Otenyo and Moraa

I am Moraa wa Ng'iti, a healer of Kitutu, in Gusii land. And I will tell you what I saw.

When the strangers came to our hills with guns, they built a fort at Kisii, and told us we now belonged to them.

Then they raided our cattle camps and drove the herds away. Our cattle, our chiombe, were our wealth and our life.

So our young men grew angry, and they came to me.

I told them: do not bow to the strangers. I blessed each warrior, each omorwani, and sent them out to fight.

My nephew Otenyo led them.

At Manga, in January 1908, he faced the strangers' chief, the one we called Nyarigoti.

Otenyo raised his spear, his ritimo, and he threw it.

The spear struck him, but he lived. Because their chief was wounded, their soldiers came from Kisumu to punish us.

For a month they burned our homes and killed our people. I will not say a number, because no one counted ours.

To end the killing, our elders handed Otenyo over. The strangers tried him in the open, and shot him. They took his body away.

Then they came for me, the woman who blessed the warriors. They held me and hurt me, but I took back nothing.

When they let me go, I raised Otenyo's children.

It is 1929 now, and I am still here. Remember what I have told you.