Eric Senga never breastfed – his mother died while giving birth to Eric. He spent a part of his childhood alone with his father and his elder sister, Purity. All was well, until a time when he had just qualified from pre-school to join junior primary. He remembers vividly how he ran home to break the news to his father. On that evening, Purity returned home. Contrary to Eric’s performance she was fourth in her class. All the same both passed and their father was equally excited.
It was now December holiday, Eric and Purity were eagerly waiting for Christmas when unlike other years, their father had promised to host a big party. Christmas day came, and as planned there was going to be a party at home. On this day, Eric remembered a stereotyped anecdote which he recalled with amusement that his own clan ‘Ambua’ was said to be made of ridiculously generous men who would slaughter a bull and share out all the meat leaving nothing for themselves. They would happily raise up their arms to show to all and sundry that they had not hidden any meat in their armpits. But this time it was the exact opposite – the clansmen were so stingy that they would deny a dog an afterbirth of a she-goat.

And the party was nothing short of surprises, but for sure the Ambua clan’s spirit and tradition of generosity held nothing back. His father slaughtered a fattened ox, six rams and four goats. In the living room stood a long table spread with the most astounding array of food. There were large trays laden with huge chunks of boiled meat whose tantalizing aroma filled the room.

At noon, the spacious homestead was nearly full to capacity. As two young men began to sing in their light melodic voices, a procession of vehicles began to enter the compound. Everything came to a standstill as all the attention shifted to the unfolding scenario. Everyone stared silently at the magnificent vehicles wondering who the strangers were. Continue Reading……