Page 106 - Msingi Afrika Magazine Issue 9

AFRIKA IS GOD'S

amused about how being locally street corners, people laughing over responsibility of the entire commu-
connected to the life of the commu- whatever it is they are eating or nity."
nity can be very important. And did drinking as against the mind your
I mention that the inner roads in business attitude that middle-class- Wrapped in a cloud
Ruaka are very narrow, earthen and ism has created. And for sure, kids I remembered a day I was standing
quite red? Narrow to the point that still play around in the natural earth on the balcony watching the sky and
two vehicles may find it very hard to and are very organic and carefree in the heavy white cloud dance that
pass each other side by side. I didn't their interaction with microbes of was coming towards my direction
need anyone to tell me that the the earth. And that means, body im- from the east. One minute I could
size of the inner roads is like that munity is high in such areas where see the distant buildings ahead of
because the colonialists who were there are lots of natural foods, fruits me and the next, all was white and
very active in this region back in the and clean air. So for me, Ruaka hidden in the white clouds. I sig-
day never thought Afrikans were is a place you may want to spend naled for my wife to come see the
going to rise to the point where some time and enjoy some human movie that nature was showing and
they would own cars. Back in the and nature relationship. Talking she came to join me on the balco-
days, the narrow roads were all that about the carefree life of children ny. Within a few more seconds,
donkeys and carts needed to move in Ruaka, one afternoon, my wife the white cloud was all around us
around. But don't ask me why the and I were going to get some items and you could smell the heavy and
inner roads still carry the insignia of from the shops. As we walked along sharp smell of ice and water. The
the colonial days. I have no answer one of the inner roads, we saw cloud literally went through the
for you right now, maybe another a baby of maybe one year and a open door and windows into our
day when I find out too. Or better few months old walking past us in sitting room. The feeling was out
still, you can share the answer in the her pampers with no other clothes of this world and for a moment the
comments section below. on, she was going down the road entire house was smelling of cloud
we had just come from. My wife and water. This cloud experience
Community life greeted her in Swahili and the tiny for me was like a baptism into some
Ruaka for me, is one place where woman actually responded with spiritual realities. And did I men-
you still clearly see the community confidence and walked on towards tioned that Ruaka is actually called
lifestyle that Afrika is known for. a shop down the road. No adult was the city of God? About the name
There is a lot of middle-class-ism with her and we were concerned city of God, I cannot tell you exactly
going on in Kenya and even in about that. So we asked a woman why it is called that, but somehow
many nations of Afrika. And I am seated close by about the baby and we saw on this big signboard on the
not saying it's a bad thing, but that from the way she started laughing main road the name "Ruaka the city
when we lose our Afrikan heritage at our concern, we knew that either of God." And coupled with being a
of communal brotherhood for any she was the mother of the baby or pilgrim who knows that nothing in
form or forms of "isms", then we are it's a common thing for children our lives are coincidences, Ruaka as
losing our true identity as brothers. to walk around in the community, the city of God is real for us.
In Ruaka, you still see humans because they are actually safe to do You need to be here even as we
(deliberate about the word humans) so. That really reminded me of the make plans to do a pilgrimage to
talk to each other on the streets, old adage that says "A child is the another part of the continent.

106 | Heal . restore . rebirth . Afrika