When personal spirits go rogue: Manoeuvres of night runners of Homa Bay

A graphic illustration of night runners.[Courtesy]

I kept hearing about juogi a lot as I grew up but couldn’t understand what it is. Juogi is the Luo word for spirits, but my inquisitive mind kept asking what the modern or scientific equivalent of it.

It always came up when someone acted weird or an excuse for turning someone down. The reason given is that his personal spirit has rejected that person.

When I was writing my second book about Luos and Luhyas, I decided to take a deep look at this concept. In the end, I could not deduce the scientific angle to this phenomenon. However, I managed to bring out some aspects of it to help people grappling with understanding the concept.

Later, someone brought up the aspect of night running being beneficial to pastoralists in the past.

The concept of night running is attributed to personal spirits gone rogue. How else would someone naturally wake up to do physical exercises at night, scare people and run around? It is said that they don’t decide, if the spirits come upon them they will leave the house naked and go out in the dark.

Intelligence

According to the explanation, this trait was beneficial to pastoralist communities because there were people out in the night. They may not have been armed to protect but they could hide and watch people without being seen. They were known to the chiefs and leaders so whenever cattle were stolen, they would be consulted to reveal which direction the cattle were taken. If they saw the rustlers, they would also reveal their looks and probable place of origin.

They were the intelligence officers back in the day despite the stigma associated with the art. They informed the leaders of men having affairs with other people’s wives in the dead of the night. If a young girl got pregnant, however hard the man responsible tried to conceal it, if they met at night a few times, a night runner will know and someone will know.

Prosperity

Recently, I bumped into a research report that said Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD) is an evolutionary trait from hunter-gatherer communities.

ADHD comes with novelty, which is the quality of being original, or unusual, impulsivity, and high sense of alertness. These traits offered considerable adaptive advantages.

These traits are inclined towards exploration. They led people to discover vital resources and spot dangers in good time, which enhanced survival.

This led to the prosperity of communities and the people with this trait were adored and valued.

Fast forward to modern day, and ADHD is looked at as a mental challenge. That is why it is a disorder. It enabled people with it into rapid decisions and take immediate action.

 In the environments of the past, such responsiveness was crucial for evading predators. It also came in handy in spotting and grabbing fleeting opportunities. Furthermore, this ability was very advantageous in managing the demands of a nomadic lifestyle.

The fact that ADHD has persisted through generations and it was recently identified in the genes means that it once accorded people a survival or reproductive advantage.

The challenge in the modern day is the environment. The structures of the modern world make people with ADHD to struggle socially, in schools and in office jobs.

Stigma

On the flip side, people with ADHD are creative; they have high energy levels, which makes them valuable as entrepreneurs, sports people and artists.

These are spaces that require out-of-the-norm innovation and thinking.

I can imagine a future study of Homa Bay Night Runners Association members.

Maybe this dark art is both a genetic and environmental trait. The descendants of night runners who have taken the habit could be very valuable in jobs where the grave yard shift is common.

People will be left wondering why they flourish in such shifts but they won’t reveal the reasons because of the stigma associated with it.