“Culture makes people understand each other better. And if they understand each other better in their soul, it is easier to overcome the economic and political barriers. But first they have to understand that their neighbor is, in the end, just like them, with the same problems, the same questions.”
– Paulo Coelho
Is the concept of the universal man such a farfetched idea that we cannot fathom it? Why do most of us see or describe ourselves as individuals from our different facets of life first be it ethnic community, job title, social standing etc first before we describe ourselves as simply just men or women. I was asked once where a very good friend of mine hailed from, his ethnic community and funny enough I didn’t know or care much for that information and this was a friend of over a period of ten years. Ever noticed especially in Kenya how when you’re introducing a friend as Fred, Trevor or even Julie many people will tend to have that lingering question at the back of their minds or just come right up and ask, “….and where are you from?”. Like that fact is going to make life easier or help them sleep better at night; I seriously doubt that, however much an individual may want to justify it.
The time of the 2007 general election was an era in our patched history that we’d all like to forget and wish never happened, but it did. The saddest thing about it is this; a wise man once said that the only thing we learn from history is that we learn nothing at all. It’s been 8 years since that rotten time in our history and with all honesty if ‘Wanjiru’ was asked the likelihood of that rot devouring at the core of our people again she’d probably answer with a resounding yes. Back then the electorate saw themselves as supporters of one or the other candidate first then maybe a father, then a worker, then a Kenyan, the list goes on without real emphasis on the other points of reference other than supporter of candidate ‘X’ or ‘Y’. My father really didn’t like me dreaming too much when I was a child because as he believed it distorted my take on reality, but let us dream for just a minute if we may….imagine that for that period of time that was so rotten we saw each other as fellow Kenyans first and the rest of the facets that we fall into would be as the youth would put it ‘a by the way’. If this is how we saw ourselves then, we would not end up burning our neighbor’s house and this is the same person who you’ve lived side by side for 18 years, your children have played with his children, your wife has borrowed sugar from his wife when you run out, your children have had sleep-overs in each others’ houses but for the single moment in your lives that was dictated to you by some power-hungry individual you are willing to throw all that away without an iota of a thought. Or here’s the winner, you end up chasing your wife because you had differing points of view, a woman with whom you have fathered a beautiful family with, gone through the thick and thin of life with, its ups and downs, lefts and rights, rough and smooth patches of married life but for the simple fact that she had a different opinion from yours which ironically is not the first time it’s happening, but for some reason this time you feel the need to chase her and chase her for good.
Have we become that dense as a people that we can resort to doing things to each other that are this evil and ill-willed? During the political frenzy we chose to burn downs tracks of land with crops on them just because we did not want certain people in the neighborhood. Those neighbors are gone now and we have nothing to show for it, no land, no food, in fact we lost more than we supposedly gained if anything at all.
When I started off, I promised myself that this was not going to be a politically motivated article so I’ll retract and go back to what I intended it to be. I shall go back to my dream because I know that is what our future is built on, I shall be so bold and not care whether some might call it naivety and dream that I am a Kenyan who just happens to be a husband, father, worker, bicycle rider, lover of all sorts of music, enjoys my beer from time to time, is critical of the government and gives it credit when its due and many other things in between and finally one who just happens to hail from Taita but that last bit really doesn’t matter much. As long as I am a Kenyan that does it for me and should for the rest of us.
So, now that we know where we should be, the million dollar question remains, how do we get there? We must device a strategy, a plan, a proposal that will have the best interest of the people at heart. A friend who is a psychiatrist once told me that a majority of people who visit her already know what’s wrong in their lives and how to fix things, make them right, they are just looking for affirmation from someone they’ll pay a chunk of money and who’ll ask them about their childhood, how they were treated by their father and why they sit in a certain way and prefer one color over the others. So, let us sit together, you and I, let us decide for ourselves seeing that we are the ones who shall be living side by side, day in and day out….together. Let us make a pact, prick our hands and shake them in affirmation of our promise to one another, an oath of sorts, let our word be our bond, that we shall never see the other person as a lesser human being just because they do not share the same point of view as we do. Let us learn to respect the other person’s opinion even though we necessarily do not share it. I was at a wedding once and the pastor in his words of wisdom to the newly married couple told them that never go to bed angry at each other. Even if it took half the night to sort out their differences, they should do it and make sure they sleep with a clear conscience.
If we all had the same drive and not necessarily others being driven by the fact that they want to earn a fat salary at the end of the month and at the end of the day still claim that they have our best interests at heart while every single act that they do is to earn them the so-called political mileage to enable them get back to the same position after five years. The biggest change is effected by the smallest things that you and I do to one another, a simple smile, a hand shake, the recent donation of food by those who have to those who do not all over the country on the food train, neighbors joining together to clean up their neighborhood. We do this as the citizenry because the leaders we put in place got to where they are courtesy of the electorate and very conveniently forgot why we put them there and thought they were bigger than the ordinary ‘mwananchi’, so it is left to you and I to make the difference. They say if you want something done right, do it yourself.
Many of us talk of unity of the people but only practice it when it is beneficial to us as individuals, we let ourselves be lied to by our so-called leaders when they stand up in rallies and talk nineteen to the dozen about when they are ‘under siege’ in parliament or have to answer some pertinent questions it is tantamount to an attack on the people of that area, but it is never. The Member of Parliament for my area did whatever he did as an individual looking out for ‘number one’, at least that’s the trend; there are exceptions to the rule but one in a million.
We were looking for answers and this is why I love the ‘Good Book’ so much, life tends to be so simple, man has a way and I’m convinced that practice makes perfect of complicating things so much while as I said looking out for self. The Bible in the book of Mark 12: 28 – 31, shows that the greatest of the commandments is of love. If we can share this kind of love with one another without fear or favor, its probably harder than it seems or sounds but its worth a try, we’d rather have tried and failed than just declared that we cannot do it without having tried because we had a feeling that it was impossible.
There is no formula to unity, just as there’s no formula to love, but we should endeavor and strive to attain and reach that point in life where no matter what our individual opinions and points of view, we can still look at and treat each other with the brotherly and sisterly love. Then, I feel and only then will we have ‘reached’. For the sake of our country’s good fortune please prove me right, let us love one another as Kenyans.
“One love, one heart…Let’s get together and feel alright.”
– Bob Marley
MBC
mybrokecompass 