The Family Responsibility

Asweda, being a strong man who could not let himself down, organized to marry the third wife. The pressure to find a son of his own was so high. He organized some strong men in the community who would steal a lady of his choice. He had identified a lady of his choice in the nearby village. In the community, women were married by being stolen forcefully by the men sent to accomplish the mission. The bride's brother would give a fight back in an effort to prevent their daughter from being snatched away by the strangers.

'Huchie, huchie', a loud voice was heard. 'Huchie' was just a word that was used to suggest excessive courage. The men passed through the hilly rocky paths. They later arrived late at the night. They straight went to the grandmother's hut and quickly grabbed their women of interest. The woman yelled loudly as the determined men made their way out of the hut. The brothers quickly made their way out to rescue their daughter. There was a serious struggle outside that took more than three hours. They managed to overpower them and ran away with their daughter.

They traveled all night as the woman cried out all through. The significance of the cry was mainly because of being taken away from her people. The following day, they arrived in style. They were welcomed in style. Ululation and dancing filled the place. The lady was so beautiful. Her dark complexity and beautiful eyes were really attracting. Asweda had raised his social status by marrying a third wife. The irony party of it was that Asweda had no house. His two wife and children were under the mercy of his mother. They were staying in a kitchen of the mother. There was no extra space for Asweda's third wife. Asweda's brothers in an effort to cover up the shame, they collectively participated to build three grass thatched houses for their brother. Each wife was to have her own house.

It was now time for Asweda to launch his third house officially. The society customs gave a clear guidance on how to do it. Asweda's aunt was assembled. She was to stay in that new house over the night. The aunt was to be awake throughout the night. She was to find convincing reason and evidence to confirm the bride was a virgin. Virginity was highly valued in that society. Those who were not virgin at the time of marriage could be forced to marry the aged or even the disabled people in the society. A white piece could be used by the couple at night and immediately they wake up an aunty could go and look for traces of blood. The presence of traces of blood confirmed that the bride was indeed virgin. The extend of struggle at night was also to be observed. The high struggle could suggest the possibility of virginity. The newly married woman passed the test as the assigned aunt confirmed her virginity.

The third wife was so fertile. She immediately conceived without further ado. Asweda was very happy and was expecting a son. Namrembo, Asweda third wife was determined to break the record by giving her husband a baby son. But now Asweda had to appreciate the wife's parent. Appreciation was mainly done by paying a dowry. Asweda had livestock at all to pay the dowry. He faced more pressure from Namrembo's parents who were impatient of waiting for their pending wealth. Two elderly men from Namrembo's community were sent to Asweda to confirm the commitment. On arriving they were astonished to find Asweda owning nothing. The young man had lost all his livestock to thieves. The plans get back his wealth was fruitless.

Asweda had to come up with a way to regain his lost glory. his desire to own a large herd of cattle was growing higher. He had to risk. Traditionally, the source of livestock could be either through dowry paying or cattle rustling. Asweda had a very young family. His first daughter was only eight years old. This meant that he could not have hope of getting wealth through payment of dowry for his daughter soon. He decided to organize for cattle rustling to steal a sizable number of cattle from a neighboring community. To execute this plan, he had to organize young strong men who would help him implement the plan. This time round, Asweda had to be sharp. Any slight mistake could have a huge impact on his life.

Asweda assembled ten young men who he had to train before they leave. The ten masculine men went through as thorough to learn new skills and tactics. They all made arrangement to get enough arrows and machetes. The had planned to steal at least one thousand livestock. This size was considerably enough to regain his wealth. The exercise was risky, so they had to consult ancestors and perform some rituals before they left. Asweda borrowed a bull from his brother assuring paying it back when he returns from the raid. He then slaughtered the bull in an effort to appease the ancestors. The ancestor had to bless and give a go ahead. Contrary to his expectation, the ancestors denied him a chance to perform the expected raid to the neighboring community. He insisted for a while but in vain. It was very difficult to overturn the ancestor's decision as it was final. Anyone who went against ancestor's directive would face a serious consequence. On most occasion, ancestor denied permission based on either the operation would not be successful or would even be dangerous and cause death. Asweda was very disappointed. He even cursed the ancestors for always being against him. It was now tough for Asweda to make a sober decision. He once thought of marrying his eight only daughter to gain wealth. Asweda cried silently for a while and later went to his newly married woman hut to comfort himself. The angry man ate a boiled potato and warm porridge and finally slept of.