ABANYALA BA KAKAMEGA: The Concept of Curses

Among the Abanyala, a curse is called esilaamo. Esilaamo is viewed as a 'skillfully' expressed ritualistic ill wish which leads to consequences. The Abanyala's phobia for esilaamo still remain indispensable. It is believed that esilaamo affects the target person or the person's children even if that person doe not believe in it.

A curse is meant to threaten in order to prevent ills in society and not to harm. A curse can only be potent towards the target person if three conditions are fulfilled:

1. The one cursing has the cursing advantage over the other: special social or blood connection with the one being cursed. Curses can be done either by an individual or by a social group as a ritual. 
2. The one being cursed is in the wrong and has had prolonged or serious provocation- situaton igniting a curse is not out of jealous, malice or uncalled for emotions.
3. The one being cursed took no precautions to prevent the curse- after knowing the curse was being brooded.

A] THOSE WITH POWERS TO PROCLAIM A CURSE.
a) Blood relatives with power to curses.
There are specific blood relatives who possessed a natural potent power to curse. They can curse using their private parts, breasts, pubic hair and via deathbed pronouncements. Those who have potent curses towards a person and/or the person's children are:

1. Biological parents- this was the most potent curse in life.
2. Parternal and maternal aunt
3. Parternal and maternal uncle
4. Parternal and maternal grand parents
5. Parternal and maternal great-grandparents
6. Elder brother upon the death of biological parent.

b) Curses from non blood relatives. 
Some non blood relatives have the potent power of pronouncing a curse.

1. Your step parents- Any person who culturally lives with your mother becomes your father and whoever lives with your father is your mother. A curse from step mother who got maried to your father before your were born or step father who sires a child with your mother remained disastrous as long as your father was still alive. Also, if your step parent participates in cooking for you during circumcion or participates in cooking echio during your wedding, then she acquires the power to proclaim the curse on your children. 
2. In-laws related curses- There were specific in-laws whose curses were feared for they affected ones children: ones mother-in-law, father-in-laws and  uncle-in-law.  For example, a mother was not send to bring back her newly eloped daughter since her pronouncements were valid curses to the girl and the boy. The curse affected your children.
3. Ceremony linked curses- A person could acquire cursing advantage over the other based on some ceremonies they helped to perform in the life of the person. The ceremony gave the bridging link on which the curse hinged. 

• Curse by man chairing a meeting during a shaving ceremony- During a shaving ceremony, the chairperson for the session of olufu has powers to proclaim a curse using his walking stick called ekhendie got from a tree called omukhendie.
• Circumcisors- people who circumcised a given boy got powers to curse their clients in life. This could only be brocken by giving them a chicken after circumcision. 

• The midwife- whoever helped ones mother to deliver gained some mild cursing advantage over the child in life until time of first initiation. It was made ineffective by giving them a chicken after finishing their work.

• Mudding at circumcision time- Whoever mudded or poured water on a boy before circumcision (omumani) came to posses the cursing advantage against the boy in relation to circumcision issues up to the time you graduate from childhood. It was made impotent by giving him a chicken.

  

  Mudded circumcision candidate

• Leader in ceremonial instalation- whoever was given opportunity to adminster blessings over a person during a ceremonial installation function could also deliver a potent curse to his client in relation to the leadership.

c) Situation based curse power

1. Virginity breakers- A cunning elderly man who breaks a girl's virginity acquired the power to command a potent curse to that girl's children incase he get access to and keeps her viginal blood. This why girls are warned to be careful with elderly lovers. At times, the first menstrual blood is jealously guarded such that nobody uses it to invoke this curse.
2. Curse caused by sucking each other's breasts or manhood- This curse is called the curse of esikhombo. It arises if one sucks on said parts while pronouncing some swear words. This usually affects the children to be born. To date, those involved in such acts are advised to be careful such that no swear words come out from their partner.
3. A widow's curse- A first widow who I still still mouning her dead husband acquired deadly powers to curse between the time of her husband's death and the shaving ceremony if she receives her menstrial periods during this period. 
4. Very old men and women- Very old people are feared to possess potent curses towards anybody whose generation is below that of their last born. The curse become potent when they are naked.
5. The physically challenged old people- Any physcally challenged person such as those with hunchbacks were believed to possess the power to pronounced a curse to the community or any member of the community. 

d) Self inflicted curse.

There are curses that affect those who caused them. Here no other person is involved.

1. Esichubio- there are times a person could inflict a curse on himself or herself by swearing something that comes true. A person mourning his live child could bring death to himself. This self inflicting curse was called okhwichuba. It so became a curse if one swore basing on falsehood. 
2. Oluswa- this is a curse due to involving in sexual relations that leads to pregnancy with a close relative. The child, once it known is a product of oluswa, was never left to survive. For the child to survive, one of the parents involved in oluswa had to die after a ritual of sleeping in the rib cage called okhukona mwikhokho or be excommunicated. Even if this is done, oluswa cannot be undone. The curse affects the child so born- they do strange things that go against the norms in the society. At times, fate has it that such children are affected with strange deaseases that leads to death of their children.
3. Oluswa lwa esiatikho- at times, a clan could split into two because of one reason or the other. If such was officially done leading to a separation, though the effect became mild, this aluswa affected the first to attempt marriage. The first men to marry from either clans became victims. At times, the entire generation from the man's family got wiped out mysteriously. It was called oluswa-paying itself back- oluswa lwimanusa. In case of a successful split, one clan will alway wait for the brother clan to start of intermarriage and curry the curse. Clans that have history of splitting carry this curse unknowingly.
4. Esiruukhi simali- this is a curse arising from inciating and succeeding in having carnal knowledge with your biological mother or father. Even slaughterig a cow in a ritual called eng'ombe ya esiruukhi could not undo such.

e) Curse due to acts of ommission or commision
One could pick a curse by involving himself or herself in a situation that was believed to be curse habouring.

