A WORD FOR THE BABY SEATER GENERAL (BSG) _ ABABU NAMWAMBA…
By Justus Atuti
In the Kisii Community, where I come from, modern or not, today or yesterday, and even tomorrow, men never stayed home to baby seat. Men never took, and never will they take paternal leave to sit around with their wives to babysit….it is an abomination.
The Luyiah community where the BSG, Ababu NAMWAMBA comes from is no exceptional. The Bantu men never buy such nonsense.
But amongst the Kisii community, only 2 scenarios made a man turn to be a baby sitter. The first was what the community called KABABA. The second was a scenerio where a wife passed on. I will expound on each.
KABABA is known to be a traditional magic that women used in the traditional society to tame rogue men, men who couldn’t zip up or tame their wagging dogs. Jealousy women would visit traditional herbalists , who would prepare herbs and pass them to the women at a price and with instructions. The medicine had to be dispensed to the man.
The body system would then be neutralized and all memory in the man erased. On the process, he would adopt the fear for the human race, except his wife. The man abandons the job if he has any. The man abandons responsibilities if any and chooses to stay home as his wife takes the role of the family including that of the head and disciplinary committee. Of interest is the sudden change of behavior and heart. The man hides under the bed every time he sees any human race, other than his wife.HE BECOMES THE BABY SITTER GENERAL (BSG) that Ababu Namwamba has become, under the reversed roles.
The second scenerio is where a man is left alone after the death of his wife. He fully takes the roles of the baby sitter through his lifespan. I will not expound on this as it doesn’t affect Ababu.
And how does the community respond on both scenarios?
The community comes in total support and sympathy to the man who has lost his wife through death. The community supplies the man with food, firewood, water, comfort, and sometimes women offer to keep him warm. Relatives and friends care for the children in turns . They belong to the community and the community owns up to them.
In the case of KABABA, the woman is chased away and excommunicated from the society as she is evil.The community struggles to ensure the man is treated and the wrong medicine reversed. It becomes a communal responsibility at this point, to rehabilitate the man.
Back to Ababu Namwamba:
While his roles were reversed that reduced him to a Babysitter General (BSG), his wife came to the public to insult and denounce Kenyans, of course this was in order given that, Namwamba had chosen to stay home to baby seat and hide from the public domain. Meanwhile, Ababu confessed to the public that he was on a paternal leave, at home, babysitting, away from the public eye, keeping away from the human race that went looking for him.
Today, Ababu Namwamba, out of the shame, has changed tune, citing frustration from the public. Basically he says that he is so pissed off by the public demands for his where bouts and why a SG of a party will suddenly go missing.
The rest, let the public be the judge…as we donate more baby diapers to Ababu…
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