Kamusiliu Retold

Not some long ago, in the village of Kamusiliu there lived a beautiful girl called Kanini. In those days, the days of Chris Kyanya, Johnston Mulaki and Kaburu Boniface, when beauty was not artificial like it is today, Kanini easily held the mantle as the most beautiful girl to have ever graced those parts of the world. Her beauty was perhaps the only unquestionable thing in the village. She didn’t need any make-up to appease; neither did she need to don any tight skin to outlay the curves of her elegant body. She was just beautiful, naturally.

It was always when the first trailing shadows of the night fell that Kanini’s beauty drew attraction from the boys in the village. It happened that this was the time when Kanini would snake her way down the dusty paths of Kamusiliu on her way back from the market, and every boy would forget what he’d be doing and gaze after her, as she swung her natural ‘behind’ and teasing the feelings of the boys, none of whom could gather enough courage to speak to her.

Kanini was fond of taunting the village boys, especially Johnston Mulaki, with her ferocious "Misung'u" whenever there was a "Kilumi" dance at Ngegi. This was a dance that every boy in the village would be looking forward to. Two outstanding things defined the dance, Kanini's dancing prowess and the baritone voice of one Kathuna aka Mukandi wa Kakweti that drew boys and girls from the neighbouring villages of Ndatani, Kalwa and Thunguthu. Those two people were the centre of attraction and it was a well known fact that no dance would end without a fight breaking out, either among the village boys as they clamored for a piece of Kanini, or among girls as they tried to endear themselves to Mukandi. The most unfortunate thing is that Kanini knew the effect her beauty had on the boys, and she would overdo herself in taunting them with her well-crafted 'Misungu'

It happens that strangers would wander into Ngegi where the dance was held. A stranger from afar would stretch on the grass and slumber with his head upon his arm. Thus it was, Kanini, the beauty of Kamusiliu, who had gone to the water carrying her earthen pitcher on her shoulder found a stranger sleeping under a Kithumula tree and stopped to have a look at him. She took him for a traveller, a stranger from some other village-someone she had waited for ever since she had become aware of her own beauty, at the river while bathing and massaging her mango-sized breasts....

On the forehead and eyelids dust and sweat made patches and on his body were scratches and cuts still bleeding. His tired mouth puckered a little as he slept. With gentle, timid hands, Kanini washed his wounds and bathed his forehead and eyes. The moon was already high in the sky, and you could see as far as Itumbwa Rock. It was a beautiful night for the mysterious, wordless betrothal of Kanini and the stranger with clay-coloured hair. She did not even hear Ivukuiyo, the old village hunter whom the villagers thought slightly mad, making his way back from Kithoi and grumbling as he came up the path, bent beneath his bundle of lines and wires.

At the moment the stranger in blue cotton clothes was lying deep asleep under the Muthumula Tree at Munyenze where Ikoo River meanders through the sand banks and rests before crossing the Kamusiliu-Kyuso road. Here he was to stay for several days- and these were the days which Kamusiliu boys in their round huts and the Kilumi dancers in their ox-hide dresses were to remember for a long time...

Out of the tree plunged the toucan at dawn's first light. The pigeon's eye showed pink, and the guinea-fowl stretched their necks and went in search of seeds. There was a murmuring among the trees as all the animals began to wake up with a quick sigh of surprise, the wide sweep of the country woke to the morning. The turtle-doves cooing expressed the thrill for a new day in clear limpid notes. And in Kamusiliu, the stranger beneath the Muthumula tree at Munyenze stirred from sleep. He opened his eyes and saw leaning over him a girl graciously made.

So smitten was the stranger that he was to remain in the village for a very long time. The villagers, who until then had enough warmth and resources to share, took this stranger from unknown land as one of their own. To date, Kamusiliu is home to people whose origin no one can tell.