Ker Obama

[I wrote this piece about four years ago, but never posted it -- partly because it remains in many ways incomplete. I have made very few changes since 2009, most of them in fact happening today. Obama's second inauguration ceremony has come around, and is on-going right now. The swearing in and the singing and the speeches are done. Beyonce sang. Lunch's done. Obama's motorcade is driving by the cheering, massed crowds -- at the pace of the Secret Agents walking beside the limousine. Then parade time. A few weeks ago I decided to publish Ker Obama as is just before or on the official second inauguration day (January 21, 2013). So here we go].

Before we do so, however, let me add this: Since I posted this piece, Uhuru Kenyatta has been duly elected the Fourth President of Kenya. He is the son of Kenya's First Prime Minister and First President, Jomo Kenyatta. His main rival was Raila Amolo Odinga, Kenya's Second Prime Minister and second son of Kenya's First Vice President, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga. 

In the afternoon of March 9, 2013, when Uhuru Kenyatta was officially announced the winner of the Presidential contest, there were two rainbows over Nairobi, which were duly noted in the social media, but without noteworthy commentary. On April 9th, the electronic media spotted a single rainbow in the vicinity of Moi International Stadium, the venue of Uhuru Kenyatta's inauguration. However, what caught media attention in Kenya in the run up to the inauguration was the buzz from Uganda, in which it was claimed that the new President was "one of our own" -- a member of a family tree rooted firmly in Uganda. The current Omukama of Bunyoro-Kitara sent Uhuru Kenyatta warm congratulations upon his electoral victory. The hope was that he, Uhuru Kenyatta, would visit Bunyoro-Kitara in the near future -- just as his own father had done years ago after he had become Kenya's President. The Guest-of-Honour at Uhuru Kenyatta's inauguration was, coincidentally, the President of the Republic of Uganda, Yoweri Kaguta Museveni. A new way of looking at ethnic identities thus quietly began, I believe, to impose itself upon East Africans. A motivation to look again at, and re-interpret, the extant historical evidence quietly stirred as well. All these happenings have required the addition of a few names to the pantheon below, and will surely add truly surprising twists to the region's (and in a particular way Kenya's) political, historical and cultural/identity narratives. The additions are in bold italics. So, let's go.

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On January 20th 2009, at noon EST exactly -- even as we waited for the swearing-in which we had all along understood would mark the singularity of a moment -- Ker Obama became, as quietly as it was perhaps intended and with clock-work certainty, the 44th (and the first Luo, the first Nilotic as well as the first African-American) President of the United States of America.

It was a good thing that it finally happened, though we had known for at least 76 days (since November 4th) that it would. And it is a good thing that America, and the world, has a leader it thoroughly deserves, in the best sense of the word.

There was perhaps less copious evidence of "bitter" tears of sad memory on January 20th than there had been late in the night of November 4th. On that earlier date, there had been much suspense, as the sometimes uncertain results streamed in; but yesterday there was only anticipation -- pure anticipation marred only by the nagging fear that something might go horribly wrong at the eleventh hour, at the very moment of initiation, to wrench this singular prize from the hands of the celebrants. Something did go wrong -- the oath was 'botched' -- but it wasn't horrible. That was not among the horrors that had been feared, though it left a lingering discomfort of spirit.

Anticipating the historic moment we were all waiting for, Philip Ochieng, that great columnist, had proclaimed in his column -- titled "The pride of a people: Barack Obama, the Luo" -- which had appeared in the Sunday Nation of January 18th, 2009 (page 16) that Obama, because his victory was so great and because it was achieved in a land so far away, now occupied, indisputably, the very top position in the pantheon of Nilotic Kers and heroes. And he gave us a long and dazzling alphabetical list of this unique group, this crop, with some utterly surprising inclusions.

I list the pantheon below, but briefly touch on only some, leaving the rest as names because (a) they (the starred ones) are more familiar to many adults who call the lands of the Great Lakes home, and to many others, or (b) because I am confounded and rendered speechless by their inclusion -- or (c) because I don't yet have something I find meaningful to say about them. An unfinished quest, then, among other quests -- about the bitter-sweet truth of an "irresistible, awful, marvelous people"

Adhola*:

Aeneas: I am personally puzzled that Ochieng would consider Aeneas a Nilotic, patently by virtue of being an ancient Egyptian. To my mind, even tracing Aeneas' roots to Egypt seemed a real stretch. What many of us with some knowledge of ancient epics remember is that Aeneas, as in Vergil's Aeneid, is squarely associated with the founding of Rome -- and has firm Trojan/Roman/Latin roots. But, upon some reflection and search, I think I know where Ochieng is coming from -- how his ideas of Aeneas have formed, and not just recently. His take on Obama is simply an opportunity to articulate, in a new context, a long-held view.

I think his historical evidence and orientation have the same foundations as the view expressed in this passage:

The earliest Greek & Roman gods were all Black, including the Trojan heroes!
The early Greek-Roman gods & goddesses such as Apollo, Zeus, Hercules,
Athena, Venus, were all Black, being renditions of the Black Egyptian gods. The
historian Herodotus himself wrote that "the names of nearly all the gods came to
Greece from Egypt." The Aeneid, like the Illiad, Odyssey and all the other great
epics of the world, is a poetic story ealing with Black people! Aeneas, the
Trojan hero of Virgil's Aeneid, was in direct descent from Dardanus, theAfrican
founder of Troy (Source: Click here ).

The more conventional renditions of Greek and Roman mythologies are indeed agreed that Dardanus and Aeneas are related, as Trojans.

