If the way to a Luhya heart is through his/her stomach, then to play perfect host you have to know ugali as only a Luhya can. Ugali goes by various names among the 18 houses of mulembe including busuma, obusuma, buchima, vuchima, eboso, liposo and more. It is a humble staple that has threatened the thrones of kings,made and broken presidencies, dissolved marriages and even occasioned death.
Believe it or not, the appetite of a Luhya can be gauged by the way they chose to call ugali. As a result, I have witnessed my sisters from elsewhere married to my brothers from ingo struggling to keep their houses based simply on this nuance. Before we dive into the details of why and how they struggle, one rule of the thumb: no PROPER omundu strong will make do with noodles, chapati, rice and such after a hard day’s work.
My brothers have been brought up to respect, adore and worship busuma. So much so that you can tell how hungry he is just by how he chooses to call his maize meal.
Gauging appetite by name of ugali as only a Luhya can
Busuma
When he simply calls ugali, busuma, it means he is not that hungry having an average appetite.
Sifu
When a Bukusu man calls ugali, sifu, it means they’ve got a slightly above average appetite. The appetite that one has after skipping lunch.
Liposo
But if your man refers to ugali as liposo it means he has a dangerous appetite! Probably a cane cutter or a brick maker or a laborer who has ploughed a whole acre of land having eaten little. As you bring him his ugali, give him plenty of water to wash up as he’s likely to wash his hands up to the elbow in preparation for his rampage through the gorogoro of ugali.
Siumba mechi
In Lubukusu, this simply means something that makes water stick together. One who uses this phrase may harbor an appetite like that of a teenage boy who eats every other time without getting satisfied.
Other 20+ terms related to busuma to help you know ugali as only a Luhya can
Everything on cooking, serving and enjoying ugali. Learn Luhya words from the various houses of mulembe on ugali. See ugali as only a Luhya can through its various forms and states between cooking and enjoyment. And as always, it’s all peppered with bits of Luhya culture.
Bwa maindi/ bwa menula/ bwe bulo / bwo muoko or mwoko
In mulembe, ugali is commonly made from maize flour. This white ugali is referred to as busuma bwa maindi or bwa maduma in lulogoli. Brown ugali made from millet (often mixed with sorghum and/or cassava) is referred to as busuma bwa menula or busuma bwa mwoko if it contains cassava flour. The Maragoli call this brown ugali obusuma vurogori or gwo voro.
Funfact: In important Luhya traditional events such as khuboa chinyinja, traditional marriage ceremony, kuviika kesegese, enganana and others, it is a travesty not to serve brown ugali made from sorghum and/or millet. Apart from being a given in traditional ceremonies, brown ugali is also the choice during pregnancy and convalesce.
Omwami mwene
Khualikha
Khualikha is a term that has more than one meaning in Bukusu language. First meaning is the act of a man marrying a second wife. The second meaning of khualikha is to place a sufuria with water on fire ready to make ugali. The Maragoli on the other hand call this act kuarika.
Khurakho lucho
Back in the days, ugali was cooked in a special pot. The special flat pot is referred to as lucho in Lubukusu. Khurakho lucho simply means placing the pot for making ugali on a fire ready to prepare ugali.
Khunukhila
Adding some flour to the boiling water. It is thought this helps the water boil much faster.
Khufuka busuma
Khufuka busuma in Bukusu language is the act of cooking ugali using a cooking stick. Kuruga busuma is how it is said in Kimaragoli.
Khumiula busuma
This is the act of pressing the cooking ugali between your cooking stick and the inner wall of the cooking pan or pot to remove lumps of flour and mix it all in.
Khukabula busuma
Khukabula busuma is when one serves ugali once cooked; dividing it into different plates depending on the groups of people being served.
Fun fact: In a proper Luhya household, the man of the house is served his ugali on a separate plate. The roots of this practice lie in the traditional home where the man was polygamous and lived in a hut by himself at the center of his homestead. His wives would then prepare meals and send children over to serve their father.
Omwami Mwene.
In today’s ‘unified’ monogamous or pseudo monogamous households, this acts saves the man of the house the indignity of jostling with children for ugali when its a single serving. Old wives tale has it that serving him separately could help a wife know if someone else was helping her cook for her husband. Moreover, this simple act cements the man’s role as the provider as he would ‘donate’ some of his if he noticed the children don’t have enough.
Khumeka busuma
This is the art of taking several bite sized pinches of busuma at a go and then shaping your ‘loot’ with your fingers. The ugali is made into a shape that facilitates it being used as a scoop to pick whatever stew or vegetable it has been served with. Often shaping it into a shallow scoop by the press of the thumb works best.
