JOHN KITIME MY LIFE 2

 

After officially getting the job as the royal trimmer, Siutanda Kimwagutangu was allowed to search for the best place to stay where he could also get the best roofing grass, he ended up at a place near where he was buried and he called the place Katenge. Mutwa Mkwava gave him four wives, they were all from different tribes, as was common then, the powerful Chief Mutwa had slaves from all the tribes he had conquered. Kimwagutangu had  the following wives;

1.  Semsongo  Mponela of   the vaHehe tribe, she was later baptized as a Catholic and got a new name Getrude

2.  Se Chavala  of the vaTsungwa tribe

3.  Se Muhumba  of  the vaMmasai tribe

4.  Se Ndelemba of the vaSangu tribe

 Siutanda Kimwagutangu went on to have at least 17 children. Some of the names of these children were;

Gwakumaliha –female, she must have died before 1914, I will explain that later.

Waligunga – male,

Sambigavalye/ Mwendikiboko– male. He was to become my grandfather and my friend, he was later baptized as a Catholic and was named Raphael. The names Sambigavalye which literary meant he would soon be counted, and would have to start paying taxes. He must have been given that name during his early teens, He was also nicknamed Mwendikiboko literally loves to be canned, which must have been given  to him when he was  small child, it was a name he was given because he was a lazy eater and only ate after being threatened with being canned. 

Vangumsindo – male,  Vangumsindo means ‘start the rumble’, he got this name because of his loud voice, he was also nicknamed  Chogilwa

Yusuph, male,  His original kiHehe name was Chotumpanga, he later became an assistant to a witchdoctor, traditionally known as ’ndundami’. He was sworn never to marry more than one wife, he married Sembata. When he  married the second wife he died soon after that. 

Galisonela –male

Fwalisimba- male

Michael –male

Yasing’ombe  - male, he died while young.  He was the herder of his father’s cattle.  The name Yasingómbe means “cattle looser”.  He must have  lost some cattle while herding.

 

Fwalamakuwo - male , he died very young.  The name Fwalamakuwo means “put on  a war outfit.” He was always in fighting mood

Gungawene- male

Muhanila- female,  all daughters of Kitime clan are now identified as Muhanilas

Mwimbile-male  (the last born).  Of all the children of Siutanda Kimwagutangu Kitime, he was the picture copy of his father.

Siutanda Kimwagutangu Kitime was baptized on the day that he was dying.  He asked his relatives “Ndisaka upatiso” meaning ‘I want to be baptized’ and the name that he choose or remembered was Francis, the name of his grandson, my father.  He died in 1943.

Siutanda Kimwagutangu's grave

Most of Kimwagutangu’s sons went on to have children of their own, and the Kitime clan grew.
From his wife Getrude SeMponela, he got two sons. Waligunga who was also later baptized as Francis and Mwendikiboko who was later baptized as Raphael my grandfather.

Getrude Se Mponela was divorced from my  Siutanda Kimwagutangu Kitime and was later remarried to Silanga Mwamilimo and went on to have three more  children Anna Maria, Joseph and  Anthony. Anthony later became a notorious thief, I will tell of his exploits later.

Waligunga’s first wife was Seligambasi, they parted and she got married to Chogavanu Mwamsongo.  Waligunga second wife was SeMhema with whom he had several children, Some of Waligunga’s children were Simon, Dominicus, Augusta whose traditional name was Gilasa, Maria, Samwel whose traditional name was Ndang’anu, Paul, Gwido also known as Galifwesa, Alois, Emiliana and Emmanuel. Although all his children were baptized Roman Catholics, he Waligunga was  baptized on his death bed just like his father he also took the name of Francis.

 Waligunga’s first son Samweli went on to become reasonably wealthy in his community, he had a shop a farm and several cows. His second son Dominicus who was also nicknamed Yumbila because he used to walk with a sway,  Dominicus was a character, in 1940 Dominicus joined the same school as my father but soon dropped out.  He was close to my father and I remember  he always visited us. Dominicus was also alleged to have been a wizard. There was a time his father and all his brothers ganged up and made a plan to kill him, someone tipped him and he was prepared when they came to him and the plan failed. Because of his alleged exploits as a wizard, one day his mother cursed him and said “Veve sa galya madege na lugeleka lwako si luwoneka!’ meaning “You will be eaten by birds and no one shall ever see your grave.   But these words came to pass. Dominicus joined a gang of poachers and one day while in the forest hunting, his partners left him to guard their camp, when they came back, they only found lots of blood and things thrown around showing there had been a big struggle, No trace of Dominicus was ever found. One of the members of the gang, Mwakibiki, brought back to the family, a handful of dust from bloodied area. That was the end of Dominicus Yumbila.