One Sunday morning, about fifty years ago, my sister said a derogatory word, and I reacted with intense anger. I felt lonely and had no shoulder to lean on, and my husband was far from home. Instead of going to church, I decided to visit my husband in Naivasha. He was a minister in the […]
My mother, Cecilia Gathegu Chege visited us in the US and stayed for some time with us, and died here from illness. She died at home. As a family, we met to discuss what the next move would be. The family agreed to bury my mother here in Atlanta and one of us would take
MY MOTHER DIED IN THE USA Read More »
Christmas Day One day I woke up early in the morning and saw that the light in our home was on. I stood by my bed and watched my parents having breakfast around the fireplace. My father noted my presence and called me to him. He told me that it was Christmas day, and we
The Confusing Thing in Childhood Read More »
Alcoholism has ravaged three generations in my family. My parents made and sold beer, maiyīki, to earn extra income. It seemed like their focus was on the short term benefits of earning extra income, not on the long term effects on the family, neighborhood, community, and society. I recall one type of beer gatogo incident
Grace: Issues in My Family Read More »
Notable Moments and People (Life Post-Concentration Camp) The village, 1954: People had to relocate from the farms and go to live in villages set up by the colonial government. The villages provided security and helped the government curtail the relationship between the freedom fighters living in the forest and the rest in the community in
Concentration Camps for Mothers and Children – PART II Read More »
The Transition from Shamba to Concentration Camp: My family was relocated from Mzungu’s shamba to a concentration camp in Nakuru, then to a Gilgil camp, and finally to Ngenia, Limuru, in Kiambu district. A reserved region was set aside for the Gīkūyū tribe by the colonial government. The colonial government relocated all Gīkūyū people outside
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My mother was among those who had joined the Mau Mau group of fighters fighting for the freedom of Kenya. She was placed in detention together with her baby girl, Joyce, during that period of time. When she was released, Joyce was already walking and had lost one temporary tooth and a lower permanent tooth
My Childhood in the Shamba (Farm). We lived in a shamba (a white settler’s farm) in Rift Valley, Kenya, during the colonial era. My father worked as a cook for the white settlers, and my mother as a gardener in the white mistress’ flower garden. On the days my father was home or off duty, he
Life in the Shamba Read More »
My mother’s visit to the US. I had realised that mothers in the US showed their children their fathers. I opened up to my mother and inquired more information about my biological father. At the time my father who I knew all my life had died at age at eighty years. I started explaining to
Challenges in the Diaspora – PART VI Read More »
The biological father. Later on I learned in the US that the children of unmarried mothers knew their biological fathers and the fathers attended to their activities wherever the child lived. In our time, it wasn’t so in the Gīkūyū community. Once a mother wasn’t married to the father of her baby, the guy paid
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