The Rain-maker (English) in: Africa — Kavirondo
One evening a strange woman came to the village, called at a house, and begged for food, but her aspect was so forbidding that she was driven away; the same thing happened at the next house she called at. She then went on to a third house, where she spoke to a woman and asked her where her husband was. She was informed that he had gone to drink “tembo” (beer) at another house in the village, and the woman gave her some food and water. The strange guest then said she had a message to communicate to the husband; the wife showed her the hut where the men were drinking, and she went to the door of the hut, and called out to the husband of the woman who had befriended her, and he left his friends and came outside. She then told the man and his wife to follow her out of the village. They did so, wondering greatly, and, when they were a little way from the village, she threw something back toward it, and there was a tremendous report, the heavens discharged torrents of rain, and when day broke, the village was found to be submerged, and the lake covered the site.
The witch then crossed over mysteriously to the north side of Kavirondo Gulf, and was found sitting at the roadside by a man named Kayenga, who lived in the Maragoli Hills. Taking pity on her, he invited her to his village, where she stayed some time. Kayenga thought he would marry her, although he already had one wife. But the witch had an unfortunate peculiarity; if she raised her eyebrows, her eyes emitted sparks of fire. The uncanniness of this scared Kayenga’s wife, and she set to work to make life unpleasant for the visitor, constantly reviling her for a witch, and eventually she annoyed her so that she left went on to the Shekwi people in Nyole, where the great grandfather of Mgahnya married her, and she taught him all the secrets of the art of rain-making. The following is the genealogy of the family of rain-making chefs:—
Agine or Ashue (married the witch).
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Luchiri.
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Namonwa.
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Mgahanya.
– Hobley, C. W., “British East Africa: Anthropological Studies in Kavirondo and Nandi”, The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland 33 (1903), pp. 325-359, pp. 349-350.
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