ABANYALA BA KAKAMEGA- Language: Names of Edible birds

By Balovera Edwin Ongacho

Olunyala (K) language has names for many indigenous edible birds that are natives of their environment. The following are the names of birds which are eaten among the Abanyala of Kakamega.

Most of the grain and fruit eating birds were edible. The type of beak, past meal experiences after eating the bird and the bird's feeding habits helped Abanyala identify edible birds. Edible birds include the following:

A)    SIZABLE EDIBLE BIRDS 

1. Amburuku

   

   Amburuku

2. Ebongobongo- Olive pigeon
3. Eito- Ostrich. Its meat is red. It was hunted using spears.

   

   Eito

4. Ekhanga- general name for any species of guinea fowl.
5. Ekhanga enyange- white guinea fowl.
6. Ekhanga lya ekutusi- Crested guinea Fowl. They were slightly big and easy to hunt.

   

   Ekhanga lya ekutusi
7. Ekhanga lya esileesi- vulturine Guinea fowl. Has nice tasting meat.
   

   

   Ekhanga lya esilesi

8. Ekhanga lya olwika- helmeted guinea fowl. It has tasty white meat.

   

   Ekhanga lya olwika

9. Ekhoocho- Cape Francolin. Usualy dark grey

   

   Ekhoocho

10. Ekhuyi ekhuyi- black stork. It was eaten roasted and never boiled. The entrails were carefully removed after sterving it for a day.

    

    Ekhuyi khuyi

11. Ekhuyi Namayemba- white stock. Eaten roasted and never boiled. It was also sterved before roasting it.

    

    Ekhuyi Namayemba

12. Ekulukulu- turkey

    

    Ekulukulu

13. Endechia- Purple swamp hen. 

    

    Endechia
14. Eng'ang'a- general name for any of the ibis
15. Eng'ang'a lya olwang'a- Glossy ibis. It produced black soup. It was roasted before cooking. The head, entrails and legs were not eaten.

    

    Eng'ang'a

16. Eng'ang'a lya olupang'a- it had no shiny appearance and has a redish mouth with little hair on the head.

    

    Eng'ang'a lya olupang'a

17. Engokho- chicken

    

    Engokho

18. Engoye- Green starlin.
19. Engisu- violet turnaco. Almost same to engusu in behaviour but lacking a crest on its head

    

    Engisu
20. Engusu- great blue turaco (and many species of different colour- green, blue, white, black, yellow) Engusu had a crest on its head

    

    Engusu

21. Eninga- African green pigeon. All birds that had similar structure and green colour feather were called eninga.

    

    Eninga

22. Enyiru- red necked Francolin and Yellow necked Francolin. It had no feathers at its neck

    

    Enyiru

23. Esembe- white ibis.
24. Esichululu- The African quailfinch. It is a small bird similar to esindu.  The white colour around the eyes makes it to look as if it has big eyes. This species, unlike the quails, can perch on trees easily.

    

    Esichululu
25. Esikasawa- Managua dove
26. Esindu- this is the common quail. It does not love perching on trees. It is a delicacy that was given to female and male visitors. Male one is called enyembi while the female one was called olunywenywe. Young female is called eseebe.

    

    Esindu
27. Esindu eya khakhere- common bullon quail. It rarely flies; likes skulking on the ground. It was narrated that if you cover it with a basket, it turns into a frog. This was to dessuade less skilled children from opening the basket in order to prevent it from escaping.
    
28. Esikherekeke- name for both the red winged Francolin or crested Francolin. 

    

    Esikherekeke

29. Esisituka- loughing dove

    

    Esisituka

30. Esitulienge- red bill hornbill.
31. Ewusi- Cape turtle dove

    

    Ewusi lya mungulu

32. Ewusi ekasaawa- Red eyed dove. It was a dove withred eyes and eyelids. 
    
33. Ewusi elya mumachi-sandgouse. They were of different varieties that liked walking near river sands, river stones and shallow waters.
    
34. Ewusi lya khumwalo- African mourning dove. Always made its nest near rivers.

    

    Ewusi lya khumachi
35. Ewusi elya mulukulu-
36. Eyoyo- African black duck (and other species of ducks found in water streams.) A water duck called eyoyo ekhonge (spur winged goose) was said to cause sterility and was not eaten.

    

    Eyoyo

37. Muchwe lupang'a- Black and white casked hornbill. Apart from its meat, the borne on its head was used to curve decorative wearings. Some of the same species were yellow beaked.
    
     
38. Namwelirie- Southern Porchard 
    
39. Nanjekho- white/grey/bare faced go-away bird. 

    

    Nanjekho

B.    SMALL EDIBLE BIRDS

Most of the smaller birds were mostly hunted by children. They could be trapped and eaten. 

1. Akhayindikiri- Blue Tit 
   
2. Efurusi-
3. Ekhoro
4. Ekhunjwe- parrot.
5. Emirye- Quelea 
   
6. Endikalikani- ban shallow
   
7. Enyanyakhanu
8. Engoye
9. Enyereri- blabber
   
10. Esesese- cane portrait.
11. Esonjoli- woodpecker

    

    Esonjoli

12. Esimbikhira- Long tail widow bird. Its feathers were used on kings hat. Its meat was believed to be good in ensuring there is peace, understanding and reconciliation when used in amasalule. Some believed it was key ingredient in making love potion if mixed with ash from a rope used by a person to commit suicide- other herbs. Its fethers together with those of esikhokhochole were believed to be a treasure for boys, leaders and businessmen. Some had fluffy long tails.

