THE TRADITIONAL RAINFALL INDICATORS USED TO MONITOR AND PREDICT RAINFALL IN KENYA

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TRADITIONAL RAIN MAKING

“Rainmaking is still” prevalent among some communities of Kenya. In this study, some rainmakers were involved. In this study, discussions were held with the Nganyi Rain Makers Association and the individual rainmakers in Suba District.

The Traditional “Rain Making” among the Abaluhya of Bunyore in Vihiga District

The notable rain makers in Bunyore are the Nganyi family. Members of the Nganyi clan are renowned rainmakers among the Abaluya and the Luo communities. The capability to make rain is inherited in the family. The group Nganyi elders indicated that they can make rain, stop rain and even use rain to punish those who have no respect for them. They have an exclusive forest a shrine where a huge snake, used as an indicator of moisture levels in the atmosphere, lives. The shrine has particular tall trees, which are used to monitor and predict rain. The Nganyi rainmakers have mastered the winds and associate good and bad rainfall seasons with particular wind direction.

Fig.5:Prof. Laban A Ogallo-DMCN Project Coordinator(Third from left) and Dr Joseph R Mukabana-Director KMD(Sixth from left) during a visit to the forest shrine of the Nganyi rain makers.

The Nganyi elders indicated that prayers to their ancestors precedes the rainmaking process. Sometimes during the rain-making, the wind calms and changes direction to a source favorable for rainfall occurrence in the area. The rainmakers use nature to monitor and choose an appropriate time to make rain. A visit to the shrine of Nganyi and discussions with elders who are the heads of the rainmakers association, revealed that the tradition is still very popular in the community

The rain making facilities included:

• Sacred trees
• 3 stones
• Special rain herbs
• A hole
• A chicken
• A sheep
• A pot
• Water
• A goat
• Reeds

To make rain, the Nganyi group would:

• Wake up early in the morning and go to the secluded Nganyi forests (sacred shrines) and sit under traditional trees and begin praying by invoking their ancestral rain makers facing the Nganyi hills.
• Place three stones under the tree after prayers
• Collect the herbs.
• Place a pot in the hole and put a chicken or sheep/goat meat together with the herbs ( which they ceremonize with invoking their ancestors and later eat)
• Use special reeds to blow into the concoction in the pot.
• Send either a virgin girl to the river who would draw the water for making rain, walk home naked while carrying water in a pot without a supporting ring. The girl should be below puberty age and should never look back as she is carrying the water to the shrine lest she is struck by a bad omen. This girl would later be rewarded by being given a chicken or goat.
  • Put this water into a ceremonial pot.
  • Use reed pipe to suckle and blow the water inside the pot.
  • Pray from 2.00 – 3.00 p.m and be checking inside the pot for changes in colours of the bubbles.The following colours of water bubbles from the pot shall be a indicator for the intensity of the rains:
    • Þ Red – they forecast there will be a problem
    • Þ White – Normal Rains
    • Þ Black – Abnormal rains.

The shrines are preserved and no wood can be cut or collected from the place. The belief is that the wood from the shrine can bring a bad omen to the family and community. This contributes to environment conservation.

Traditional Rain Making Among the Abasuba Community.

In Suba District, we interviewed people involved in rain aking. They included Mama Dorcas, Mr Barack Thango Mino and Mr. Adiel.

Rain maker - Mama Dorcas

Mama Dorcas was born in 1928. She inherited the power of “rain making” from her parents who died when she was a very young girl. She also has the power of healing and preventing bad omen. When the area experiences some dry season, she has to be contacted and persuaded so that she can talk to the ancestral spirits for good luck to come. After talking and applying some herbs (concoction) she has to wait for some days (about two weeks) and during this period the only sign or indicator experienced is a very warm night and sweating. After all this waiting there must be some rainfall. She also claims to have the power of stopping rainfall at any given time. She can just uproot whatever she planted and the rain stops right away. She also has the power to stop lightning.

Fig.6a:Mama Dorcas from a side view.

Fig.6b:Mama Dorcas in a rain making regalie from a back View.

