Kenya Stockholm Blog

“Moving The Center” In The Maggero Debate – Part Three

We have been told verbally and in writing that the late Mzee James Wuod Maggero never liked the idea of bodies being transported to Kenya for burial because of the huge wastage of money in the process. According to Dagmar, Maggero’s wife:

“James felt very strongly about not sending bodies of deceased persons back home. Those who knew James would know that…. He felt that it was wrong to collect lots of money just to send home a body with the result that nothing remained for those back home in Kenya.”

In 1982, a Kenyan Engineer from the Luo community called Obiero Onyango died at Karolinska Hospital in Stockholm. After the announcement of his death was delayed by Barbro Onyango (his Swedish wife) with one day, the woman decided that the late Obiero would be buried in Sweden.

When the late Maggero heard about the plan, he immediately swung into action, not just to stop the burial of Obiero’s body in Sweden but to ensure that the late Obiero’s remains were transported to Kenya. At that time, Kenyans met repeatedly at Ropsten to discuss the case. In the end, Maggero’s group won and Obiero was eventually transported to Kenya for burial. His body was collected by Dr. Nyawanda Onyango who came all the way from Kenya just to pick up the body. If some people on the other side of this debate had been present in Sweden, Maggero could have been in big trouble.

In 1987, Evans Angiela, a Kenyan, died of aneurism of the aorta in Stockholm. Funds were needed to transport his body to Nyakach in Kenya for burial and once again, Mr. Maggero was in the thick of things. Maggero was the Chairman of the “Angiela Funeral Committee” and one of the meetings was even attended by the late Andrew Ngumba, a former Kenyan MP who was by then in exile in Sweden.

As the Chairman, Maggero was not only instrumental in ensuring that enough funds were raised to transport the body of Angiela to Kenya but also sent a clear message that burial “at home” was part of  the Luo culture which needed to be respected. During mobilizations for the fund raising, it was Maggero who sent out letters to Kenyans (SMS had not been invented), a responsibility which underlined his solidarity with the Angiela committee’s agenda and also demonstrated the late Mzee’s commitment in what he was involved in.

When Mr. Opwapo Ogae died, Maggero was once again catapulted into action, taking over as the Chairman of the “Opwapo Ogae Committee” which then embarked on a hectic fundraising to transport the late Opwapo’s body to Kenya for burial. This time round, Dagmar was present and Mr. Maggero donated 2.000 kr at the harambee. This was a huge amount of money to have been donated by an individual who was opposed to the idea of bodies being transported to Kenya for burial.

Instead of positioning himself as “Chairman” of the Opwapo and other Committees, Maggero could have created a debate by using Opwapo and other deaths to argue that the practice of transporting bodies to Kenya should be abolished.

Maggero was very outspoken and addressed issues from a position of authority and great wisdom. The Mzee had ample opportunity to convert harambees for dead bodies into platforms for cultural reforms but did exactly the opposite by supporting them.

The Mzee’s participation and contribution in the Opwapo and other harambees undermines claims that he was opposed to the practice of body transportation to Kenya for burial unless some new logic or empirical data can be introduced into the debate by protagonists who have painted him as a radical cultural reformist who endorsed his own cremation after banning the viewing of his own body.

The petrol that has been fuelling this debate from a different point of view opposed to that of Maggero’s Swedish family has been spewing from Maggero’s own actions when he was alive.

After the death of Mr. Opwapo Ogae in the early 90s, a new generation of Kenyans (the multi-party generation) was also arriving in Sweden. It is members of this generation that picked up from where Mr. Maggero and company had left using the same methods of fund raising which Maggero had helped establish.  

A HISTORY OF COMMUNAL INVLOVEMENT IN KENYAN FUNERALS IN STOCKHOLM
When Mamma Colins died in a mysterious train accident, critical issues were raised around her death, just like in the Maggero case. Kenyans contributed money so that his brother, Samson and son, Colins, could travel to Sweden to attend the funeral and they did. Kenyans traced Colins (whom nobody new about) and who did not even exist in the Swedish data base. If a parallel could be drawn, Colins is the equivalent of Maggero’s son in Kenya with the difference being that Maggero’s son is well known.

Although he was “lost in Kenya”, Colin’s father was a British national and it took me four years to convince the British government (with documents) that Colins was a British citizen before he was granted a British passport. He now lives in London.

Mamma Colin was buried in Sweden without a finger being raised about her final resting place because her family was present and there was an agreement within the family that she be buried in Sweden even though she was never officially married to her white spouse. We were involved, not as meddlers in a family affair but as mourners after death struck within our community. The family managed the whole show and everybody was comfy.

When Mwangi (a Kenyan who was working at the Canadian Embassy) died, his wife and son traveled to Sweden to collect the body. Kenyans met and contributed cash for them to travel. The family decided that the body had to be taken to Kenya and this wish was respected without arguments. Members of the Kikuyu community were leading the campaign to get their next of kin to Sweden and to raise funds. There was no controversy. 

