Throughout last week, there was little, if not, no major activities in Stockholm until Saturday February 3rd when Kenyans filled the Wananchi Pavilion to mourn the late James Wuod Maggero whose body was cremated last month.
The mood was sombre, the atmosphere relaxed while speaker after speaker minced no words about the general view that the cremation of Wuod Maggero by his Swedish family was against the African culture. Many Kenyans who spoke to KSB at the function admitted that the community has been going through a difficult moment of reflection after the “Maggero tragedy”
Maggero’s eulogy was delivered by Dr. Otieno Wariaro while Mr. Jared Aroka, the Chairperson of the Maggero Memorial Committee, moved the mourners through the evening’s Program. In his briefing, Jared said that the circumstances that surrounded the Maggero issue should help in opening debate on how Kenyans could deal with the situation in the future.
Prayers were offered by Pastor Beatrice Kamau who also delivered a sermon in memory of the late Maggero. Pastor Beatrice conducted the prayers in Swahili. Wananchi Pavilion was packed to capacity and some mourners had to stand outside the main hall as they listened attentively to emotional speeches by Kenyans and friends who were devastated by the cremation of Wuod Maggero.
Pastor Beatrice said that Maggero loved people very much and that she first met Wuod Maggero at his travel agency where the Mzee told her that at first, he wanted to become a Reverend. Pastor Beatrice told mourners that Maggero knew culture together with where he came from and that the Mzee never changed.
She said that people should never put down their culture and clarified that while people were free to adopt other cultures, it was important for Kenyans to remember that they will always remain Africans and that they should remember where they came from.
INTEREST IN CHARITY
In his eulogy, Dr. Wariaro said that Maggero was born in 1933 at a place called Siranga in Kenya in 1933. He then proceeded at the then elementary school at Ambira (Now Ambira secondary) before moving to work in Kampala. He later moved to Nairobi and worked with the late Kenyan opposition politician Oginga Odinga at the Luo Thrift, an organization that had been formed by Odinga. During the time of independence, Dr. Wariaro said that Maggero landed a scholarship to study in Finland. He then moved to Stockholm at the beginning of the 60s. After settling in Sweden, he opened a travelling agency.
Dr. Wariaro said that Maggero was a soft spoken person who was interested in charity, was a pleasant character and that he felt great pain because of the manner in which Maggero’s funeral had been conducted. He said that the late Mzee had a big heart and that in Mombasa, he had adopted deaf children. He said that Maggero’s last daughter was also adopted.
He told the mourners that Maggero formed the Kenya-Swedish Friendship Association (Kesfa) to help bring Kenyans and Swedes together. He regretted the fact that Kenyans were not able to view the body of the late Maggero and added that he was happy that many people had come to the memorial function. He said that people normally get shocked when one passes away and that the day’s function was a way of making people to recover from the loss.
MAGGERO WANTED TO TRAVEL TO KENYA
Another speaker was Lars Asker, a Swede who had worked with Wuod Maggero at Kesfa for a very long time. Lars spoke in Swahili. He said that Maggero started Kesfa in 1970 and helped Kenyans in different parts of the country. Through Sida (Swedish International Development Agency), he said that the late Mzee helped build schools in Machakos and Busia and hoped that Kenyans would continue with the work.
In a message to KSB, Lars said that he spoke in Swahili because it was the language of communication, understanding and unification in the spirit of James whom, he said, was very cross cultural, friendly and frequently addressed people as “My friend”. He said that it was the aim of Kesfa to educate and bring people together. He announced that in order to honour and remember James and as a continuation of work in his spirit, Kesfa had decided to rename the Kesfa Donation Fund after Wuod Maggero.
The mourners were also addressed by Mrs Hellen Opwapo, the Chairlady of ODM-K Scandinavia. She said that she was saddened by the death of Wuod Maggero and hoped that Kenyans would carry on with his work. She said that it was unfortunate that Kenyans had not been given a platform and opportunity to mourn Wuod Maggero. She told the gathering that Maggero had always shown the importance of African cultures.
