i.1
Maybe he told them about the Lady in the Lake.2
How, one day a young, poor man was fishing, and his net captured an old woman. How the young, poor man was kind to the woman. How the woman was grateful. How the young man’s prosperity increased as he tended the old woman. How he married her. How he became wealthy. With abundant livestock and healthy crops. How he married many additional wives.
How he began to abuse the old woman he had rescued.
How, one day, she walked out of his house. And as she walked toward the lake, all his wealth followed her. All the livestock. Everything he considered valuable.
Maybe he told them that their relations with each other were their wealth. To tend them carefully.
ii.
Maybe he told them about the Haitian prophet Mackandal,3 a prophet like Waiyaki wa Hinga.4 A person touched by the gods and blessed by the ancestors. A one-handed man. It is said he gave one hand to the gods and ancestors so they would hear him.
Maybe he told them how Mackandal planned for many years, how he brought together enslaved Africans to dream freedom, how his tongue was touched by fire, how his voice moved through dreams.
How his great plot was betrayed by one of his own.
How the freedom dreams he inspired were seeds that took root. And thrived.
How, in a place called Haiti, Black people dreamed and made freedom.
iii.
Maybe he told them about the most beautiful girl in the village, so beautiful that even elephants and lions would stare and weaver birds would serenade her.
How, one day, a beautiful young man came to woo her. How she fell in love with his beauty and his manners and agreed to be his wife.
How her family and friends celebrated this marriage of beautiful people.
How she followed him to his home. How, as they walked, his appearance began to change. How, by the time they had reached his home, he had morphed into a monster.
How she had a child with him. And the child was also a monster.
How she befriended a weaver bird. How she taught the weaver bird to sing a song of freedom. How the weaver bird traveled to find someone who could hear that freedom song.
How someone heard that freedom song and came to free her. How she left her monster husband and monster child and followed a trail to freedom.
How, if you listen carefully, you will hear freedom songs, and you must follow that music.
iv.
Maybe he told them about Mekatilili wa Mwanza,5 another prophet touched by the gods and the ancestors.
How she used to dance the kifudu, a dance usually reserved for funerals, but she danced it everywhere. How she gathered crowds with her dancing, and when they gathered, she taught them to dream freedom. How she spoke courage into their hearts. How she danced futures into their dreams. How she made them promise to make freedom.
How she was arrested and exiled. Imprisoned far from home. How she escaped from the prison. How, touched by the gods and the ancestors, she walked from the prison at the other end of the country to her home. Each step marked freedom. It is said that if you look, you will find the trails she marked as free.
How freedom is a path made by those who walk with purpose.
v.
Maybe he told them about the frog and the scorpion.
How the scorpion asked the frog for a ride across a river. How the frog refused. How the scorpion persisted until the frog agreed.
How, when they were halfway across the river, the scorpion stung the frog. How, when the frog asked why, the scorpion replied, “it is my nature.”
How to choose your friends carefully.
vi.
Maybe he told them about Mary Nyanjiru,6 another one touched by gods and ancestors.
How a freedom fighter called Harry Thuku was arrested by the colonial oppressors. How Harry Thuku was put in jail. How people gathered around the jail restlessly. Worried.
How, with a voice touched by fire, Mary Nyanjiru asked the men, “Will you just stand there?” How she demanded action.
How the fire spread from her tongue to the spirits and feet and hands of people who dared to imagine freedom. How they moved with one accord.
How she is recorded as one of the first women who died for raising her voice to sing freedom.
vii.
Maybe he asked them to draw a tree.
And the tree was to have three roots.
And at the top of the tree was a huge flower.
Maybe he told them to label each root:
Uhuru : Wiathi : Freedom
Maybe he told them to write their names over the flower at the top of the tree.
And he called them the future.
This is the third iteration of this particular line of thinking. The first one is
here. The second was a talk I gave at Wits.
https://lughayangu.com/post/nyamgondho-wuod-ombare
It is very likely that colonized Kenyans knew about Haiti, especially after the 1939 publication of C.L.R. James’s The Black Jacobins. James was friends with Jomo Kenyatta, who was in London at the time. We do not have copies of Kenyatta’s correspondence, but it is very likely that he wrote about Haiti to Kenyans at home. Kenyatta was not the only Kenyan abroad, so it’s also likely that other Kenyans might have spread the news about Haiti.
Waiyaki was a chief among the Kikuyu, whose father was Maasai. He fought against the British. The story goes that Waiyaki was arrested and buried alive.
I love this beautiful narration of Mekatilili’s life:
https://www.paukwa.or.ke/story-series/kejamhuri/muthoni-nyanjiru/
UGGGHHHH This is so good!