At a young age, my father lost his share in the clan land because he was in the detention during the war of the independence, Mau Mau, in Kenya. Later in life, he was able to acquire some property for him and his family, and when he grew old, my father did something almost similar to Abraham, he pass on his property he had to us children. He called my brothers and I and declared his piece of land as a nursery, a safe and secure place in their world, where us his sons will grow and spread elsewhere for more pastures. If we went out to the world and find nothing to fulfill, we would have a place to return and be at home. “It is not a property to sell,” my father said. He recalled the struggle he experienced without a share in the clan land. He and his children had no place to return after the village life came to an end. Later in life, we, as brothers, decided to divide the property among us five, with each having a title deed. Our only sister married. The women never inherited their father’s properties unless one remained unmarried. ‘Gīkũyũ ndegayaga e muoyo.’ Meaning a Gīkũyũ father would not announce his ‘will’ while alive.
In Gīkũyū tradition then, a father would give his adult son a yard in his land to build his house (thingira) behind the father’s house once the son grew and circumcised. Thingira behind the father’s house provided the son with privacy, there was one entrance to the homestead. Now the son is of age for his peers to visit him, the boys and girls. The fathers of today should pay attention to the age of the kids and provide privacy for them to have a freedom of expression with the age mates. Privacy gave them a chance to mature as they meet their peers in thingira rather than in other places. When the son married, the father increased the yard to make enough garden for the wife to grow food crops sufficient for her family. In addition to the garden, the father provided his son with animals to produce more animals for wealth and stability. The father would supply to all sons of every wife incase he had several wives and several sons of the same age.
The father also gave himself a specific piece of his land. He grew his food in his portion of land and stored in his store. His food would supplement his family or families in the time of shortage. The father’s portion of land in the end was inherited by the youngest son in the family as an additional piece. The youngest son was assigned the care of the aged parents since he had a young wife and kids full of strength and energy to care for aged parents. The aged parents spent time with the little grandkids since older grandchildren were already adults and busy in life or married and raising their own families. When the father died, the sons were already positioned in specific parts near their mothers’ portion of land and would continue to develop one’s area. The wife grews food to feed her family. She would sell the excess foods for her income-to buy groceries-salt, sugar, etc. The husband, was the manager-head of the family, he with the help of his sons raised great deal of livestock for his income. The man with vast land could marry many wives to develop the property and create large families of sons, and daughters. Such status gained the husband a great fame in the community.
The life in the village ended and it was time to go back to the farms. My parents’ house was demolished and maize destroyed by guards’ order. The guards’ action was an effort to prevent the Mau Mau from living in the house and eating maize from the farm. A family friend with a small house near the village hosted my parents and us kids for a while. Another friend offered his yard temporarily for my father to build a large house with four bedrooms, so we moved in. I built my thingira-a one round shaped bedroom house. I used some of the leftover materials from our house and a neighbor family friend I helped in his farm provided some materials for the roof and wall. I invited my peers who helped me dig holes to place the poles to hold the house structure, fixed a wall all around and two windows, and one door. We were able to construct the whole house within two days. On the third day, my mother with the help of her lady friend covered the roof with grass they cut from the near river banks. After the roof was covered, my friends came again and we prepared dirt mixed with water and formed a dough-like mold to fill the wall.
The furniture was only one bed that also served as a chair to sit in. The bed was made of wood framework and the center filled with weaved elastic strips cut from the car tires. There was no mattress, I spreaded a sisal bag on the framework and slept on, and covered with a blanket. Now, the house was complete and ready to occupy. Ready for the visitors to come to my house. It was a great achievement and a wonderful ownership of a house. It was my house under my control.
I lived in thingira alone. My older brother could not wait for the ending of the village life. He, a very industrious and outgoing person, left home and went to search for a better future. He finally ended up in the city of Nairobi working at Wilson AirPort as an office messenger, and later became a driver to transport officers to places till his retirement.