On another note, she said that Maggero told her last year that if he got a “breathing space” during his illness, he would travel to Kenya if the Doctors gave him a clearance that he was fit to travel. She told the gathering that what had happened to Wuod Maggero was a strong lesson to Kenyans and friends.
The gathering was also addressed by Mr. Osore Ondusye who said that Maggero was a very “level headed person” who also entertained his customers. He said that Maggero had no ethnicity in his vocabulary and that as a teacher of mathematics, the late Mzee once challenged him to say whether the universe was finite or infinite, a question which, he said, he could not answer.
KENYANS WILL CONTINUE TO BE “BURNT”
Others who addressed the gathering were Mr. Laban Mberi, Ms Sofia Njoroge, Mrs Prisca Forsman, Mr. Githuku wa Muirani, Mr. Joshua Oyugi, Mr. Otieno Opee, Mr. George Mengo, Mr. Omari, Mrs Jane Owili, Mr. Mike Osumba Dibondo and Mr. Martin Ngatia. The list of speakers was endless and Mr. Jared Aroka, the Chairperson, had to cut it short.
Some mourners were disappointed that they could not get an opportunity to speak due to time factor. The event continued deep into the night with re-known Kenyan musician Moses Trubadur entertaining the audience. Music was playing on the background during breaks between speeches with DJ Mark Gaya spinning.
Mr. Mberi told the gathering that when he met Woud Maggero, the late Mzee narrated to him how he came to Sweden in the 60s. Sofia Njoroge said that what happened to Wuod Maggero could happen to anybody. She said that it will be a shame if, in future, Kenyans had another gathering under similar circumstances. She warned that many Kenyans will continue to be “burnt” if they failed to tell someone about their final wishes.
Prisca Forsman, who also gave a powerful speech during the memorial service of Wuod Maggero on 12th January, said that what had happened to wuod Maggero was “disappointing and devastating” because the process had not been done in the right way. She narrated to the gathering how she tried to stop the cremation of Wuod Maggero together with other Kenyans to allow his family to travel to Sweden to attend the funeral and how she went to check on Maggero at the hospital before she was told that the Mzee was not there. She said that within the Luo culture, a family was not the wife and children alone and informed the mourners that at that time, she didn’t know that Maggero had already passed away.
When he rose to address the mourners, Mr. Githuku wa Muirani said that people should not forget their cultures and that there is a diversity in every culture. He said that Kenyans in mixed marriages should educate one another about different cultures and agreed with other speakers that on the death of Wuod Maggero, people should have been informed in good time about his passing away.
Mr. Joshua Oyugi said that Luos are not opposed to cremation of bodies and that the problem in the Maggero cases was that the situation was not clear. He said that recently, he attended a burial of a Luo woman who was cremated and that there was no problem because the lady had made it clear that she wanted to be cremated. He said that Kenyans were living in a multi-cultural society and stated that in the case of wuod Maggero, Luo culture had not been respected. He said that if Maggero told Luos that he wanted to be cremated, there could have been no problem because Luos were flexible.
KENYA GOVERNMENT HAD FAILED
Mr. Opee thanked the Committee that had made it possible for people to gather. He said that there was need for Kenyans to unite and set up an organization. He said that without his son, he couldn’t have known that Maggero had passed away. He congratulated KSB for the good work the blog site was doing to keep Kenyans informed. He attacked the Kenyan Embassy for not working in the interest of Kenyans in Sweden and wondered why the Embassy could not get involved in the Maggero saga.
Mr. George Mengo cited a poem to the mourners and challenged them to write their wills. He said that the Kenyan community should build bridges with the family of Wuod Maggero and also challenged Kenyans to build on the momentum that had gathered on the Maggero issue.
Mr. Martin Ngatia said that the Kibaki government had failed by failing to stop the cremation of Wuod Maggero. He said that after the Sunami catastrophe, the Swedish government sent military aircraft to evacuate Swedes because the government was a people’s government. He said that in Kenya, US Marines were killing girls and walking free and attacked the Kenyan government for having done nothing in the Maggero case.
Okoth Osewe
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