To my great grandchildren.

my dear great grandchildren,

Sit around me and listen, This is how my great grandmother taught me, ofcos we used to sit around the wood-fired 3 stone stove. The smoke was unbearable, it made our eyes tear up. I will never forget that traditional  grass thatched house. Thats where the old lady and her fellow elders used to hold the traditional dance to invoke spirits as they danced and walked through fire.

There she told stories of the sea goddess and how every year she claimed a boy and a girl as sacrifice, ofcos that was to discourage us from swimming  at the river. Yes thats right, river, little, ones.  There were rivers flowing from the beautiful  mountains, with a rhythm we all danced to. we dived in the deep waters singing to the river goddess not to claim us as sacrifices. we never let our great grandma catch us though.

There used to be forests, oh the beautiful  trees and the fresh air. You must have read about Wangari Mathae, how she fought for deforestation to stop, it won her a nobel price. If only she could see what used to be the Karura forest, I loved to take nature walks there, i would take you my dear children, but its a desert now. You know the wild animals they draw for you soo badly, they used to live in the forest. poor creation, they were poached and drawn away from their  habitats, no wonder they are extinct.

Have you seen a natural fruit bearing tree? With all the grafting  and budding, they’ve lost their natural taste. Your great grandpa wouldn’t  eat the food you eat. That man loved sweet potatoes, oh i forgot you’ve  never eaten them.

Sweet ones, what happened to humanity? when did people value money more than humanity itself?  Better were the days my great grandma used batter trade. Individualism, corruption, what happened  to  those of great minds that taught us of love for one onother? let me not destroy the story time with this sad tales on the loss of humanity.

My sweet great grandchildren, sit around me and listen to stories before the world become a global family, when it was still  a global village, Little ones, once upon a time………………

Her grandma’s demons

She wonders back, long before civilization. she was young, all she knew of was her grandma, or how does she call the woman who married her mother to bare children for her through her husband? They say she  talked to spirits, she believed  them. How could she forget? That day when she came home from fetching water to see her grandma dance through the fire barefooted.

she can swear that her grandma’s  ghost lit a torch for her whenever she had to go home late through  the bushes and valleys from school.
Never will she ever forget when she dug a pit and burried them there to chase away the evil spirits. How long she stayed in that pit, How they all survived only her grandma can explain.

Her grandma was wierd. she used to call snakes visitors. she remembers a snake crawling from her grandma’s  bedroom to stop her kid brother from crying.  The little one started laughing immediately she saw “The visitor” only for the old lady to say that they should cook for the visitor and thank him.  A snake really?

That old lady gave her good life lessons, wierd she was.wisdom was part  of her too.  she taught her on finishing her chores early, being clean in order for the gods to be happy when they visit.  How  afraid she used to get when her grandma told stories about spirit world and the sea spirits.

As she prepares to go home from her office through the same old road, she gets goosebumps because she still can swear to hearing her grandma’s  voice calling her to join the sea goddess  in the river, to dance with the tree spirits in the bushes and to laugh with the spirits of her ancestors to scare the little  ones.

she has to get home though. To us,  her grandchildren and tell us more stories about our great great grandma. I see her ghost too,dancing through the fire and singing to me,
oh little one,
listen to the folks,
see through me,
Embrace the tradition,
or I’ll  find you,
And feed you to the gods.