A Love Story Untold
Page 23
Mereti Festival
This is the most important festival of the Bakoria people. It celebrates the main harvest, ample or not, though the region is often blessed with ample harvests.
The festival is celebrated for a couple days once the harvesting is done. Starting at the royal bori, the members of a kingdom move from one home to the other, dancing, singing and feasting at each bori.
Mura
Warrior of the Bakoria.
Isamura
Army commander.
Mura saro
Bakoria warriors within the age group that is made up of active warriors. i.e. between the fifteenth saro cycle when a boy is initiated into the class of warriors, to the forty fifth saro cycle, after which a warrior is retired from active warrior duty.
Nyarmura
A female warrior. She may marry and have children if she pleases, but is expected to participate in all training drills and to be just as good as the muras.
Wasacha (sgl. Musacha)
Head of every mura saro cycle. The rank falls directly under that of the Isamura. Wasacha’s are elected by members of their saro after their risaro initiation ceremony. A second and third Musacha is elected too, who will rise to occasion should the first Musacha die. It is rare occasion for all three Wasacha in a mura saro to die, but when it occurs, a new Musacha is elected to replace them.
Nyarmaga
A Bakoria queen. Her prefix.
Queen-mother
The reigning king’s mother. The position may also be held by the reigning king’s paternal grandmother, should he prefer it.
Her position is mostly ceremonial, but it may also be political, should she be appointed into the council in the place of a Gake wa Maga
Risaro
Initiation ceremony for all boys and girls to mark their transition into adulthood, normally held towards the end of the short rains, once their cycle completes its twelfth cycle.
Royal bori
The homestead housing either of the royal family.
Saro
An age-group spanning three years specific to a particular gender. Girls of four, five and six years belong to the same saro, and so on. One can never change the cycle they belong to.
Saros are very important to the Bakoria people and define the very core of the society from friends, age, division of labour, cultural responsibilities as well as social ones, as in the cases of different dances and roles at festivals.
Saro cycle
Derived from saro, it is used to identify the ages of people. A man belonging to the eighteenth saro cycle is either sixteen, seventeen or eighteen years old; while a child in the twelfth cycle is either ten, eleven or twelve years old.
When the eldest member of a saro moves to the next cycle, so do all the other members despite their age. For example in the case of a 4,5 and 6 year old boy who belong to the sixth saro cycle, when the six year old turns seven, he and the rest of the members in his saro move on to the next saro cycle, the ninth, for the next three years. One can never change the cycle they belong to.
Tribe
A community that shares a similar culture and speaks the same language, believing to have the same ancestry.
Wikoria
The Bakoria language.
Wokia
A form of informal education that all those in the children age-set must attend (0-12)
Zorse
A cross between a horse and a zebra, a common beast among the Bakoria. They are beautiful with unique colouring and stripes.
A zorse is preferred to horses because it is faster, more resistant to diseases, and more acclimated to the tropical climate. It is preferred to a zebra because it is less paranoid, and thereby less jumpy and unpredictable.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever.
First edition: October 2014
Copyright © 2014 by Carol Robi
A Love Story Untold: a novel/ by Carol Robi/ 1st edition
● Found
● Nuit Noire
● Shadowman
● Run! Love.
● Strange Bedfellows
● Akira Nakahara & I
● Lover’s Reunited
● Emma
● Drachenburg School for the Supernaturals Series
○ All’s Well..!
○ Book 2
○ Book 3
○ Book 4
● The Divine Brotherhood Series
○ The Descent (Book 1) (available free on www.carolrobi.us)
○ The Army Divine (Book 2)
○ The Fallen (Book 3)
○ Deity (Book 4) (T.B.A.)
● A Story Untold Series
○ A Love Story Untold (Book 0.5)
○ Dawn of War (Book 1)
○ Seasons of Change (Book 2)
○ A War Unquenched (Book 3) (T.B.A.)
● Dawn of the Damned
○ Redemption (Book 1)
○ Falcon Crest (Book 2) (T.B.A.)
○ Rouge (Book 3) (T.B.A.)