Come home, come to Kigezi.
Come home, come to Kigezi.
we shall greet you with a frothing mug
ofthe sorghum drinkobushera.
and if that alone will not quell your thirst,
we then shall add you the better brew, muramba.
Come home, come to Kigezi.
Come listen to herder boys’ whistles
when at twilight they bring in livestock from the fields.
At night you will sit in circles around kikoome fires
on stools carved from the Ekiko tree
And listen to the enanga player sing,
skillfully plucking the strings of that zither.
To hear him sing will cull tears in your eyes
for he knows tales, the enanga player.
he sings of valor, of love, and of death.
He sings of Ruyooka, the hero of the Bahimba
Who, single-handed, defeated an enemy clan
only to die, alas, of an arrow through his heart
shot at him by crippled leper.
He sings, too, of Kabugu ka Mwera,
the maiden who having failed to get a husband
drowned herself and thus ended her grief.
O come home, come to Kigezi!
And tell us; Let us know you are coming.
For then we shall select good bulls to slaughter
and also compose a song to welcome you.
We shall dance brandishing spears in the air,
stepping hard upon the earthen floors
till the ground will shatter beneath our feet
for our land breeds only strong men.
Come home, and come to Kabale.
You will see the sun set beyond the hills
drawing a red stripe across their outline
as if a giant fire smolders behind them in the west—
only those hills, the hills of Kabale,
they require a poet of their own.
They should be praised in full,
their fascination goes for more than a line or two.
They are clothed in much impressive mosaic
of gardens of sorghum and beans,
and stand close together, like siblings!
Come visit us, come to Kigezi;
O! and if indeed you come to Kabale,
forget not in your hurry to ask
of the stammering old man Omugurusi Karwemera.
Ask anybody you meet along the road
for none walks in Kabale and yet knows him not.
He is a good orator, the great old man,
He speaks only in idiom and metaphor.
Its from him that you will know
The secrets and history of our land.
So do visit home, visit Kigezi
And come not alone, bring the white men too:-
For they too should know
Of the great land that breeds only strong men.
By Hillary Kuteisa
Presented by Johnson Mujungu at the ICOB 2011 Convention in London UK July 28-31
Hillary Kuteisa is a 23-year-old student of chemistry at Makerere University, a
poet, a former troublemaker at Kigezi College Butobere, and a brother of Nkozi.
Phone +256 773717071; Email [email protected], [email protected]; Facebook
http://facebook.com/ssshlary
With Kind Regards,
Johnson Mujungu
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