Goose pimples cover your body as you inch closer to this site that is so sacred the locals look at you twice.

The setting, Sigama village on the boundary of Ruma National Park, off a dusty road about 10km from the shores of Lake Victoria and 25km Southwest of Homa Bay Town on the floor of the Lambwe Valley bordered by the Kanyamwa Escarpment is the place that so much is spoken about quietly with communal pride.

It is eerie and the body stiffens as the folklore and stories of the exploits of the legend that is Gor Mahia Ogada come alive.

“Idhi ka Gor? I a kanye?” (You are going to Gor Mahia’s home? Where are you from?) 73-year-old Guadencia (Galdensia) Maigo asks me attentively as she guardedly directs me along a path that is evidently not used a lot.

This sleepy village that has fought modernisation has remained as it was 90 years ago when the Paramount Chief Gor Mahia died aged 126 and the burial site has remained a crowd puller with politicians, businessmen and tourists flocking to his graveside to savour his rich history, thus Guadencia’s inquisitive glances. She is used to people arriving in cars and in big crowds.

Shrine in Ndhiwa

She even asked whether I had a personal problem, meaning they encounter many people coming to sort such, though in the last century, no other medicineman has come from Gor Mahia’s Kanyamwa clan, something that confirms the mystery behind the folklore. It has been a norm in this place as prominent politicians from Nyanza often flock his strategically placed that the great man could see the whole of South Nyanza and part of Kisumu from a standing position.

His grandson Joseph Ogada Okoko, a teacher at Kuoyo Secondary School in Mirogi, directs me through the entrance to the home that has a large crowd, mostly descendants.

It also emerged later during the visit that businessmen, people attending job interviews, politicians vying for elective posts, warriors from the region visited the burial site for machismo and moraleboost ahead of conquest to Kisii, Kuria and as far away as Kalenjin land thus the guarded talk and revelations they make.

Instructions on what to do and what not to do on your way to the home are reminiscent to a flight take-off.

On this day, the home is teeming with activity as the local church has organised a meeting as they seek to make it a shrine and build a mausoleum in remembrance of a great man who had a slight brush with the church as they landed in Ndhiwa at the turn of the 19th century.

Great honour

The Catholic priest overseeing the region believes it will be of great honour to the man who opened the path to modernity and civilization.

Myths have it that the leader, who had 22 wives and several children, was a friend of the legendary Maasai leader, Lenana, with whom he exchanged gifts.

“On several occasion, we have found people confused after trying to enter the home without permission and even plucking leaves or cutting trees. It is forbidden and within the home, children are taught how to carry themselves when here. Even visitors unknown to us are restricted,” says a great-grandson, Moses Ogalo.

Of the Luo community legends, Nyamgondho Woud Ombare (from the Waturi Clan), Lwanda Magere, Ogutu Wuod Kipapi, Okore Wuon Ogonda, Odemba ka Gose and Okal Tago, none has remained in the community’s daily life like Paramount Chief Gor Mahia K’Ogada.

Historians have pointed out in many articles that when the Luo tribal leader Ramogi Ajwang passed on, there remained a lacuna and a sense of instability within the populous tribe and it was Gor Mahia who briefly filled it as Ker (King) as there remained no organisation in place until 1952 when Jaramogi Oginga Odinga and his colleagues formed the Luo Union.

Perhaps the mystical powers that he had made his place in history vivid.

He is believed to have possessed magical powers to transform into different forms. He would change to a woman, a dog and back to himself.

These powers helped him pass through people and not be recognised.

Most importantly, he would use these powers to walk with or through his enemies during war. He would also transform other people so that they would escape from their enemies. His clan won so many wars thanks to his abilities to see the future.

It is for this reason that when SportPesa Premier League giants Gor Mahia Football Club were formed on February 17, 1968 after the merging of Luo Union and Luo Sports Club, it was named after the legendary medicineman from Kanyamwa.

Performing magic

“Mahia” is Luo for “magic” because he was famous for performing magic. The club’s most famous nickname, K’Ogalo, also stems from the medicineman, whose full name was Gor Wuod Ogada nyakwar Ogalo (Gor son of Ogada grandson of Ogalo), and as such was known as Gor Makogalo, or Gor K’Ogalo in short, which means “Gor of Ogalo’s homestead”.

Several prominent Luos from all walks of life met in Nairobi to christen the club. The name Gor Mahia was settled upon from a shortlist of other Luo cultural heroes and warriors such as: Nyathi Kwach; Lwanda Magere from Kano; Okore wuod Ogonda Mumbo from Kisumu; Oguttu wuod Kipapi from Ugenya; Kech Kamajwala from Asembo and Tao K’Ogot also from Ugenya.

1. A section of Gor Mahia FC fans at Lwang'ni Beach in Kisumu before heading to Moi Stadium to cheer their team in a past league match.

2. A rare picture of the Mighty Paramount Chief Gor Mahia who died 90 years ago aged 126 taken in the last century.

3. Father Martin Koywa of Homa Bay Catholic Parish leads other members of community and tourists in paying their respects at the shrine of the late Paramount Chief Gor Mahia.
PHOTOS: DAVID NDOLO & DEREK OTIENO

THIS MAN GOR MAHIA

-Gor Ogada (Gor Wuod Ogada nyakwar Ogalo) was a legendary medicine man from Kanyamwa location in Homa Bay County. His nickname was Mahia which in the Luo language means magic because the legend of Gor suggests that he was famous for performing magic. Thus he was popularly known as Gor Mahia.

-He was married to several wives, siring many children with an estimated 3,000 offspring found across East Africa. A good example is the former Kamukunji MP the late Nicholas Philip Gor who passed on in 1999.

-His fifth born son, the late Austine G. Nyamonga Gor was the first court derk in Kisii. Though he passed away in 1994, his good work is still in record.

-He ruled South Nyanza as Paramount Chief in the latter part of the 19th century until his death.

-Gor, who died in 1922, aged 126, having wielded magical powers that made him overcome his opponents. His father, Ogalo, was also a great medicine man of his generation.