The Legend of Karachuo 8 The Lu Tribe

"Who are you and what do you want from me? "

The boy asked the the animal with a deep frown on his face. The animal on the other hand did not even bother answering, instead, it pointed its finger towards him and out of the finger, it shot a limpid water at him. A minute later, his body and the skin he wore on him became clean like they were never dirty. After that, the animal forced Ochieng' on its back and looked in the direction of Mudho on the face of it waiting for an instruction.

"Sibuor Misumba (slave lion) , the boy is likely to be a 'Mogwedhi' (blessed). Without my sense of sight, I am nothing even if I have all the power. Take him to my twin brother Sibuor Ratong' (yellow lion) and ask him to take care of the boy until I recover. I'll find my way home and see how I can get out of this. " Mudho instructed and left every which way.

"Yes my Lord. " Misumba said and immediately flew away.

Slave beasts couldn't use the 'Mogwedhi' humans to gain power as they had to discerp a portion of their blood to their masters. The moment this was done, the slave beast could not have the ability to betray it's master in whatever way. The master and slave could communicate even when a thousand kilometers a part so long as the master had claimed the slave by blood. That's the reason why Mudho could summon the slave.

These slaves could be freed by 'Mogwedhi' humans. This was easier said than done as even thinking of betraying their masters could lead to their death. Freeing them had to be thought of by the human and for the human to do so, the slave had to prove to be worthy. This was the fate of those beasts, if they were never saved, they would remain loyal to their masters even if they had power above their masters.

Take the Sibuor Misumba for example, it had already gained strength far above Mudho and that's why the latter even entrusted it with the duty of ferrying the kid to its brother. Even with it's strength, because of the blood contract, Misumba could die the moment it had any malicious intents against its master. The slave could also be free when its master died.

Time flew by and after a moon Chief Ong'am was back to Odindi. Odindi was a clan in Karachuo division. Karachuo division was one amongst the various divisions found in the Lu tribe. This is a tribe that existed along the eastern side of the great Lake Luwa currently Lake Victoria.

Each clan was headed by a chief assisted by clan elders. The chiefs were directly answerable to the tribe head. They were also indirectly answerable to division heads in the sense that when they had problems with their administrations, they could seek pieces of advice from their division heads. The division heads were answerable to the tribe head. The stool of the chief was hereditary and that is why most of them were ever arrogant. Most administrative duties at clan level were performed by them.

The division heads were responsible for gathering information from their respective divisions and feeding the tribe head with them. They were also responsible for advising accordingly the tribe head to ensure smooth control of the tribe.

These division heads were appointed by a council of chiefs of the various divisions and approved by the tribe head. Their power was insignificant to an extent that their existence was not known by many. They could lose their position the moment they broke a rule.

The tribe head was the most powerful position in any tribe encompassing the Lu tribe. This person controlled the businesses of the whole tribe including wars.

To maintain sharing of power across the divisions of the tribe, the tribal government was partially hereditary and democratic.

When a tribe head was elected, he would pass the stool to his son when he was too old to rule. The son would then pass the stool to grandson who would rule until he was exactly two hundred and sixty seasons old and he was expected to cancel his reign by himself.

The stool would then be vacant when the third generation head countermanded his reign. This cancellation could only be done at the palace at the presence of chiefs and the division heads, five moons before the day he intended to descend from the stool. The chiefs and the division heads then decided where the tribe head would come from. The division the outgoing tribe head came from could not give a candidate.

Three divisions were selected to give at most eight candidates for the tribal stool race. The candidates were chosen by chiefs in the selected divisions. The candidates would then be approved by the clan members before they prepared for a competition with other candidates.

Chiefs were not qualified to vie for the position of the tribe head. The selected candidates were then sent to battle camps where they went through a lot of trainings. In the training they learned their responsibilities as the tribe heads. The training could go for around two moons.

After the training, the candidates went to live in the palace, where they directly interacted with the tribe head while their agents from each clan were selected by the chiefs for two weeks. In the last day of the second week, an election was done.

During the election, the various agents in all the clans were given stools and gourds. Each voter came with an 'ombulu' (a red and black pelike seed) and casted it in a gourd held by the agent of interested candidate. Only initiated and married men were allowed to vote.

Warriors did not vote and were at the chief's compound, where the elections were held to ensure no one broke the rules.

The elections were expected to end at noon and the agents would go to their division headquarters where they handed over the gourds with 'ombulu' to selected division tribal head agents. These division agents had larger gourds.

The agents from the clans poured the contents of their gourds to their respective agents. The chiefs, division heads and the division agents then spent the night at the division headquarters and at the first cock crow, they would leave on horses to Kisum, the tribe headquarters.

At the headquarters, the process at the divisional level was repeated., and the candidate who had the highest number of 'ombulu' was announced the winner by the tribe head. The division heads, the chiefs and the various agents could then go back to their homes.

This whole process could take between a month and a half to two. On the first day of the third month, the outgoing head would hand over officially the stool to the incoming head at the royal palace at the presence of division heads, chiefs and all the clan elders.

Chief Ong'am was not any better than his first wife Anyango. He was even mad when he did not find his son home. He ordered his warriors and the village men to look for his son but they all came back empty handed after several days of searching.

The Chief and Anyango his first wife, for a long time missed food, sometimes went mad and sometimes had sleepless nights until time expunged the existence of their son out of their minds.

Chapter end