In order for her to make rains or control lighting strikes a group of elders must gather together and pay her some price (normally a cow or money) Her medicine is then applied in the area where the meeting is held.To make rain sometimes involves planting a specific plant (herb). The herbs have to be placed in a place where the old men in that area agreed. When doing this all the women and children in that area must avoid being in that place. The procedure is as follows:

• She comes with the medicine (concoction) and she has to send someone to fetch water using a pot or plastic container. When the individual is going to fetch water, she/he is not allowed to look back until she/he reaches the lake/well.
• After fetching the water he/she is not allowed to look back until he/she reaches the shrine.
• After delivering the water to the shrine, the rainmaker has to apply the medicines before the crowd that is composed of the most respected old men in the community. When doing this, a very holy calf must be slaughtered for the group to celebrate without cooking ugali (a form of bread resulting from a mixture of water and maize/millet flour).
• The goat meat has to be roasted and eaten there without any piece being carried home. Application of the herbs has to be done by the rainmaker herself. When she is applying the herbs someone must have a hollow pine. Normally, they use a hollow reed to blow that water until they see some bubbles with some signs of the rainbow. At this point, the rainmaker has to talk loud to the spirit of the ancestors and the same time continue to apply the herbs, which include green leaves of a particular plant and a black concoction.
• After doing, this everyone is supposed to go back home with the hope of seeing rain within three days.
• Within those three days the rainmaker experiences a very warm night and sweat breaks out on her body the whole night. When the sun rises, she feels no sweat and this has to repeat itself for three consecutive days until it rains on the third day.
• Mama Dorcas also indicated that she can stop lightening. In order to accomplish this fit, Individuals must offer some money for their homes not be struck by lightning. This she does by planting a preventive medicine in the middle of that home and some on top of every house including granaries. After this exercise there is assurance that no lightening would not strike that home including all living things in the home.

 

The Rainmaker - Mr. Barack Thango Mino

Another Rainmaker interviewed is Mr. Barack Thango Mino. He was born in 1918. He was the third born in the family. He inherited the power to make rain from his father who was well known in the area. He said that his father got this power from the Lake Victoria. The father was a farmer and when he was going to the lake he heard a voice coming from the Lake. When he looked he saw a floating calabash and as he approached the calabash, he heard another voice telling/encouraging him to pick it.He picked up the calabash and took it home. The very night the strange calabash started talking and the father felt hot the whole night. The next day he invited traditional medicine men to his home who revealed to him the power in that calabash. When he picked up the calabash, some black concoction spilled and placed him in the middle of the calabash.

Mr Mino claimed he had the power to bring rain even if there were no signs of rain. In order to do this, he must be offered some cash that range from ten thousand (KSh. 10,000) to twenty thousand (KSh.20,000) plus a bull. After this offer, he applies the medicine using the same methods used by Dorcas . This includes sending someone to fetch water using a pot from the house of the old man and the person carrying the pot is not allowed to look back from the house to the lake/well and the same after collecting water where he/she is not allowed to look back until he/she reaches the (shrine) where the rainmakers is offering his sacrifices. This is usually done on top of a hill. Here, the traditional rainmaker has to talk clearly with the spirits of the ancestors while having a very good sight/view of the area where they need rainfall.

During the time he is talking to the ancestral spirits someone has to be blowing the pot with a pipe to bring bubbles. Some rainbow must appear in the bubbles. Placed in the pot some medicines, put there by this rainmaker. In his case, no cow has to be slaughtered. Mr. Thango sprinkles the medicine/herbs in the surrounding area using the inherited calabash. After doing all this, all the elders go back to their homes expecting a very heavy down pour. Mr. Thango has to experience a very hot night and the following morning he feels nothing. This has to go on for some days before it rains and immediately it does the rainmaker must be paid the price they agreed on with the old men (elders) including the bull. After this the rains continued pouring until the whole area gets a heavy harvest. Mr. Thango said that he also has the capacity to stop rainfall. He may stop the rain if the payment agreed is not honoured.
When he predicts a dry season, he has to talk to the elders of the community about it so that they can look for ways of appeasing the ancestral spirits who give him the unique powers.

It can also happen when the rainmaker feels that something is wrong in the community. He can offer some herbs and plant them in a particular area so that when it is raining in some areas this place will not experience any rainfall. The area elders confirmed this.

When this happens the community has to call a meeting to discuss where this bad omen comes from.

