
In fact I have always suspected of being a Giriama, to belong to one of the tribes of Africa less considered one of the most peaceful and sluggish at the sight of Westerners, but also one of those who have not sold out their traditions, but rather prefer to live with them daily and not make a boast postcard, as is the case for the Maasai, who have showered him with a popularity that many years must be reckoned with.
Giriama I do not have a warrior's appearance, rather they are farmers of equator, have sculpted cheekbones and large with the sickle stocky bodies that cross the land better than the plows.
believe in the ancestors as I thought my grandfather had a queen, Mepoho, and women were to rule the villages, until it became necessary to wage war with enemies that they contended muscle strength and spears.
When I arrived in Kenya for the first time I was twenty, and as the poet says, M'innamoro all. The nature and involves me and were not part of nature only the baobab, the frangipani, the Indian Ocean, monkeys and monitor lizards, but also the local population, who could live in harmony, however, still unaware that the "Mzungu" the they considered paradise.
After a week in a village Giriama, sleeping existent on the mattress in a mud hut (still am convinced that most of the rheumatic pains that I have been caused by one week), I realized that I was led to enter the very same vein of thought. I began the process of Africanization. The first to notice that I was a Giriama, were my hair. The hair, you know, being closer to the brain matter, are privileged, they understand things first. They began to grow even more wild and shaggy, more blacks and strong.
another twenty years have passed since then and a half there have been many stories, some books and months and months of studies on people Giriama and tribal life. In the meantime I'm back in Italy and I have told all my Africanism, in 2005 I made my choice and two years ago my daughter was born in Mombasa.
Today, after the association mAdc for the conservation and recovery of traditions Giriama awarded me the "giriamitudine" honorary finally gather the fruit of a great passion for this land, for these people aware of its history more than millions of Italians they are today, proud of their ingenuity, always prepared for the worst and so uncertain tomorrow to celebrate the day before as even the distant past, living in this manner dramatically in line with our wretched times.
I used too many words and too convoluted for a Giriama. I depart from the philosophy and ruminations. From today Mbogo clan Amelulu Kimera. A Giriama.
0 comments:
Post a Comment