    

    Esimbikhira

13. Esifu- speckled mouse bird

    

    Esifu

14. Esifu eya khumachi- the blue naped mouse bird
    
15. Esipangalisi
16. Esoko elya amatekeyi- Black weaver bird. 
    
17. Esoko elya khulukongo- African golden weaver. It is golden yellow with few black elements.

    

    Esoko

18. Esoko elya khumachi- streaked weaver . It has black wings or streaked wings or black face
    
19. Epikolio elya khulukongo- juckobin coccoo. It yellow abdomen area

    

    Epikolio

20. Epikolio lya khumachi- usually black.
    
21. Etiatiasi- Great fiscal Shriek.
    
22. Esebeyi- honey habinger bird.
23. Kenge- nightngale. Another bird recognised as a singing bird among the Abanyala- to add on esoko, ekhunjwe, mutoli and kilumbe.
    
24. Khalinjola- Lovebird 
    
25. Kilumbe- Malabar Whistling thrush

26. 

    Kilumbe

    
    
27. Kiriyo-
28. Malebe- bee eater meropidae

    

    Malebe

29. Mulimba- malachite kingfisher. It made specific noise that was timed at one hour interval. The were varieties of mulimba that were not eaten such as Nafunioko.

    

    Mulimba

30. Mutoli- mocking bird. It is among the birds with a nice singing melody.

    

    Mutoli

31. Nakholo- white winged widows bird. This is usually confused with esichwinjwinchwi (pied wagtail). The bird attracts mates from birds of other species hence said to have no specific clan thus the name nakholo- it is extra-clan polygamous. It has same behaviour with simbikhira.
32. Nalufutu- Rainbow bird
    
33. Nalukuku- sandpiper
34. Namasa- black cackoo. Its major meals are warms,  insects and caterpillars.
    
35. Namungiri- African firefinch. This also included other similar birds that were yellow, blue, black, grey or brown. 
    
36. Namususuni- Sunbird and hummingbirds. Uncircumcised boys were dessuaded from eating it for it was to believed to cause over-bleeding at circumcision.

    

    Namususuni

37. Nasing'aang'a- hornbill . This lacks the crest-like horn extension on the head.

    

    Nasing'aang'a

38. Njwenjwe- lillark breasted roller. It was considered to be a very proud bird. 

    

    Njwenjwe

39. Ongunyi- grey wagtail. Very common at ploughing time.

    

    Ongunyi

40. Opicha (swallow)- rarely perch on green twigs.

    

    Opicha

41. Opichapicha- almost similar to opicha but bigger and wholly black.
42. Otieto- squilla
43. Otundo
44. Piri
45. Piriupiru- wing snapping cistocola
46. Sikorosia- blackcap 

    

    Sikorosia

47. Tietie- cristocolas cristicola
48. Tindikiti
49. Wachacha
50. Wandindi-

C.    USES OF BIRDS

1. Birds' eggs

The main eggs eaten are those of chicken, guinea fowl, spurfowls, ostriches, ducks and quails. At times quail eggs are swallowed whole while raw for prescribed medicinal purposes. 

An egg with hard shell is called eki while those with naturally soft shell from other animals are called amawuyu. Also, eggs cooked with water and omukherekha (ash-juice) with shells removed are called amawuyu and not amaki. However, soft shelled chicken egg is called ewoyawoye.

Away from home in grazing fields, the eggs are covered with raw cow-dung and roasted in fire. The water in the raw dung boils the egg without breaking its shell. After that, the shell called epwenge is removed, omunyu mufume (salt from reeds) is added before eating. The egg yolk is called emunge. While the white part is called esiteteru.

2. Birds' meat
Big and small birds are a source of meat. Abanyala, due to their proximity to forests, had names for very many birds. Some birds that looked the same were put together into one group and given one name.

a. Bird traps
There were bird traps depending on the bird targeted and place of trapping.

1. Owukhinga- tail switch hair was skilfully tied into knots to trap birds on nests. The skill of making this trap was called okhutootia.
2. Omubaso- self snapping trap was made by skillfully bending a stick, of tensile strength, with a string tied on it. It involved some complicated mechanisms of pegs, knots, bait and sticks. The stick straightened pulling the string leading to the trapping of the bird in a knot once it stepped on the stick to eat food bait. The stick was held in position using a snapping peg.
3. Esiyonjo- used to trap quails. A male quail was put in a basket and hang on a stick from where it made calls to attract others. A small path was made lined with various string traps. The last trap was hole dug at the base of the stick, covered with weak sticks and soil, into which the quail fell and got trapped.
4. Emitati- hunting using arrows. 
5. Olukiri- used during white ants time to trap birds.
6. Ekhango- trapping using sticky latex from tree fruits and stem of tree called Omulimbo or Omuwoche. This was usually applied on a three forked stick called ekhango and a live white ant placed on a thorn in the middle as a bait. A bird that came to pick the bait got trapped. It was also applied on tree branch where birds perched.
7. Omulowo- a hook was used to trap birds called amang'ang'a and amayoyo by baiting with amasibili.
8. Olusia- there were varieties of traps made from strings using varieties of knotting styles.
9. Efumo- spears were only for hunting big birds like ostriches.
10. Emburusi- use of slings
11. Ebamo- the basket was placed upside down with a stick and a trigger string tied on it. Birds' food was put bellow it. The string was then pulled to trap the birds. 
12. Emisukuni- hunting using sticks
13. Amakina (Stones)- It times the birds were hunted using stones 
14. Emisukuni- Sticks. 
15. Ewuli- a large sized bucket put facing down and supported with a stick on which a string is tied.