When the meeting is called everybody has to attend, including women, so that solutions can be found. The area Chief or his Assistant, depending on the affected areas, can sometimes call the meeting. People have to testify before the elders. It may be they have wronged, the rainmaker or not. If they find that the rainmaker has been wronged they settle the issue. They will then persuade the rainmaker and urge him to forgive the one who wronged him.
Mr. hango also has the power of preventing lightning which some times strikes homes, people and animals leaving them dead. He can offer this to individuals who pay him some money for that kind of. The charges range from five hundred to two thousand shillings. It depends on how many things (living) you may want to from this bad omen.

This he does by applying some black concoction from the gate of that home to the houses in that home including the sleeping places goats, cows, sheep and chicken

After that he has to plant another powerful herb in the middle of the home and at the gate where all the livestock pass when they are going to graze.
After this kind of powerful application, they do not expect lighting to strike anything in that home.

The rainmaker - Mr. Adiel

Mr. Adiel was born in 1907. He was the first-born in a family of ten; four boys and six daughters. He also indicated that he inherited this power from his father who had powers of bringing and preventing rainfall in the area from years back until now.

He says that his powers must be respected at all cost. A lamb has to be slaughtered every beginning of the year to appease the powers throughout the year. When the area experiences some dry season for some months he has to be contacted and even paid money or a calf. Sometimes a ploughing bull, as they call it, is given to him so that luck can come back to the community. By doing this, he comes with all his powers which he claimed are not to be kept in the house for reasons well known to himself, which he refused to divulge at any cost claiming they were his secret weapons.

The first thing he does is to talk to the elders of that area. After that, he needs to have a container (preferably a pot), plastic container plus some traditional brew called busaa.

This beer made from fermented millet or finger millet must be poured in that container. He then mixes it with his herbs plus some black concoction. He starts talking to the ancestral spirits in a shrine called (KAR MISANGO shrine where only some selected elders are invited to witness everything including blowing of the mix in the container that is made up of fermented finger millet or millet. He prefers finger millet but will use millet if the finger millet is not available. The mixture of millet and dark concoctions is blown using a reed. When he blows that pot someone must be ready with medicine called MANYASI in a calabash. When some bubbles form from the blowing, he has to spread the mixture all over that shrine. This person is supposed to know all the stages from the beginning to the end and if he does not and the indicator is the one to coach him.

After all these sacrifices the rainmaker including the elders at that shrine must slaughter a sheep which they have to eat right at the shrine and travel back home without looking behind.

And if everything was performed in the right manner, those who went to the shrine must experience a very hot and sweaty night. That is the indication of a very heavy down pour, which is to be expected within three or four days. If this does not happen, the traditional rainmaker must repeat his sacrifice until the area experiences some rainfall. After the first sign of rainfall, he must be paid all his remaining balances, which includes a bull.

After that the whole area may experience rainfall until they get a bumper harvest as he claimed. Mr. Adiel says that sometimes his own area experiences a very dry season and he cannot use his powers unless he is paid something. This is when he can rescue his own community.

He says sometimes, he is invited to go as far as Kisii to perform his powers of rainmaking. This people pay him a good sum of money and they feel satisfied because they get enough rainfall. He has also the capacity to prevent lightening strikes if requested.

When lightening strikes a home, a person, a cow or any other living thing in a particular compound the owner must call him. Before they skin a stricken animal, he must apply his herbs so that this animal can be skinned and eaten.

But if they eat this animal without him applying his medicine on the meat then this bad omen will follow everyone in that family and before they die they will witness this bad omen repeating itself in that family, he said. He applies his powers by using the ancestral spirits and the same time spreading the concoction around the fence of that home.

He also claimed he can prevent the lightening from striking a house using the same methods with the different herbs (medicines)
To stop rainfall, he uses a small dry stick, which he said was powerful. He can place it outside and the rain stops immediately until he is paid something to appease the ancestors. Without this, the area, or a given area for that matter, will not experience any rainfall until they give out offerings that must include a small calf and some money.

If Mr. Adiel the rainmaker has an exchange of bitter words with someone within the community he can plant that medicine so that the area experiences a very dry season. If debtors do not pay his dues, he may apply his concoction that the community, does not see a drop of rainfall unless he gets his payment.