Two Kenyan ladies who died of illness in Stockholm were buried in Sweden because that is what their families wanted. There were serious consultations with their families in Kenya and relatives in Sweden in the run up to their burials. One of the ladies was married to a Swede and the family gave the Swede a go ahead to bury her in Sweden in accordance with Lhuya culture which dictates that a woman’s burial place is in the land of her husband. Kenyans sent Gerry Midenyo to consult with her mother in Kenya and she gave a written consent that her daughter be buried in Sweden. Kenyans met and mourned collectively. There was no haranguing.

When Achacha (who worked at Karolinska hospital) died in Stockholm in 2004, his coffin was STOPPED on its way to the grave at Järfälla (in Stockholm) by the late John Peter Omiti after the church service. The family in Kenya had not agreed that he be buried in Sweden although this is what the son and daughter (next of kin) wanted. After pleading with the two children in one of the most dramatic cases to have been witnessed in Stockholm in recent times, Achacha’s burial was cancelled and the body was driven back to the mortuary AFTER the last prayers in church. Two weeks later, Achacha’s body was transported to Kenya and buried in his ancestral village. We met and discussed the circumstances collectively, not at Continental Hotel but in Achacha’s house.

Before the death of Maggero, Arther Opot passed away in Sweden. Kenyans brought his wife all the way from Kenya to pick up the body. The community raised cash and Opot’s body was taken to Kenya. We met, discussed the circumstances and mourned collectively. 

When Ajigo ( a Journalist) died, his remains were taken to Kenya because both the family members in Kenya and Ajigo’s Swedish wife came to an agreement that his body would be taken to Kenya. She followed the body together with Ajigo’s son and buried her husband. We never heard of Ajigo’s wife undergoing any rituals currently being peddled by dregs of the online universe because her Swedish culture was put into consideration and respected accordingly. Ajigo had no will that he be buried in Kenya. Ajigo’s family was happy that his Swedish wife had respected their most important culture in the situation by accepting to bring the body home. I don’t have to mention the case of Ayieko Singoro and the case of Rose because the main point needs to be made.

Kenyans have died in Stockholm before and Kenyans have been involved in the discussions so the Maggero case is not new. To try and muzzle the Kenyan community from discussing the Maggero case or to try and declare Kenyan meetings on the Maggero issue “illegal” is patently otiose.

When a Kenyan from the Kikuyu ethnic group passes away, members of the Kikuyu community take the lead in the discussions because they understand what the culture says. The same applies to a Lhuya, a Kamba and so fourth. It is not therefore surprising that Luos have taken the lead in the Maggero case.

In all the above cases, there has been no controversy (except in the Achacha case) because all families have been involved in the decision making process.

The involvement of Kenyans in the Maggero case is therefore not a novel idea that was born when Maggero passed away. This is the “tradition” in Stockholm. For the umpteenth time, the Maggero discussion is not about his final resting place, cremation or infringement of family privacy. It was about his “next of kin” in KENYA who were shown the “red card” when it came to discussions about his funeral as if this family did not exist.

Okoth Osewe

January 27, 2007 Posted by makozewe | Debate | Leave a Comment

Maggero Debate Should Continue

The late James Wuod Maggero, the great story-teller, has left behind him a legacy (albeit a sad one to some) which will be used as a point of reference in the future by Kenyans in Sweden and elsewhere in the Diaspora. His passing on has whipped up emotions from a cross section of Kenyans, Africans and Swedes, exhibiting both support and distaste for matters concerning death, taboos, customs, interracial marriages/relationships, gender and so forth.

It is normal that when a Luo passes on (especially a male elder), people sing praises and air criticisms during the funeral and burial. The anticlimax of Wuod Maggero’s saga came when KSB moved its readers to “THE CENTRE” of the debate. Suddenly all the critical voices, especially those that have been supporting the exclusion of Maggero’s Kenyan family from funeral arrangements went mute. The fangs of these wannabe writers stopped spitting venom waiting to refill again, probably if rattled.

Revelations from KSB’s now famous “Moving the Centre” articles dealt a shuddering blow to “Unilateral cremationists”, because it raised some hidden cultural perspectives which they had never anticipated.

For example, those supporting what Dagmar did, never knew Wuod Maggero’s real marital background, yet they insisted blindly that his immediate Swedish family should have remained the sole decision takers during his funeral arrangements. Instead of changing tactics to address the new reality after the facts were laid on the table by KSB, they simply fled from the battle ground with a few side-kicks from one or two distant sympathizers, who have mainly specialized in personal attacks against me and Mr. Okoth Osewe, while avoiding the heavier cultural issues raised in this debate.

