Africa-Press – Uganda. A kinsman of the Ibokora Atekok Clan in Guyaguya Village, Katakwi District, whose dramatic return to his ancestral home last week after 66 years has spoken out.
When our reporter visited him at the weekend, Mr Patrice Okubal, 111, a man with a dark complexion, seemingly looked meek and reserved.
Okubal, by a twist of events, is now living up to the reality that while he was away, his children made him a grandfather to 139 grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
After being reunited with his clansmen and his two surviving children Pascal Awojat, 66, Rupina Amongin 70 last week, each day now presents an opportunity for Okubal to share memories with the locals.
“I am a free man now, with a free conscience,” Mr Okubal, a man of few words, told Daily Monitor at the weekend.
Mysterious departure
As the narrative holds, Okubal, who left his home village in 1957, when the Moroto –Soroti road was being opened for grading by the colonial masters, said he had a quarrel with his family upon losing his entire property to a gambling game, famously known to the Iteso as epiki.
“It is true, as I grew up, I picked passion for epiki from the elders,’’ said Mr Okubal, “So when I became a family man, with an inheritance of some livestock, I found the game as a leisurely aspect of the time”.
Okubal, whose family assumes he is 111, recalls that when he had nothing to stake, he offered his wife, the late Berita Olinga, in anticipation of winning back the lost livestock, but it was never the case.
“The tradition of the game was so strong that when one offered a wife, and the odds went against you, you ultimately lost the wife,” Mr Okubal said.
He recounts that in pursuit of his wife by gamblers, he came under the wrath of his children. “That is when I made up my mind to leave after being beaten’’.
Because children were meant to be submissive irrespective of the events, Mr Okubal said as a father, he felt offended to have been beaten by his children.
At that time, he recalls that since other feeder roads were also being worked on, he took up jobs as a casual labourer, which slowly led him to Sebei.
“I knew nothing about the area [Sebei]. I settled among the Kapchemikwen Clan, where I was received by the then Sebei county chief, Aloni Muzungyo. I was a refugee doing casual jobs,’’ he said.
Mr Okubal thanks God for the dramatic reunion with his family. “It is a joy being home, I have made peace, and everyone is happy,’’ he said.
His son, Pascal Awojat, said cleansing cultural rites that saw the breaking of the curses by Okubal after the reunion were conducted, and as surviving children, it has brought joy to the entire family.
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