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There are tales that when told may sound like they are a product of a hyperactive brain or the works of a literary genius, but when probed further, they turn out too be completely true and stranger than fiction 1 such story is the story of Mama Dorcas, she is a member of the Abasuba ethnic group, a member of the larger ethno linguistic group recognized as the Bantu, that inhabit the southern tip of Nyanza Province in Kenya upon the shores of Lake Sang’o popularly recognized as Lake Victoria.

Claim To Fame

The members of this community have a peculiar claim to fame that they share with only 1 other of the myriad ethnic communities in Kenya For out of the over 42 ethnic groups resident in Kenya the only other community that is recognized to bend the laws of nature to make or break rain is the Bunyore community Mama Dorcas is an unassuming octogenarian Grandmother who inherited the power of rain making from her parents as a teenager when her parents died.

She also has the power to heal and stop poor omens and control lightning When the area experiences a dry spell she is referred to as upon by her community to make rain For her to partake in any of the above rituals the senior most elders of her community should be summoned and be present, they have to come with some form of payment for her commonly in the form of a cow or some dollars.

The Procedure

She then proceeds by applying a concoction of herbs at the meeting place; it may well involve the planting of a specific herb at a place agreed upon by all the elders She also claims to have the power of stopping rainfall at any given time She just uproots whatever she planted and the rain stops appropriate away After the application of her herbs and the planting of the rain inducing herbs, the community has to wait for two weeks for the rains to start Whilst she indulges in this activity all women and youngsters are banished from that place.

The ritual she performs is ordinarily completed along this lines Mama Dorcas arrives with her herbal concoction and sends a person to fetch water from the river or lake utilizing a pot or a plastic container The water fetcher has to observe some really strict unbreakable rules, when they are on the outbound journey they should not look back; the exact same applies to them when they are heading back from fetching the water.

Sacrificial Calf

With the water having been brought and in the presence of the assemblage of elders a pretty white coated unblemished calf is provided for slaughter The meat from the calf is roasted and eaten there with out any ugali, (a form of bread resulting from a mixture of water and maize/millet flour), and none of the remaining roasted meat is to be carried from that place As she applies her concoction somebody has to have a hollow reed which is employed to blow into the water until bubbles form that reflects the colors of the rainbow.

Invoking The Ancestors

At this point she makes some incantations invoking the spirits of her ancestors whilst simultaneously applying her herbs a mixture of green leaves of a particular plant and a black concoction After this ritual everybody leaves with the expectation that it will rain in 3 days time In the intervening period Mama Dorcas Experiences pretty warm and sweaty nights until finally on the third day the clouds pregnant with rain break and feed the dry caked earth

She does a comparable ritual to stop lightning only that in this case she plants her herbs in the middle of the homesteads and on top of the houses and granaries, this protects the inhabitants from the fiery effects of lightning , you have to make a point of visiting this place to believe this account that sounds stranger than fiction .

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