I ate at my mother’s house and slept in my thingira. When I was not in, my mother would put my food in my thingira for me to eat when I came back. After circumcision, I earned a job of plowing in a farm. When I graduated from school, I was issued with a Kenya ID and I worked in a coffee factory to the grading coffee number 1-3 coffee section. I worked in a coffee factory for about two years. Later got another job in Nakuru, Rift Valley. This job was a better opportunity and the pay was manageable. I took the chance in the Nakuru Municipal council and made Nakuru my home till today.
The bible explains Abraham as a very wealthy man (Genesis 13:2) and with many wives as Gīkūyū man . Hagar bore him a son (Genesis 16:15, NIV), Sarah gave birth to a son, (Genesis 21:2,3, NIV), and Keturah bore him six sons (1Chronicles1:32, NIV). In all, Abraham had eight sons and he had enough of the wealthy for them to inherit. Abraham made his ‘Will’ for his son Isaac and made Eliazer. his chief servant to stand as an attorney for Abraham’s son, Isaac, Eliazer took the oath to act on behalf of Isaac marriage (Genesis 24:9). The proceedings of the ‘will’ and the implementation (Genesis 24). We fathers of present time we still have the responsibility to give a ‘will’ in educating our children on the issues of marriage and values. Abraham did not select the girl for marriage to his son, Isaac, but he gave some advice.
The fathers of today’s ‘will’ and fulfillments invested in the education of a son and a daughter. The son or the daughter acts as self-attorney, take the oath to keep the ‘will’ and to execute it, and to fulfill it according to the father’s directive and wish. In our time, the parents’ Will, and preparation to us were, “do a good school and get a good job and get a good income.” The parents said to us and we continue to say the same to our children. The intention of the parents to their children should now evolve to “do the right school and be self-employed and get the income desired.” But this new mantra isn’t the most beneficial for a child’s future. This statement misses essential pieces of information like “perform efficiently at work to get good income.” Or work hard in school and earn good grades, and when you get a job work hard, benefit the company, and in return you get good income. Efficient and effective performance stressed in school in relation to good grades but miss to relate to future hard work in the corporate world and good income.
A cry for the stress at the jobs is heard from the chief executive officer (CEO) to the janitor. We can call this current mantra a long-term misleading statement. And it seems to mean graduating from school in honor after many years of hard studies, but not stressed working hard at the job. The individual would walk into a job and expect to get the highest income based on hard studies earned from school. For, example, a person went through school, sitting in a study desk for seven hours each day while at work, the person works standing for twelve hours every day. That sounds like self-abuse.
In corporate America all the people were exposed to the same system of education with the same wrong concept of “do a good school and get a good job and a good income.” All of us may suffer from similar mental and physical stress when it comes to working hard at the job. Today, technology makes it possible to work from any location, worship from our houses, and so on. meaning that COVID -19 is going to modify our view of work, worship, commuting work, etc. We would be wiser than before and we will create new avenues and many new models of working, especially from our talents and learning from the others.
The current parents with kids in primary school should, early enough orient and encourage children to study and develop their little skills and talents to enable them to build new self-employment to get a little income and grew it graduary. In Kiswahili-‘bora upate pesa mfukoni. We mirror Abraham’s methods of developing kids’ skills such as of that of Isaac to digging wells, to raise flock, grow crops. Something that can serve the children in the present time and continue to the future generation. Cultivate kid’s skills and education on time. Isaac had skills to dig wells, grow foods and raise his flocks and had great wealth (Genesis 26:12-22). Isaac also had ability to deal with the stress at the job of farming as well as pressure from the community with envy on him. Isaac had ability to handle pressure, and stress in a peaceful manner such that he created plenty of the wealth even in a difficulty environment he would move to a workable place.
What I take from my father is courage to that I move on to a place where I can perform efficiently. My father moved on to search for a land for himself and forgot the clan land. Isaac moved on and dug another well where there was peace and produce wealth without hassles. God was always with Isaac. God is with us all the time. He is our help all the time.