This ardent quest inspired them to follow any a person fighting the political establishment for their good. Their icon was incarnate in the late Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, better known as the doyen of opposition politics.  Odinga had rejected the first republic for failing to address the desire of the masses for fair distribution of natural resources, land topping the list.  The nation’s first Vice President justified himself in his autobiography, “Not yet Uhuru.” Uhuru is the Swahili word for freedom.

As the Israelites trusted Moses to lead them to the Promised Land, so did the Luos trust Odinga to shepherd them to a future full of jobs, good roads, schools and all that go with a comfortable life on earth. For the whole of his lifetime, they followed him in the opposition. They would be in no government without him. He was their prophet. And he had a religious sect, Legio Maria, to boot. Again as Moses, Odinga never lived to see the second liberation.

The Kanu government ministers were rejected as traitors of the community. As long as they were never friendly to Jaramogi, their ideas of development were rejected outright. To Luos, no government was worthwhile without Jaramogi’s approval. This attitude led to the government and other ethnic groups rejecting them as pariahs within the wider Kenya nation. Luo Nyanza was deliberately marginalized as a punishment for supporting Jaramogi.

To be a Luo led to automatic curse in Kenya. It meant being a rebel. A Luo starting any argument was dismissed as “siasa ya wajaluo” (Luo politics) no matter how logical the point of argument could be. The community members were denied state jobs in the civil service and state corporations. People felt the stigma of being a Luo. To be accommodated, in the gravy train, some were forced to change their names to hide the alphabetical letters, “O” or “A” with which the name of the female begin.

There are some highly educated Luos attained retirement age without ever being employed. International jobs were their only way of survival. This led to a rush for higher education. Book and pen inside the classroom were their only sure way out of misery. The more the certificates and degrees, the better were chances of getting a well-paying job. Still, the government inserted spies to smell out any potential rubble rousers or trouble causers inside the universities and colleges. Fear reigned in their veins. Inferiority set in. The ethnic group members were alienated within their own nation. One way out of their predicament was to develop a thick outer crust in their social skin. This was hidden within excessive pride and conspicuous consumptive lifestyles. Other reactions to external rejection were expressed in violent behavior at home and abroad. Stone throwing after football matches was a must, whether Gor Mahia, the community team won or lost the matches.  On the domestic front, wife beating and polygamous marriages were avenues of asserting a man’s power within the household in a hostile social environment.

On Kenya attaining independence in 1963, the community experienced no real liberation. Therefore they championed the second liberation with all their might, driving them to the open arms of Jaramogi. They composed songs and dances in praise of their hero and a future liberation. Oginga Odinga was their living assurance of a future freedom from poverty, ignorance and disease.

Some members of the establishment even dismissed them to return to Sudan, where their ancestors migrated from 300 years earlier across Northern Uganda. Such are the sentiments influential in President Yoweri Museveni’s recent dismissal of Luos as troublesome. It also influences the spiritual connection the community has in desiring success of South Sudan attaining its own sovereignty in the January ninth referendum

When the old man died in 1995, the community found a ready replacement in his son, Mr. Raila Amolo Odinga. All hopes reposed on Jaramogi were deposited on Raila. Luos transferred their emotional and spiritual attachment onto Jaramogi’s son. The inauguration of Raila as Kenya’s second Prime Minister led Luos to believe their days of perpetual isolation were lifted off like heavy burdens from a camel’s back. They regarded opportunities denied them since independence would be granted. As to whether or not the son was ready to handle such a task will be discussed in another essay.  

Should God always be seen as Male?
 
Is God always a man? Or should the question be “Do humans always see God as a man?” This practice of attributing human characteristics to animals, plants, natural forces, abstract ideas and symbols is called anthropomorphism, also called personification or prosopopeia. In ancient Greek, ανθρωπος, anthrōpos, meant human, and μορφη, morphē, meant shape or form.

How Animals See Divinity?
Would a dog imagine or visualize divinity as a superdog with canine attributes?
After being in close contact with humans for millennia, dogs are rather used to humans and would hardly imagine humans as divine. At least our family dog doesn’t behave as if we were divine, fortunately.
Similarly, would a cow visualize divinity as a supercow, a parrot as a superparrot and a mouse as a supermouse?
Now, you can of course argue that animals don’t think and they are incapable of imagining or visualizing. You can start quoting other “learned” people or even religious scriptures that animals are lower life forms, so they are not quite as smart as yourself and thus they do not think or visualize.
Another argument often thrown to prove the lower hierarchy of animals is that animals don’t create art. Well, how many of us humans create music like Mozart and paint like Rembrandt? One last argument for animals being devoid of higher “human” faculties is that they can’t express themselves using languages. Well, what about the endless battles, fights and bitter divorce cases among biped primates who pride themselves on their civilized language skills? 
But do we really know what kind of inner mental activity the animals have? Animals observe and interpret natural phenomena, can solve complex problems and make distinct rational choices. Animals build nests in their own style and preference. If a bird needs to build a nest from scratch, the bird first needs to visualize a nest, then plan it’s construction, start gathering twigs and branches. As the construction progresses, the bird needs to check the progress of the construction by comparing it with the model of the nest in the head like any other human house construction engineer would check by comparing with drawings or plans.

Photo source: Wikimedia Commons

Other Forms of DivinityIn recorded human history before the age of patriarchy, we have had other forms of divinity such as mother Goddesses (the Hurrian Mother Goddess “Kheba” from which Eve supposedly gets her name), fire (Agni in Hinduism), thunder (Zeus in ancient Greece) or other ideas of divinity beyond the human capacity of description (Nirguna Brahman in Hinduism).

Image via Wikipedia

Animals used to be very common as forms of deities incarnate in almost all religions earlier. With the spread of Christianity and Islam, animals have become less visible in cult religion and rituals even among African cultures.
With all our technology and science, we know precious little about the real mental activity between our own ears. Observing that inner universe is, however, an endless source of fascination and inspiration. Maybe we could get glimpses of their inner states if we started respecting animals a bit more.

Is it possible that animals are not burdened with elaborate ideas and mythologies, over which they can fight endlessly by claiming their own interpretation as the only legitimate one fighting for? Maybe dogs, cows and mice don’t even need superdogs, supercows or supermice! Could it be that, in their own way, animals are closer to the divine than biped “higher” primates, humans!