Ausonius:

Cadmus: Mythology's very inventor of writing),

Cain: Adam's son, Abel's brother

Danaos:

Delphos: The pre-eminent hero of the oracle at Delphi

Gor Mahia*:

Hesy: (source: click here 1; )

Imhotep: That multi-tasked genius of the ancient world who was, among other great things, Hippocrate's mentor.

Jaramogi Odinga*: Kenya's first Vice President and icon of opposition politics in East Africa

Kabalega [Omukama Cwa II Kabalega (1869-1923)]: He, of Luo blood, was the king of Bunyoro-Kitara (in present-day Uganda) and a freedom-fighter against British hegemony in the Protectorate of Uganda. He was captured on April 9 1899 (exactly 114 years to Uhuru Kenyatta's inauguration) and exiled to Kenya and then the Seychelles, an absence of 23 years. Though eventually 'released' to return home, he never reached home alive. Click here for an account of the intrigues, betrayal and rebellion, involving various players – kings, princes, governments, and government representatives -- that led to Kabalega's capture. [Click here for another account.] 

Uganda's media claim, with some support from de-classified information from the British government, that while in exile in Kenya, Ker Kabalega was under the care of a Kikuyu 'nurse', and that he fathered a child with her -- and that this child, his look-alike, is known to the world as Jomo Kenyatta, Kenya's First President. Uhuru Kenyatta, by this account, is therefore Ker Kabalega's grandson. Wait: Might the lovely lady on page 26 of this next link – next to wounded Ker Omukama Cwa II Kabalega -- be the much-talked-about Wambui, mother of the late President Jomo Kenyatta? [Ooooops, someone made Wambui's iconic picture disappear from that link!] View Images of Jomo Kenyatta's Bunyoro heritage

Kenyatta, Jomo (1889/1893/1899/1901? - 1978): According to a State House website,  Jomo Kenyatta was born in 1889. His father was called Muigai and his mother Wambui. His father died in 1896, and his mother was inherited by Muigai's younger brother -- Ngengi. Other accounts suggest later dates, and also  that not even Kenyatta knew his real date of birth. There were no records in those days, and Kenyatta's parents were illiterate. That's the official line. What seems certain is that Ngengi was not Jomo's father, but the step-father. Ugandan commentators look at the picture-likeness between Kenyatta and Kabalega, and insist that Kabalega was the father to the man. British records are said to give a winking nod to this view -- which is strongly shared .by the royal folks in Bunyoro-Kitara, whom Jomo Kenyatta visited while head of state on at least one occasion. READ: When Kenyatta was crowned as King of Bunyoro


Kenyatta, Uhuru (26th October 1961 - ): He became the Fourth President of the Republic of Kenya, on April 9, 2013, having won the elections of March 4th, 2013. His term runs for five years. He will be eligible for election for another five-year term in 2018.

Labongo', aka Isingoma Mpuga I Rukidi (c. AD 1500): He, who was a descendant of Omuchwezi Kyoma and whose mother it is said was a Luo, was the Founder, by invitation (following the sudden and unceremonious departure/abdication/flight of the Chwezi rulers), of the Babiito Dynasty of the Bunyoro-Kitara Empire (in present-day Uganda), and forefather of Omukama Cwa II Kabalega. This dynasty has, with a minor break in post-independence Uganda, ruled Bunyoro-Kitara to this day. Babiito means "Children of the bito tree." Labongo' had a twin brother, who it is said founded the Buganda Kingdom. Remember Nairobi's Twin Rainbows of March 9th, 2013? Media reports have it that Uganda's President Museveni, in the midst of a spat with the current Kabaka of Uganda, and perhaps reminding himself of Labongo's twin-brother and Founding Father of Buganda Kingdom, derisively referred to the Kabaka as a Luo. So it goes. [READ: A Thousand Years of Bunyoro-Kitara Kingdom.]

Luanda Magere*

Mboya, Tom*: The tragic hero of modern Kenya's political history

Memnon: It is not clear which Memnon Ochieng had in mind. There are at least three Nilotic possibilities: 1. Saint Memnon The Wonderworker, who was an Egyptian saint of the early years of Christendom. I doubt that this is the one. 2. Amenhotep III, whose twin statues near Luxor are commonly known as the Collosi of Memnon. Amenhotep III fathered at least two sons with his Great Queen Tiye -- Crown Prince Tuthmose and Akhenaten, the latter who succeeded him and who is much admired by all generations that have followed history and studied culture. They also had several, perhaps four, daughters, one of whom had the glorious name Isis -- and two of whom ended up, convolutedly, being his "Royal Wives." Only the ancients could rationalize such twists and turns. But Queen Tiye is also known as the mother of a force even greater than her sons, daughters and her earthly Pharaoh combined -- monotheism itself: the singular idea that there is no God but God. I think this is the one -- should be the one. 3. Ramesses II, for whom two collosal statues were erected at Thebes in Egypt. One of these is commonly referred to as The Younger Memnon.

Menes: Variously called Aha, Mena, Meni, Min, Scorpion and even Narmer, he was the founding father and First Pharaoh of a unified Egypt. He lived around c. 3000 BCE

Nyikang'o:

Owiny:

Pelasgus: In Greek mythology, he was the first inhabitant and first king of Arcadia, having introduced a human way of life there. There he gave refuge to Danaos and his followers, when they fled from Aegyptus -- the individual who, as the myth goes, gave Egypt its name. Where did Pelasgus come from, in order to settle in Arcadia?

Tito Winyi (1924-1967): Kabalega's successor as Omukama of Bunyoro-Kitara

The Black Pharaohs of Egypt:

Piye

Shabaka

Taharqa


[Updates: April 20-21, 2013; March 1, 2018]