganda. Ekisuuna sounds more like egikuria a fact that can be attested by the resemblance of names.
OLUSUBA (SUNA)- EGIKURIA
Ong’anyi- Meng’anyi’
Nyabori- Nyaburi
Matiku- Matiko
Nyangi- Nyangi
Gathi- Gati
If you are involved in Suba Language research, I can gladly point you to various old men that I know personally and who speak ekisuuna fluently
Awifu tureke okuisemerezia ne tuimanyire geza.Olusuba lwatanika okulanziwua mu KBC omwigo ogwa 1993 kugere okutuzia olusuba lutateka ne entambuko ki eya awasuba wamire okutola kugere okuwona mbwa amagalusio amalungi gatukrana?Omgaka Omuga taa amaani amaangi ku entewe yao eyo aeniki nigo gaesa okutuzia awasuba,otaza wawa noofisi eula na amaani ata nekuniga okuingira mu ofisi enene eya gavana naamba omkulundu Uhuru Kenyatta kola otio.
Endagano empia eya olusuba yaziulwa kumwigo ogwa 2010 ,mberi tugisoma namba tukia soma mana oluswanya?Igereara eria olusuba muwiskuli okuemra mu clasi 1-4 ni ilungi ino ne oza okutuzia okuwona mbwa gano gagowerezwa nanu awifuu?Omgaka Omuga no ofisi yao emirimo gino giona ne eginyu mute amaani tuza okuwalonda n’goora!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!