Page 45 - Demo

TourismISSUE 36 APRIL 2025 45(There is no god but Allah. And Allah is the greatest). Children chorused along vichochoros (narrow path) , %u201cAs-salaam Alaikum Karibu Wageni%u201d (peace with you welcome visitors).They were young girls in deras (long free-flowing dresses) breaking their backs with electrified dance to ngoma za kirumbizi (Swahili drumbeats). Women in khangas%u2019, lesos%u2019, and buibuis joined young girls and left the crowd with showers of claps. Young husbands carried their children high on their shoulders to catch a glimpse of ngoma za kirumbizi. Some elderly men in kanzus pipped through the cracking walls, shaking their heads gently to the drumbeats. Women in hijab were taking selfies around the famous UNESCO sites. It never ended with drama when a bald man in baggy trousers raised a sharp machete shouting, %u201chatutaki washerati%u201d, %u201cwashenzi nyinyi%u201d (Fools, we do not want immoral people). He threatened to butcher foreign lesbians misbehaving openly at Mkunguni. Suddenly, a police officer sprang from the crowd and pointed the guns at the machete man%u2019s head. The drumbeats stopped and the crowd wailed loudly. We scattered for our safety. The policeman pulled the trigger of the gun, and the man dodged the bullet. He disappeared from Mkunguni into the air like a ghost. The abominable act angered the spirit of Lamu Island. The island was in a jovial mood when toads would run in the scorching sun. The week became alive with vibrant noise echoing as far as Mogadishu in Somalia to Cape Town in South Africa. The cock crow salute %u201cAllahu Akbar!%u201d was heard as far from east to west, north and south. The trumpet sound of siwa shook heavily the iconic architecture of Lamu lsland. The sound vibration blended with the rhythm of ngoma za Siu, sharp echoes of mashiri, and the piercing sound of nzumari (flute). I stood at the veranda to take a bath from the warmth reddish-orange rays of the sunrise. I saw the dhows marked with mapping floral motifs were gliding smoothly across the water with passengers on board. I wondered if l was watching a movie, or reality show, or an AI movie on TikTok. The crowd of young boys was floating and hanging on top of dhows haphazardly. The dhows appeared to sink deeply in the middle of the deep sea and then resurface with the young men in a celebratory mood. People watched from a distance of the Island and responded with jubilation applause, blowing nzumari and chanting %u201cLamu Tamu! Karibu Lamu!%u201d (Lamu is sweet welcome). Some women wailed, calling their sons%u2019 names loudly. Their cries were valid because they were a potential feast for dangerous sea creatures like blue-ringed octopus, stonefish, cone snails, beaked sea snakes, pufferfish, flower urchins, and lionfish. Neither of the single young boys was hurt or injured in the shenanigans at the deep sea. I watched a group of young men confidently jumping into the deep sea like a log of coconut trees. A boy emerged from the water skillfully riding on the back of the tiger shark while raising the Jamaican flag. Everyone from the island celebrated with a shout of laughter. The shenanigans were so deadly, like a fly following a corpse to the grave. I