Tugo-The Osiri Beach Festival 2012: A Unique Festival on Lake Victoria! Featuring: Performances, reading parties, exhibitions, book launches, nature trails, and heritage shows

Tugo—The Osiri Beach Festival (28-31 December 2012) will officially be opened on the 29^th December 2012. As usual, it will be quite a unique affair featuring traditional sports, performances and drama, discussions and exhibitions as well as artist delegations from all districts in Kenya. This will be the only festival in Kenya and probably in Africa that revives and showcases traditional African sports like swimming with hippos, and performances like the creation procession and the Luo tero buru. Tours of the Winam Gulf of Lake Victoria (including a visit to the Ruma Natinal Park, the prehistoric walls—some of which are at Osiri Hill, the mythical landscapes, Obama’s Kogelo Village) will be available at any time, but must be prearranged with OSBECARF. We strongly urge you to go and see at least some of the events. Staying at Osiri Beach cottages is highly recommended. Enquiries at: osiribeach@gmail.com  or addyonyando@yahoo.com. Please ask for the calendar of events for the Osiri Beach Festival courtesy of Osiri Beach Education and Career Forum (OSBECARF).

About OSBECARF and 2012 Festival

Osiri Beach Education and Career Forum (OSBECARF), a registered CBO that seeks to rid this part of the world of poverty, ignorance and despair (and to that effect has already sponsored over 100 students in schools and colleges with the help of IBBY Finland, Utdanningshjelpen, Pangolin Publishers Ltd and individual sponsors.
The December 2012 festival is special as it will be celebrated under the theme: Culture for Literacy and Global Cooperation. There will be book launches, reading parties and celebration of education in general. In the full glare of nature—the flora and fauna—we shall also climb Mount Huma  as one fundraising activity for the Osiri girls, who will be for the first time—FOR THE FIRST TIME—attending college.

Come one, come all!

Acknowlwdgements

We fondly acknowledge all our sponsors and supporters for this annual event, namely, IBBY Finland, Utdanningshjelpen, Pangolin Publishers Ltd., Hon Martin Ogindo, Mr Isaiah Ogwe,  Mr Achacha of Wiobiero Secondary School, Mr Jasper Oduor, Dr Caleb Mireri of Kenyatta University and Professor Meshack Owino of USA.

Osiri pays tribute to Her Excellency Elisabeth Jacobsen, and Ann-Kari, the two ladies who have made history by being the first diplomats to visit Osiri. They had the courage to tread this remote corner which is not even on any map.

We pay tribute to Maija Karjalainen of IBBY Finland for raising the profile of Osiri girls who would not have seen the inside of a classroom, let alone secondary and college, without the help of IBBY Finland.

We thank Felix Omondi Osok and the Utdasnningshjelpen group, who have always attended the Festival and fundraised school fees for our students.

Some Highlights

Lake Victroria is the most conspicuous landmark at Osiri. Aiti-Maija of IBBY Finland has always exclaimed about it: ‘Ihaana!’ meaning more than the English word, ‘wonderful’. Her Excellency, Elisabeth Jacobsen said that Osiri has ‘the view’. Actually Lake Victoria is the largest fresh water lake in Africa, and the second largest in the world. It is home to the first humans, especially on Rusinga Island and at the foot of Mount Huma, where the remains of the first human-like creatures have been found. 

Osiri Beach, though not on any political map, is conspicuous in the mythical map of the Luo people. The beach and hill were residences for some reclusive magicians who left in a huff when other groups of people joined them—in their estimation, they were invaded. This sordid tale involving the burying alive of an old woman, lightning strikes, and the scattering of seeds of beautiful flowers is told to guests under the breeze-breathing Inspiration Tree on Osiri Hill. The visible marks of these magicians are the many medicinal, magical plants and animals and ruins of stone houses and enclosures that can still be seen in Osiri today. Osiri in this instance is closely linked to the prehistoric sites like Thim Lich Ohinga stone walls in southern Nyanza.

The Global Bay University, Osiri

The Luo epic hero, Gor Mahia, is reputed to have rowed in a dug-out canoe up to the Osiri (Mawigo) headland and proclaimed that ‘something big’ would happen here. At that time, it was unimaginable that something important would happen there, unless the crocodile and hippo attacks and the presence of the mythical lukwata beasts were any events to take note of. Well, since then things have happened, but would they rival the TUGO? Only one thing whose vision was launched in 2010 at Osiri: The Global Bay University.
TUGO—the OSIRI BEACH FESTIVAL is now scheduled for December of every year, depending on the availability of funds. Mini-festivals and cultural researches can also be arranged for visitors at any one time. . Already, university students, like Egerton University students of folklore and literature, primary and secondary schools, have since visited Osiri and had a special Festival organized for them. The proceeds from the Festival will go towards educating the needy students of Osiri.  Enquiries can be made at: E-mails: addyonyando@yahoo.com or osiribeach@gmail.com. Cellphone: +254722690603.