1. Destroying sacret place or communial item. This included  grave or namuima or esiyeembekho.
2. Involving in beastiality with an animal which is slaughtered and then eaten by the same person.
3. Killing an innocent person or being the first person to hit the dead in a mob justice case. 
4. Curse to a woman who uproots the main cooking stones in her house. Unless a purification ritual is made, it affected her future marital life.
5. Holding your father's manhood with and aim of causing harm. This lead to a serious curse.
6. The curse due to second dowry- no girl received dowry twice from two men unless the first was returned. Failure to return lead to marriage problems in the man's family and problems to the girl involved.
7. Breaking a busaa drinking pot when elders elders are taking the brew and throwing aside the straws. This lead to death or physcal impairments.

f) The ritualistic Curse
The process of cursing varied based on the person or group doing it. In some cases, it involved a premidated execusion starting with chewing some herbs to give lethal potency to the words.

1. Parent's age set curse- The father's bakoki (those circumcised same year) had powers to adminster a group curse on a child sired by the age set member. Also, the baya (one you shared the circumcision day or spot or knife with) had the power to proclaim the curse alone. Apart from that, the sande (those belonging to same age set spanning for ten years) could also invoke a curse. For example, if ones father refused to pay the age-sets members their dues (olubaka), then they could curse the son or the daughter. This curse was accompanied by, among other rituals, the age-set members arriving in ones home in the morning and asking, 'Bakoki, come out and circumcise us!' Then, in anger, throwing the walking sticks got from a tree called Omalaha together with a grass flower called okwa wututu into the compound as they pronounce the curse. This could lead to deformities, importency, barrenness, deviancy, wifelessness or madness.
2. Collective clan elder's curse- there is a curse administered by elders towards a targeted clan member. There were various types of curses by elders:

• Curse dues to sexual immorality- these involved in imorality could not go scotfree in the hands of elders and ancestral spirits. The woman was told to stand legs apart. The man was given a spear and told to swear that he was not involved in any affair with the woman or girl. After swaring, he was to pass between the legs from one side to the other. Incase he was guilty, he stood cursed. 

• Curse arising from dispute resolution involving use of omuchembe- Incase of a serious didspute involving failure to plead guilty in relation to a given serious crime where one is a suspect, the Omuchembe tree was used. It involved swearing by the tree which lead to curse a curse in the family of one who is guilty of an offence. At times, those who steal other people's property were subjected to this curse by the one seeking justice even in their absentia. They were either to return the items or suffer the consequences of the curse. This las one was called "beating omuchembe."

• Curse during excommunication- outcasts were cursed to ensure their generation does not prosper elsewhere. This was aimed at ensuring no future intermarriages takes place from the person's generation. The ritualistic curse by clan elders was done by slaughtering a sheep, mixing its blood with some herbs and sprinkling it using 'broom' made from special shrubs as they pronounced their curse. They drank brew from a pot up to halfway, blocked the straws with fingers, overturned the pot, and walked away from the home of the outcast. This lead to peaceful disappearance of the outcast out of community to unknown places, mild madness, death from wild animals, infestation with jiggers, death by thunder or death by water. 

B) UNDOING A CURSE
Some curses could be undone while others such as curses from those who pass on became hard to undo. Curses from the dead could only be made innactive by invoking a stronger ancestral power to arbitrate but could not be undone.

1. If the person has no cursing advatage- If the cursing person had no cursing-advantage over the cursed, then the one being cursed could undo the curse by 'mirror mirror' approach. This was by verbally and non verbally aping the curse in the presence of the one cursing. 
2. If the cursed person was innocent- If the curse was directed to an innocent person, it could be undone by walking off and invoking ones forefathers and saying 'I am innocent. May the curse return to haunt the other person as emongo- poetic justice." 
3. Curses from living relatives- this could be undone in an official ceremony called okhulia esilekhero silala. It is worth noting that a mad person's curse was devoid of its potency. If it do happened that a person cursed another one then becomes mad, then it was believed that such a curse had irreversible effects as long as the mad person still lived.
4. The sexual immorality curse-  the victim invited the same elders who adminstered the curse. The victim slaughtered a goat which was roasted. He made bear which was drank as they spat the bear on the victim's head undoing the curse. Later on, the person had to slaughter a cattle to make the spirits invoked by the elders to firgive him too.
5. A curse from one's age set called bakoki- This was preventable by giving them their dues called olubaka. Anybody who takes olubaka from his age-set member looses the power to curse any of the children born of that member based on matters related to circumcision. If the curse was related to olubaka, then it can be undone by the same as a group.
6. Curse arising from omuchembe- on realising that the effects are real, the process of undoing started by asking for forgiveness from the same elders, making local brew, going to run around omuchembe seven times, slaughtering a goat and uprooting the tree ensuring that no roots remains to rejuvenate.
7. Curse due to second dowry- the clan of those who paid dowry were sweet taked to accept to come and pick part of the dowry paid earlier.