Gorrety Awino-To Be A Musician's Wife!

Women Like Gorrety!

Whenever Gorrety Awino is playing, I can't help but remember some girl I once betrothed in Seme. I don't remember her name but should someone bring me her picture when I am old and tired, I will show them where to touch to make her laugh, to make her dance. I still remember how she would bend her waist like this, shake her God-given derrière before jumping to a new position just when the words "mabiro cha" were mentioned. That was December 2009. I was in Form 3, but I already knew Gorrety or girls who could not turn out like her. It is why I don't her name. 

There is no doubt that Gorrety Awino is one of Omondi Long' Lilo's famous hits. But who is this woman Omondi is asking us to see? Well, here is to you, women who choose to be wives. Those who decided to get married to men they have been warned about. Those who approached marriage soberly, from its founding cultural setting where its issues are purified and sanctified by the long accumulated wisdom of the old. 

Gorrety is unique. She is not those who approach marriage with some sense of activism where indivisible roles and things are subjected to equality. In Gorrety, Omondi is talking about you, who was baked in the culture that valued family and respected some of its defining roles. That like any unit, there must be some recognized headship, a central source of direction that is looked up to with unquestionable respect. That the title of the Head of Family is not likened to a political post contested and won based on money, cognitive superiority, physical and strength. 

Gorrety is understanding. Having understood Omondi as the Musician he was, gave him all the support he needed in his career. This is the unique beauty of the lady Omondi has decided to praise. He deliberately does not tell us about her physical endowments which he does with other women she praises. He does not tell us about her painted lips, inflated butts or smoked eyebrows. Just her character and resilience. Things, Omondi were once abundant in our grandmothers and some of our mothers but, have become rare in ladies of today.

Gorrety has made a choice. She is those women who made a deliberate choice of choosing the (African) definition of family that has sustained life for centuries since Darwin discovered that it first evolved here in Africa. That really, this kind of setup has always gradually evolved and preferred its local context defeminations. That it hate to be corrupted by emotional debates of what happened yesterday. 

Gorrety is not not a fool. She up there with beautiful women who have studied, observed and theorized on the role of women as mothers, wives, leaders in their own rights. But even with that knowledge, they have escaped the trap of universalism in redefining it, and in the process, destroying its very basic principles that held it in position all these years. You who have refused the snares of crude presentation of the peaceful conversation on some fair distribution of gender roles that our women have always had with our men. Choosing, out of knowledge and not ignorance, to shun the fake doctrines of wokeness, civilization, some third-rate feminism, or just misplaced and misinterpreted intersectionality.

That is the trap Gorrety Awino never fell for! Not that Gorrety was some old school woman, uninformed and unworthy. Not that she did not know some of these things people have said. Not that snitches did not try to confuse her. They tried and Long' Lilo knew of it. Omondi talks of Josem (snitches) who are constantly trying pursue her. Gorrety Awino knew all there ways but accepted her realities and chose to be Omondi's wife. She chose the rural wife and lived it. She chose to take care of their home as any woman of respectable face. This is why she is special to Omondi and she received one of his best compositions. Listen.

Jomoko bende awinjo ni sem ohingo semi nono
(I have heard that some snitches are badmouthing me for no reason)

Gikoni ni Wuod Odit nohero chodo
(They are telling you that Son of Odit is adulterous)

Gikoni Wuod Ajenny jothum lalga
(They are telling you that Wuod Ajenny (like other musicians) will hardly come back home)

Abenny Jachiga's Death and the Conversation on Village Wives

Now, around the same time Omondi died, Luo land had lost yet another Ohangla sensation, Abenny Jachiga. His death exposed the side that that no one, except his close friends and family, knew. Besides allegedly keeping a mistress in town, Jachiga had his first wife staying with his parents in the village. Immediately after his death, the social media streets were awash with photos of his wives and children in the village. The photos that trended were of his two wives, the one who opted to stay in his rural home and the one living with him in the city. 

The photos stirred the streets with many people demonizing the late for choosing to neglect the village wife with his children at home. They were in a rush to portray the village life as poor and unlivable as opposed to the sweet city life. But in my view, it was a wrong way to see other people's choices. But even more, what a foolish way to portray the urban life as good life that every woman should desire!

Abenny's village wife (that's what she was called), just like Gorrety, had made her choice. She knew it, even before getting into it and understood her role. She understood, with all the difficulties imagined, that some of these (Luo) musicians are womanizers. That there are no (Luo) musician with money who can stick to one wife. That some (Luos) can choose to gourmandize themselves with tantalizing nouvelle cuisine, adorn themselves in splendiferous gowns and designer suits, transport themselves in Pal-V Liberty quadcopter. 

BUT still forget to construct a mud-walled grass-thatched house back in the village. There are a few things they demanded before getting into that world and when they were assured of it, they got into that world willingly. In that world, the Gorrety Awinos of this world recognized their roles and maintained homes that were built, looked after children they birthed and kept the vows they made till death came. That is the woman Long' Lilo sang so heartily about. That was the woman Omondi wanted us to see coming.

Omondi Goes to Death!

We learn that there are many days Omondi went out but came back and still found Gorrety. Sometimes Omondi went south in both deeds and distance but came back and still found Gorrety. One day Omondi went to sickness that attacked his physical strength, financial stamina and threw him out of stage but he still came back and found Gorrety with him on his sick bed. And even when Omondi went to death and never returned, Gorrety was there by his side! She buried him next to her house. She has kept his home to date, looking after their children who are in their secondary schools.  Gorrety Awino, is the woman Omondi trusted with all his tumult. 

Listen
Gima omiyo aweronu nyako duweya mondo apimnue
The reason I am praising this woman let me tell you

Nyathi gi Patty ema orito dala makata aonge
Sister to Patty is the one who takes care of my home even in my absence

Makata adhi Narobi kapango to nyaka aduog ayude
Even if I go to Narobi to live in that rented life, I still come back and find her

Makata achwe Mombasa nam chumbi to nyaka aduog ayude
Even if extend to the (salty coast) of Mombasa, I still come back and find her

Ah mabiro cha! Aneno ang'oo?
Mabiro cha, Omondi, donge aneno jaber!

Who is that, coming?
That one, Omondi, is the beautiful one.

May there be Gorretys. May we be them. May we find them!