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As all roads lead to Siaya County for the much-awaited three-day Luo Cultural and Sports Festival that began yesterday, one of the key cultural events will be Tero Buru.

The climax of the event to be graced by President William Ruto, Chief Guest President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda and former Prime Minister Raila Odinga will be a football match between Gor Mahia and Kitara FC from Uganda to mark the official opening of Siaya Stadium.

According to an itinerary of the festival, besides Presidents Ruto Museveni and Raila, other dignitaries will include South Sudan Vice President Rebecca Nyandong Garang, several Cabinet Secretaries from both Kenya and Uganda, governors and MPs and scholars.

Some of the scholars scheduled to give lectures on the theme: “Spirit of the Luo Nation—Luo Unity in Diversity and in the Luo Diaspora”, include Prof Adwok Nyaba, Dr Olara Otunu and Prof Bethwell Ogot.

While Dr Ruto, Museveni, Ruto, Raila and Ms Garanga will later be crowned Luo elders, other participants will also be taken on a tour of Jaramogi Oginga Mausoleum, various Got Ramogi shrines and Luo traditional huts.

 Tero Buru grandmaster in Siaya County Dr Nicholas Kut Ochogo has announced that all arrangements are ready for the tero buru event.

     “As a community, we are very proud of our culture and heritage. We shall be showcasing Luo culture and tero buru will be one of them,” said Dr Kut.

He revealed that cattle which will be used for the demonstration are already in place and elders together with selected youth who will participate are ready and have been identified. Tero buru which is a preserve of men is an old ritual conducted when an elderly man dies in the Luo community.

It involves participants running and jumping while chasing cattle to the nearest river singing war songs and blowing horns, hitting imaginary spirits with clubs and spearing the spirits.

 The participants dress in hides and traditional akala shoes made of old tyres as they drive away spirits from the home of the deceased.

According to Dr Kut the present generation in the Luo community doesn’t know nor do they understand the significance of the tero buru ritual and it’s time they are brought upto speed.

 “During the burial of former Education Minister Peter Oloo Aringo in his home village in Siaya l led in organising tero buru ritual which was very successful and majority of the youth were learning about it for the first time,” he said.

Unique culture

Just like other communities in Kenya, Luos have it’s own unique culture and traditions which Dr Kut says has been forgotten with generations and leadership in the four counties in Nyanza Kisumu, Siaya, Homa Bay and Migori have revolved to revive the forgotten culture.

 Dr Kut who is a former lecturer at the University of Nairobi says among them is rituals or you can call it funeral rites which has to be observed and conducted when an elderly member of the community dies.

“Some of the notable rituals are tero yuak, vigils, shaving the hair, dividing what belonged to the deceased, remembrance and tero buru just to mention but a few “, he said adding that shaving the head used to be a must when a father or a mother dies but these days that is not being practised.

  “Tero buru has been in existence from time memorial and it forms part of the burial rituals when an elderly man dies in the community. During the tero buru ritual, young men carrying twigs run with herds of cattle from the homestead of the deceased and part of the group beats drums in the process while blowing horns at the same time,” Dr Kut said.

“In most cases the teru buru procession which starts from the homestead with a group of selected men and youth heads towards the nearest river and they are joined by other mourners along the way. Those participating return to the homestead in the afternoon where they are received by the eldest son of the deceased with song and dance as part of the ritual which symbolises that the eldest son has been bestowed leadership left vacant by his father “ he said.

He emphasised the fact that participating in tero buru is strictly a preserve of men and only elders and selected youths participate in tero buru.

 “At the start of the procession the youth take the cows to the homestead of the deceased whereby the cows are chased crazily around the homestead as elders jump, blow horns and dance around the compound holding spears or clubs and shields. The clubs are used to hit imaginary spirits while the spears are also used to spear imaginary spirits and drive away the imaginary spirits “ he added.

As tradition demands those participating in tero buru ritual have to wear traditional regalia like hides, akala sandals made of used tyres.

The ritual involves singing war songs and psyching the cows to turn wild while participants jump around wildly as they lead the cows to the nearest river symbolising that the evil spirits have been chased away from the homestead completely.

Tero buru is a tradition performed for only elderly men and it has two stages whereby first stage is done on a small scale and the second stage is done on a bigger scale compared to the first scale. The first stage of teru buru which is done on a smaller scale usually marks the beginning of mourning period.

 Apart from tero buru, other events lined up for the will be the football match pitting Kenya’s most successful soccer club Gor Mahia against little known Kitara from neighbouring Uganda.

Apart from President Ruto, President Museveni, former Prime Minister Raila and several invited guests, all the for Governors from Nyanza counties Prof Anyang’ Nyong’o (Kisumu), Gladys Wanga (Homa Bay), Ochilo Ayacko (Migori) and the host James Orengo (Siaya) will grace the historic occasion.

Initially Tanzania’s top club Yanga was to take on Gor but due to their tight schedule in the continental arena saw them withdraw at the 11th hour throwing the organisers into a spin which saw Kitara FC brought in to replace Yanga.