A Kenyan conversation: So my Dad is Kamba and my mum is Kikuyu, but I identify more with my mother's side of the family than with dad's side, however I cannot speak Kyuk but we can chat in Kao. There's a story bear with me.
So we named one of our children with a Kamba name and a Luhya name... coz that's his heritage. And one of my maternal aunties had a serious fit. She's the defacto head of my mother's home so her opinions count.
Now my cousins and family friends (relas anyway) are getting married in Nyanza, Bondo... Me i am just laughing here imagining my aunty's poor heart and inability to comprehend what's going on.
Also this speaks to a quiet evolution in this country. There's a generation of people to whom ethnic slurs and hate doesn't make sense. Millenials going forwards are not easily defined by what the ID says
If anything there's young people quietly marrying across perceived ethnic divisions and raising children to respect and celebrate their diverse roots
This alone tells me that there is hope. That my son might one day bring a Njeri Wong-Otieno to further complicate his Njoki, Wafula-Kisilu background is just beautiful. Tribes ni ya wanasiasa, that the only space where that issue is 'profitable'
Celebrate the new Kenya today and plant some trees you and your family will protect, nurture and pass on to the next Sang-Jim-Wambui wa Kiima Liu Ole Must Okatch generations!
Meanwhile I need to figure out how to go for a ruracio in homabay and tease my aunties into reluctant bottles of amarula #truestory
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