Joseph R Alila

Rebels Joseph R Alila

In Joseph R Alila's novel REBELS, set in Kenya's 1970s and early 1980s, a widowed bride (Betty Kinda), flees from the custody of her parents on realizing that her fate is in the hands of her in-laws, who must give her a replacement husband before the burial of her late fiancé (Mika Olongo). Reaching Kisumu City, Betty meets one Nurse Rose, an annealed widow, who not only shields and adopts her but also enrolls her in a day secondary school (she is pregnant). Suddenly, the young widow has put her in-laws (the Ombos of Korondo Ridge) and her parents (the Kindas of Rabuor Ridge) in a culturally untenable situation. For a period, tempers flare across the Nyogunde Valley, over how the Ombos would meet their mourning obligations to the late Olongo when his widow/bride is in school tens of miles away. Betty eventually accepts one Luka Okiya-the replacement husband her in-laws 'post' to her. Okiya, the Luo jater (levirate), turns out to be a perfect match with Betty; after all, he is the man whose overtures she ignored in favor of the late Olongo. Thanks to Nurse Rose and Betty's hard-working 'husband', who is willing to play any supporting family role, Betty catches the metaphorical wind and flies with it: she eventually completes high school, with a college qualification (to study law) and two sons-one for the Ombos and, symbolically, the other for the Marikos (Okiya's family). Not to be left behind, Okiya, her dedicated jater (levirate), joins college to study government. These rebels, who even tie the knot in an unprecedented (at least on Korondo Ridge) sneak church wedding, graduate from college, with three sons and a daughter cheering them on!While the Okiyas sweat it out among Kenya's urban diaspora, raising children as they climb the academic ladder and eventually become senior government officers, back home, on Okiya's Korondo Ridge, several verbal wars rage on over their high-visibility levirate union. These are wars over whether Betty's loyalty should belong with the Ombos (the late Olongo's family) or with the Marikos (Okiya's family); whether the two cultural rebels shouldn't have wedded in church; whether Okiya can override Luo cultural dictates and start a new home for the widow (Betty) before he marries his own wife and starts a home for her; whether, in matters of land, settlement and inheritance, Betty and her children belong with the Ombos or with the Marikos (Okiya's family). Betty discovers that these seemingly mundane matters (to her day's increasing liberal minds) can mean life or death-her brother-in-law (Ziki Ombo) attempts to kill her son Mark over the future of the Ombo family land. At its core, JR Alila's REBELS is about the modern Luo at war with her past that is not letting go easily. In this enduring heart-warming love story, we learn that even rebels eventually meet their match. When Okiya greases his hand, in anger, after their son Mark calls him an unthinkable name, Betty finds herself tested to the limit. She is split between building the legacy of her late husband (Olongo) and her continued loyalty to Okiya-the jater (levirate) who pulled her out of the spiritual dust cloud of her late husband and joined her in chasing a modern dream, formal education. Betty, the trained family lawyer, realizes that a Luo jater (levirate) can't be divorced! But yes, he can be ejected. Will she do that at the expense of family unity?