Thursday, August 14, 2008

In the distance, you can see the ancient volcano called Mt. Kenya. Peaking at 17, 027 feet, she is the 2nd highest mountain in Africa after Mt. Kilimanjaro.

I took this picture on a journey I made to Kenya back in 2001 to attend my grandmother's funeral.

My grandmother had lived all her 104 years with this view of the mountain and we buried her in the deep red volcanic soil she had cultivated to feed her family.

Through famine, war and oppression, she single-handedly raised 12 children because my grandfather had been a casualty of the Mau Mau uprising that raged in the forests visible in the picture. In the dense underbrush, the famous Mau Mau warriors conducted a deadly guerrilla war against the British settlers and against African civilians who had not show adequate loyalty to their cause.

My grandfather was the first African teacher in the province and he was a christian man. His teaching was seen as cooperation with the British colonialists and he disappeared one night never to be seen again. He was probably tortured before he was killed as was customary for the Mau Mau.

By the time I came around as her 14th grandchild, the turbulence had faded away and my grandmother would come to look after me from time to time when my parents were away. She was gracious, patient, tough, gentle and wise. She loved to sit in our yard and look through the pile of National Geographic magazines we accumulated. Even though she could not read, she was thrilled by the pictures that showed her the lives of people from around the earth.

I remember her marveling over the images of elderly Europeans, South Americans and Asians in the magazines when they were pictured tending to their gardens growing potatoes and cabbage just like she did. She was delighted to discover that her life of stooping in her small farm eeking a living from the soil was practiced by all kinds of people of all colors and types.

Over the entire span of the 20th century, she tended her garden with unceasing toil and she was glad to discover that she had not been the only one.

posted by Wild 2:48:00 AM |

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