This morning, I woke up reflecting on the rich proverbs and riddles in my mother language- Runyankole that I used to hear and learn when I was a little girl between five to ten years of age. When I reached office, I opened my computer and started typing a few proverbs and riddles I know from my head. As little girl, I used to like reading Runyankole Children books like Alifu, Rutaro na Kengoro among others. I remember, one day, while in Primary One, at Runengo Primary School, our class teacher Mrs Busingye, wrote on black board a Runyankole word for us to read and as you might know in the lower classes especially from Primary One up to Primary Three, pupils have a tendency of raising their hands irrespective of whether they know the right answer or not. (sometimes with great energy and enthusiasm) for the teacher to see and pick on them.
We all raised our hands to read the word several times, but we failed. Mrs Busingye gave us enough time of about fifteen to twenty minutes to reflect and re-read the word. When we were almost giving up, I raised my hand again like any other pupil and read the word correctly. I cannot remember it very well but it was something like Omugurusi which means an old man. Momentarily, noisy class went into loud silence and I took the show for that day and from then, I became the Celebrity of the Class. This is to show you how early, I learnt how to read and write Runyankole and my passion for it.
Another incident was when I was in Primary Two and it was during the examination period. It was a practice that during examination period, primary one and two pupils stay at school the whole day unlike during normal school time when they leave school at 1:00pm. It was after lunch and I was busy playing with my class mate and someone called me out and said that the teacher wanted to see. At first, I was scared and asked myself, what have I done? Then I went and reached their, I found my class teacher and few other teachers and female student who was in Primary four. Her name was Nora. She was a big girl with big breasts and I think she was around fourteen and fifteen years. Then they gave me a text in A Runyankole children’s book to read and I confidently and eloquently read it and after I heard my class teacher saying. I didn’t I tell you and I left. Little did I know that the girl could not read that text and my class teacher told her fellow teachers that she has a student in Primary two who can read that text. It is now that I reflect on that incident and imagine how humiliating it was for the big, primary four girl who could not read what a primary two pupil can read. I guest, the teachers must have insulted her and I feel bad about it. My parents were always proud of me and they used to give verses in Runyankore bible to read which eloquently read.
Today,my ever ending curiosity and desire to learn new things including Runyankole proverbs and riddles led me to a google search about Runyankole proverbs and guess what I found a Facebook page called Enfumu Zaitu.
The climax of it was opening the Enfumu Zaitu page and I find a post explaining a misconcept about my clan that has been bothering me since my childhood. I must say reading it was very exciting and heartwarming. I felt a thigh of relief and gained my self-confidence as a daughter of Abasingo because as I young girl, I used to hear people say that the whenever a Omugabe- the Ankole King wanted to spit, he would spit in a someone’s mouth and that person was from the Basingo clan. So, I used to feel bad about it to the extent of hating my clan and I could not imagine a King spitting his sputum in my great great great grandfather.
So the discovery of this explanation has overturned tables in my life and this is how it is explained on Enfumu Zaitu Pafacebook Page
In actual sense, Okucwerana omu kanwa n’okugamba ebirikushushana. (Spiting in someone’s mouth) was a ritual that symbolized the special relationship between Omugabe and the Basingo clan. Basingo were historically confidants and messengers of Omugabe. That is why they are called “Abashongore”, i.e. they were sharp, reliable and straight forward. Whenever a musingo messenger delivered omugabe’s message or directive, he would say “omugabe yaancweera omu kanwa” (Omugabe has spat in my mouth) meaning that the message was transmitted in full without distortion or deviation. At the time when messages were delivered by word of mouth, “spitting in the mouth” was simply a way of saying that Omugabe’s message was accurately conveyed to the intended recipient. Unfortunately, this figurative meaning was later on distorted to achieve political ends and has been unquestioningly swallowed by the younger generation
And truelly, I agree with the above explanation. Abasingo, we are very Sharp,Reliable and Straight. My father is exactly like this. For him, he will tell you the truth and will not hide anything from you. He is a very successful businessman and a Farmer who never saw the inside of the classroom.
