Death
The death was unknown to me – one morning, my mother had slept in too late, and I went into her room to find her. To my surprise, the baby was sleeping next to her, comfortably wrapped in a baby blanket. I touched the baby’s hands even before talking to my mother and noted that she had no thumbs. Unbeknownst to be at the time, the baby was dead. I never told anyone about this. Before the day came to an end, I saw a crowd of people making their way behind our house, where a hole was being dug. I saw my mother’s friend holding the baby in her arms, wrapped in a blanket, she was put into the hole and it was covered up.
The burial took place in a settler’s farm in Rift Valley, Kenya. I was terrified because I did not understand why they had to bury the baby. From that day, it was impossible for me to fall asleep. I lay awake listening out to the baby’s cries, worried that she might cry and no one in the house would hear her. I came to learn about death during the Mau Mau War when I saw people beaten by guards until they stopped moving. The people around me would say that they were beaten to death. However, I was still confused because the following day, the dead were said to have been resurrected in the cold night, and that the cold air brought them out of their unconsciousness. The wind was responsible for reviving the individual.
When the death happens in a family, community or anywhere in the world the children may not understand and their emotions affected and may not even know what to ask for them to get it and the adults may overlook the children’s presence and the effects on their feelings.