Interesting history of Wagasi

This is a short history of Abakunta (Wagasi).

Abakunta are Bantu speaking peaple, and belongs to Abasuba tribe.

Currently this clan, part of them resides at North Mara in Tanzania and others at Suba district in Kenya.

FLIGHT OF ABAKUNTA FROM UGANDA.

Sometime around 1760, Kabaka Junju, the 26th King of the Buganda was assassinated in a great war. According to oral history, the King was killed by his brother, Semakookiro, with the help of two Abakunta warriors, Witewe and Kiboye. Semaakookiro assumed his brother’s throne, and seeking to tie-up loose ends, called a secret war council to eliminate Witewe and Kiboye. Fortunately for the Suba, a young court drummer named Mwembe overheard the Machiavellian scheme and warned the warriors. That same night, the three of them loaded up their canoes and fled across Lake Victoria with their families and possessions.

They sailed and paddle east along the Northern shore of Lake Victoria, warning relatives along the way and sparking an exodus of numerous Abakunta clans who feared the wrath of Semakookiro. These clans dispersed across the Lake Victoria, finally settling on the remote islands and shoreline of present-day Kenya. Fifteen generations later, the direct descendants of the court drummer Mwembe live today in a remote beach village on the southern tip of Mfangano Island in a region known as "Wakinga". Our friends in these indigenous communities build boats, tend farms, and catch fish, as their ancestors have done two and half centuries.
According to elders interviewed, Abakunta arrived in Mfangano island about between 1740 and 1763.

Settlement of the Abakunta — Mfangano Island

Kiboye reached Mfangano island as a bachelor. He sailed to the mainland of south Nyanza and built for himself a hut at a place which is today called Kisegi and trapped animals and fished there. One day Kiboye's fire went out and since there were few inhabitants, he decided to go to the top of the hill and try to spot any home nearby. He saw smoke rising somewhere and went there to ask for some fire. At that home he found the owner smoking an opium pipe which he shared with Kiboye who found out that the old man's wife had died and left him with one daughter. The old man's name was Wiga. The girl was old enough to be married and during their conversation, Kiboye expressed the wish to marry her. The father agreed provided Kiboye had cattle to pay for the bride price. Later on he left for Mfangano island. On reaching home, Kiboye told his brother, Witewe, that he had something he wanted to discuss with him. After eating, Kiboye told Witewe, his wife and their younger son, Muse, that he had found a girl and needed cattle for the bride price which they did not have as they had only recently arrived from Buganda and their daughters who in turn could have earned him cattle as bride price had not yet been married.Witewe then offered to give Kiboye one of his daughters whom he could exchange with Wiga, the old man, for Wiga's daughter. One of Witewe's daughter was called in and the situation

explained to her.
 She agreed to marry the old man Wiga upon Kiboye's promise that he would live with them. Before she could change her mind, Kiboye and his niece left for Gwasi the following day. When they reached Kiboye's hut, he left her there and went to see the old man. He told Wiga that as he had no cattle he had brought a girl whom Wiga could take as a wife and

Wiga agreed to give his daughter to Kiboye in exchange. Both men lived happily with their wives thereafter.

This history will be updated at any time