Br. Shumila

        I wonder whether John Mbiti verily meant to say that an African has no sense of time and his life is shaped by events. If that is what he meant, then I am truly an African. When Shumila paid us a visit, he sparked in me a lovely thought. It is a thought of an event. It is of an awesome evening with him, then my formatter. If I was to recount this by beginning like a true son of this African soil, I would do it in this manner. A long, long, time ago, when I put down this interesting evening with Shumila I ate and drank from his fat pockets. In my memory it looks like last night.

      

Apparently, I had never thought I really would like to go to the airport to receive strangers and hold a placard all night, seemingly the best form imbecility because I was holding that piece of paper at the wrong exit. Eventually our strangers arrived though they never saw me. I was only informed later. On our way back, we had a hungry lot that was coming from Rome, so shumila decided to treat us in some Kenyan way. He turned to me and said, “riiich, leo niko na pesa nyingi. Hawa watu wa Europe hatuhitaji pesa yao.” That was the beginning of my merry-filled evening (i was alone in that merry spirit). This is why i was alone, at the choma place, one fellow said he wanted to taste monkey meat because it was long since he came to Africa-congo (he was Congolese by birth). We don’t have that in Kenya, so our money could not buy us monkey meat. So we settled on something Kenyan. As soon as they brought mbuzi choma and Guinness baridi, the begging cats camped at our table. Hell was on us, (rather one of us because i did not care). The fellow, a Nigerian born, knew nothing of cats except witchcraft! So he fled and left the meal. So I munched the whole meal meant for four people alone, and my beers on top.

       A few weeks ago, shumila paid us a visit. We did the same thing all over again. This time I wanted to do what we call “revenge for the generosity”. Like that evening, he told me the same thing again, “hapana, mimi niko na pesa nyingi huwezi nilipia.” One day, perhaps I will repay that generosity. Unlike most of us who are always broke or lying we have no money, he has and I know it from experience.

Because he says he has money, I believe him!