Wuod Maggero, the polygamist, never divorced his first African wife (Nyar Ugenya), yet had legally married Dagmar (his Swedish wife) and built a family with her. Who else could have done this, but a “Guru” of Luo customs and traditions as Mrs. Hellen Opwapo wisely dubbed him. As Maggero’s legacy lives on with hard and sensational facts filling cyberspace, loud-mouthed critics who rushed to the front lines with machetes have been demobilized after being disarmed. They are probably wondering whether they will be haunted by Maggero’s ghost due to their overt cultural insensitivity during his controversial funeral which saw his body reduced to ashes by a section of his family.

REFLECTIONS AND CONFESSIONS
Mr. Osore Ondusye stated in a recent video interview uploaded by KSB, that Wuod Maggero was the most sophisticated Kenyan in Stockholm. This could be correct given the developments being experienced since his departure. Because of him, a minority group has called for the rejection of Luo funeral customs which they claim, are repugnant.

It is also because of the immature sentiments expressed by the anti-traditionalists that some of us have been tagged sexists and racists. I have been told anonymously that I belong to Kenya and not to Sweden which, according to the threat, is famous for its fairness and tolerance. Ironically, the threatening SMS sent to me was signed “AMEN”, leaving a lot to be desired on who is actually the intolerant person in this case.

Because of Wuod Maggero, some people have written notes in cyberspace about death and confessed for not having been present during his last days. During this period of reflections, Mr. Clay Onyango has written to KSB asking for forgiveness from all those he had ever wronged. I could not help laughing about this, so I called Clay to ask whether he had become religious. He answered that life is too short and we all need to show love to each other.

I recall Mr. Maggero’s rib-cracking story of how his mother cooked and packed him chicken and “ugali” (maize flour meal) to eat during his flight to Europe in the 1950s. He was quite an unassuming and astute businessman, who welcomed people at his former travel agency (Recemarknadcenter) in Stockholm city. I bought a few tickets from him, thereby getting a chance to listen to some of his numerous stories. Maggero also never minced words about his dislike for certain politicians in Kenya, a fact that made me respect his own struggle for democratic space in Luoland.

I also attended a few funeral functions presided over by this cultural guru and recall that he was a generous donor (always giving between 500-1000 kronor). He once invited me to a function organized by KESFA (the Kenya Sweden Friendship Association) and he introduced me to Dagmar and one of his daughters. They may not remember me now because of the on-going war of words, but we chatted briefly.

MAINTAINING CULTURAL IDENTITIES IN SWEDEN
I would like to ask the anti-traditionalists and their supporters that if Maggero detested many African habits as they allege, why was he the leader of KESFA for many years, an organization which, among others, was trying to unite Kenyans and Swedes along cultural lines? Why did Maggero move back to Kenya after attaining his retirement age? It has even been whispered by some people that he had intended to travel back to Kenya if he ever regained his health.

As indicated in my earlier article, Mr. Maggero belonged to the first generation of Kenyans in Scandinavia. It has been proven that he practiced traditions that are unknown to many Luos and even his mastery of the Luo language was exceptional, despite having lived in Sweden for so many years. His now famously quoted duoko nyako (returning the girl) events, have left veterans like Mrs. Opwapo wondering whether he could have really shunned his Luo traditions during his last days to an extent that he could have recommended cremation.

Those pushing for African cultures to be discarded have left me pondering upon their imagination of how some Luos in Stockholm might have conducted Maggero’s funeral. In their small brains, they probably imagine Luos running amok, rolling on the ground (sometimes with crocodile tears) screaming “uuuuwiiii”, storming Dagmar’s apartment at Hellenelund with spears (if they are available in Sweden), ransacking and grabbing Wuod Maggero’s clothes and furniture, while demanding that the Maggero family purchase bulls to be slaughtered for them to eat. Or do they imagine the horrendous and unthinkable wife-inheritance?

I have read through the words of the anti-traditionalists in cyberspace and concluded that they have a personal ambition in this story but want to discredit Luos, whom they see as “backward”. I feel for them because some of us are not yet in the era of disbanding our cultural identities because of new life-styles adopted in Sweden. Some of us have succeeded (after many years in Sweden) as Africans, by building our personalities to remain just Africans, yet integrating to fit into the Swedish society. Some of us will maintain this and will never borrow the catchphrase “Coconut”, which describes black South Africans who think they are white because of moving into white neighborhoods. It is important to observe that many Europeans living in Africa have never disbanded their original identities, but strengthened them to fit realities there.

Many Kenyans have echoed that culture is dynamic and therefore, unnecessary traditions are abandoned as communities progress. There will be no speedy and radical shift in the socio-cultural settings of the Kenyan community in Sweden, but a gradual one, as its population grows and people become less attached to their original Motherland. When that time comes, it will be normal to bury or even cremate dead Kenyans in Sweden, without a word being raised by anybody. The Maggero debate is not just healthy. It is also interesting and should therefore continue. 

Jared Odero

January 25, 2007 Posted by makozewe | Debate | Leave a Comment