Local legend has it that the traditional capital of Western Kenya, Kakamega town, got its name from this Luhya word. According to the tale, European settlers in their travels to Kakamega and were invited for a meal of ugali by the locals by being asked to mega. When they did as the Romans did, the locals expressed their delight by saying: Kakamega; meaning, he/she has mega busuma. But because they did it in small pinches, the prefix ‘kaka’ denoting small was added.
Kudongera
This is what Mulogoli says when you shape your ugali into a ball, dip it in soup and take a bite.
Khuumba busuma
Khuumba or kuvumba means shaping. Once the ugali is cooked, to get its presentation right, the ugali is shaped into a smooth dome using a wet cooking stick or the backside of a clean plate. Moreover, during khumekha the act of shaping ugali with your fingers into a scoop is known as khuumba.
Funfact: Khuumba or kuvumba is an integral part of enjoying obusuma. This is because, if the ugali is poorly made or under cooked, the devil is let out. Poorly mixed, under cooked or reheated (not fresh) ugali falls apart hardly holding shape after kuvumba. Moreover when too much flour was used in making the ugali, the consistency is not right and this tells during khuumba.
Omwami mwene
Khukinura or khura busuma mumechi
This is when the outer flaky cover of leftover ugali is shaved off, then the ugali is cut into small pieces and added into the water during kuarika. Together, the leftover ugali and water is heated into a boil. Towards the end, the mixture is stirred to break down the added ugali. The end result is a porridge-like paste of varied thickness depending on the amount of leftover ugali that had been added. To this paste, more flour is added to prepare a new meal of ugali. Khukinura helps avoid food wastage.
Bukhakasu
This is left over ugali. Often growing up in the village, vugeni as the Maragoli call it, made for choice accompaniment to tea in the morning. Talk of enjoying ugali as only a Luhya can.
Kamatolito
Is the Bukusu word for lumps of unmixed flour that form when one is making ugali. The Maragoli call these lumps zibunda. Never serve a Luhya ugali with zibunda as this is considered amateurish.
Busuma butoro
Or busuma vudoto in Lulogoli is buchima that’s been perfectly cooked to a soft consistency. Cooking the perfect ugali takes practice and great skill. Bususma butoro goes down well with Luhya delicacies such as muduya and mrenda.
Busuma buangalale
This is hard ugali. This ugali is usually frowned at because it is associated with constipation.
Siriongi
This is a term used to describe a portion of ugali that one has mega from a plate. Though not common today, back in the day ugali was served in a large plate to be enjoyed communally. No knife to cut yourself a portion as you go as it is today. One would then be given their bowl of stew and the amount of ugali they enjoyed depended on how skilled they were at khumekha siriongi from the common serving of busuma.
Emeki
Same as siriongi.
Likenya
This is a term used to describe a big chunk of ugali like a quarter a plate of obusuma.
Endubi
This is a term used to refer to a plate full of ugali.
Khubikha busuma esibero
Refers to the art of keeping ugali to be enjoyed later by the fireplace to ensure it remains hot by the heat from what’s left of the fire.
If you don’t know marondo, then you don’t know ugali only as a Luhya can
When you cook ugali as it hardens from watery through paste consistency and to finally a mash, some of it sticks to the cooking pan or pot. As the ugali cooks, part of it that sticks to the pan hardens to something close to tortilla chips. For most cooks, this crunchy stuff remains stuck to the pot and is basically waste. But for expert ugali cooks, it comes of partially or fully in the shape of the cooking vessel.
Now enjoying ugali only as a Luhya can demands ugali to be served alongside its marondo. The kamaandu as the Bukusu call it is then enjoyed as-is, while awaiting for the table to be fully set. Further, marondo can also be enjoyed by your guest as a snack soon after the meal. In these instances, marondo serves as a confirmation of just how good the ugali was. Moreover, kindly note that marondo is an intimate thing that’s offered only to close relations. By close, I talk of those who you have no qualms walking into your kitchen.
Scrapping the marondo that remains stuck to the vessel that cooked busuma. This is only possible after water is added into the sufuria and left to soak for a while. The water helps loosen the kamaandu making it easy to scrape off with a spoon.
Fun fact: The Lubukusu word for marondo, kamaandu, is also what a last born child is affectionately called among the Bukusu. This is because they are the last fruits of their mother’s womb. Learn more: Marondo and lastborns: The curious link between ugali, womb and pot among the Luhya.
Omwami Mwene