• Outside freeing the spirits of the departed, the ritual turned out to be a way of conserving the forests.
• Masake said people who had intentions of burning such forests were forewarned they would become sick as the spirits would leave the forest unhappy.
Image: EMOJONG OSERE
Among members of the Teso community in Busia county exists a ceremony that involves exhuming the dead.
Elders from the community say the ritual, which has been practised for hundreds if not thousands of years, played a primary role in the conservation of forests that are now facing extinction in Teso.
The tradition primarily involves exhuming the remains of dead relatives, whose spirits allegedly disturb people still alive.
It was performed when elders thought the spirit of a particular deceased person was troubling a member of the family, mainly through sickness or bad luck.
Despite being undertaken with the objective of keeping away bad omens, the tradition turned out to be a vehicle through which the community ensured natural forests were conserved.
Robert Murega, a member of the Teso Elders Council, said elders had a way of foretelling whose spirit among the departed had returned to haunt relatives still alive.
“They believed that if a relative fell sick and took long to heal, a departed person was unhappy and needed to be attended to,” he said.
“Exhumation was there because it was believed that some spirits in the ground wanted to be out in the open. That whenever a family was stricken by persistent sickness or diseases, they were attributed to the dead.”
Murega said the practice was done with the hope that the sick person would recover once the remains of the dead individual, who the elders claim haunted the living, are exhumed. He said if calamities among the living recurred, it was thought that by “freeing the dead” through exhumation, the misfortunes would end.
He, however, said the exhumed bones would only be preserved in forests with indigenous tree species, a development that later on helped in the conservation of the indigenous green environment.
REMAINS’ STORAGE
The exhumed skeletons, he said, were usually stored in an identified forest with mostly native trees.
“Outside freeing the spirits of the departed, the ritual turned out to be a way of conserving the forests,” Murega said.
“The storage would be done in a way that favours some trees in a forest, and this would be indigenous trees such as sycamore-fig tree, which is known as the mother of trees as it attracts rain and can accommodate the growth of crops beneath it.
“Exotic trees that we grow today, such as eucalyptus, are not friendly to crops because they suck a lot of water from the soil and even chase away the rain.
“The exhumed bones were ritually secured under a given tree or bush where no other activities could be done. That means it was another way of conserving the environment.
“Another school of thought was that assuming you had 10 graves in one farm holding, the exhumation of those bodies and being taken to one place would open more land for trees to be planted and this helped protect the environment.”
Murega said the unearthing of the bones would only be done by a selected elderly woman in the village. It involved slaughtering a bull and a ram, which were served roasted or boiled alongside traditional beer known as Ajon.
During exhumation, family members said to be visited by misfortunes were fed on raw meat obtained from the slaughtered bull or ram before being smeared with dung.
As the opening of the grave(s) continued, elderly women would dance around the scene, but those inside the burial hole would stay silent as talking would open doors for more misfortunes.
People transferring the bones to the forest were neither allowed to talk because it was believed that engaging in conversation would make them run mad.
In most cases, Murega said, villages where the tradition was conducted had tall trees that acted as homes for exhumed skeletons.
Areas around such trees were out of bounds for all people and would only be visited when calamities strike as elders performed more rituals.
ENVIRONMENTALLY RICH
Teso North Elders Council chairman and former teacher Ishmael Masake said Teso environmentally remains gifted partly because of the practice. However, he said the ritual has been eroded away by religion and modernity as more people acquire Western education.
“Forests where the bones of the dead were kept were almost sacred,” he said.
“No one would dare reach there because elders warned that whoever entered such places would become sick or run mad. This was one way they ensured forests and indigenous trees remained intact.”
The tree under which the remains were kept in most cases was the giant sycamore tree, he said.
“When one visits where a sycamore tree today, they can see life because of the presence of insects such as ants, caterpillars and crickets among others. There are also birds eating the figs, more often than not climbers such as passion fruits, monkey orange fruit and wild bananas,” Masake said.
He said only the elderly were allowed to visit the scene where the ancestors’ bones were preserved, and such visits were conducted once a year. This implied the green life around such areas remained undisturbed, guaranteeing conservation.
Masake said people who had intentions of burning such forests were forewarned they would become sick as the spirits would leave the forest unhappy.
The process of unearthing the remains is strictly done not less than 10 years after burial. “First of all, the person who would be exhumed would be one who has stayed in the grave for over 10 years. It was mostly done for bodies that had been buried for over 20 years and the reason for this was because they had to ensure the bodies being brought up have totally decomposed,” Masake said.
Many of those exhumed, he said, were the elderly because of the wisdom they wielded and their acquaintance with traditional issues before they died.
The natural forests in Teso, the elder said, once played host to exhumation rituals. However, the same natural habitats are being threatened by the ever-changing climate, posing a challenge to the native environment.
YOUTH PERSPECTIVE
Even with the glorification of the traditional way of life with its environmental conservation advantages, the practice does not attract a lot of attention in the present day, says Magdalene Isegeri. She graduated from the University of Nairobi with a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration in 2017.
“In totality, environmental conservation needs to be done for the sake of future generations because desertification is affecting us. We have decided to cut indigenous tress for social needs such as tobacco curing, open land for agriculture and construction,” she told the Star.
“But going back to traditional ways of life to conserve the environment will not work. We are in a digital era. People are more informed and no longer take threats from traditions.
“They largely take things for granted. Some will just go and cut trees inside such forbidden forests just to experience what would happen. Religion is also taking a lead over traditionalism.”
Some of the remaining natural forests in Teso include Odera forest in Moding, Chelelemuk, Aedo Moru and Kakapel Hills, Kakurikit, Ataaba Oburi, Kakemer and Amukura Hills.
The two subcounties of Teso North and South are agriculturally endowed and receive rain twice a year.