Umuro Ruchi Dalacha

Gabra Historical Texts (2023-2024) Number: GHT002

Malabot

November 15, 2023

STUDY TEAM: Paul W. Robinson & Wata Guyo Ibrae

CONVERSATIONIST & TRANSLATION: Wata Guyo Ibrae

“The Ganna rains were poor. Moreover, dust storms blew off the roofs of many houses in Kalacha. There were no rains in Agaya. Abundant Sorara rains fell in areas west of North Horr and along the eastern parts of Lake Turkana.”

(Umuro Ruchi Dalacha)

Biography

Umuro Ruchi Dalacha was sixty-five years old when he was interviewed by Wata Guyo Ibrae at Malabot on November 15, 2023. He is a member of the Gadara clan of the Algana section of the Gabra. 

This interview contains little direct biographical information. Umuro’s contribution is instead a detailed reconstruction of the Gabra calendar from 1980 through 2023, recalling year names and events together with changing patterns of rainfall, drought, livestock loss, conflict, and other events by which individual years were remembered.

Original Transcript

Transcript (pdf.)

Synopsis

Recounting year to successive year, Umuro recalled the Ganna and Agaya rains, paying particular attention to their timing, distribution, and occasional interruption by Sorara, Somatale, and other out-of-season rains.

Umuro’s recollections encompassed years of severe drought, abundant rainfall, flooding, and livestock disease and mortality. He remembered years when seasonal rivers flowed and water pans filled, when heavy rains destroyed homes and swept away livestock, and when the failure of rains brought widespread losses. His account also included conflict and livestock raids involving neighboring communities, particularly the Dassanech and Borana, as well as events associated with Gabra ritual leadership, government policies, elections, and other public developments.

Approaching the final years of his chronology, Umuro recalled successive seasons of poor rainfall culminating in the severe drought of 2022, when both Ganna and Agaya failed. He concluded with Ahad Gaba, the Sunday year of abundant rains in 2023. Throughout the conversation, his detailed recollections of seasonal conditions and remembered events provide a chronology of Gabra pastoral life across more than four decades.

Interview Summary

In this interview, Wata asked Umuro Ruchi Dalacha to reconstruct the Gabra calendar from 1980 through 2023. Umuro identified year names and remembered events while consistently recalling the condition of the Ganna and Agaya rains and, in a number of years, Sorara and other out-of-season rains.

Much of Umuro’s chronology concerned rainfall and its consequences for people and livestock. Some years were remembered for severe drought or livestock mortality; others for unusually abundant rains, floods, or the filling and flowing of watercourses. Gumat Bisan Gudho/Chisa (1993), for example, combines the memory of heavy rains and widespread malaria, and the following year is remembered both for abundant rains and for large numbers of camels giving birth. By contrast, in 1996, many camels died from an unidentified disease in one specific location.

Umuro also recalled rainfall outside the regular Ganna and Agaya seasons. In 1983, although Ganna was poor and Agaya failed, abundant Sorara rains fell west of North Horr and along the eastern side of Lake Turkana. In 1988, heavy Ganna rains were followed immediately by Somatale rains, while later years were distinguished by the occurrence of Sorara rains.

Conflict and livestock raids also marked specific years in Umuro’s account. He recalled conflicts involving the Dassanech, Turkana, Borana, Rendille, and Samburu, including the 1997 Kokai massacre, the 2005 Torbi massacre, the Borana conflicts of 2006, and the 2008 raid at Chari Ashe. In 2022, both major rainy seasons failed, while Dassanech raiders took camels near Lake Turkana.

Umuro also associated certain years with political, ritual, and public events. These include the government harambee (community work) program of 1982, the initiation of the Luba of Haro Isako as Dabella in 1986, parliamentary elections, and the solar eclipse of 2013.

In the final years of Umuro’s account, he traced a succession of poor or failed rainy seasons. In 2019, 2020, and 2021, both principal rainy seasons were poor. In 2022 both failed completely and the drought became severe. Umuro then remembers 2023 as Ahad Gaba, the Sunday year of abundant rains, when both Ganna and Agaya were very good.

Notes

As with Abdub Wato Korre, Umuro’s reconstruction demonstrates how much historical information can be carried within the framework of the Gabra calendar. Remembered years encompass not simply whether rainfall was good or poor, but its timing and distribution, the occurrence of rains outside the principal seasons, the condition of watercourses, livestock reproduction and mortality, disease, conflict, and political and ritual events.

Umuro’s particular attention to Sorara, Somatale, and other rains also cautions against reducing environmental memory to a simple sequence of wet and dry years. The consequences of rainfall depended upon where and when it fell and what followed from it. The calendar provides the chronological structure, but the memories attached to individual years preserve a considerably more textured account of environmental and social experience.