Kirinyaga. Place of Brightness:
Whose sacred slopes no shoes could tread upon;
Shrouded in mist, you shyly hid your face from us.
“God does not live on the mountain. God lives in heaven.”
Kirinyaga, we felled your trees,
Slipped silt into your streams.
Sliced curves of turf over the open lips of gullies.
Stained tears into your skin; now you turn your face from us.
Place of Brightness.
“Kenya! Britain’s most attractive colony.”
[British film] “This is Britain’s colonial empire—two-and-a-half million square miles from the Antarctic to the tropics, with dependencies in every continent and every ocean. The people of Britain are directly responsible for the wellbeing of all the people of the colonies. In these lands, where there are so many changes to be made, much can be achieved by money and the initiative of the white man.”
Hakuna mungu kama yeye (No God like Him, not like Him)
Hakuna upendo kama wake (No strength like His, not like His)
Hakuna nguvu kama zake (No love like His, not like His)
Nime tembea kote, kote (I walked and walked all over.)
Nime zunguka kote, kote (I turned and turned all over.)
Nime tafuta kote, kote (I searched and searched all over.)
Bwana, ambopo ni wewe? (Where are you, Lord?)
Hakuna hata kuwepo? (There is no one like Him.)
[Maathai] Hakuna mungu kama yeye // Hakuna upendo kama wake // Hakuna nguvu kama zake
We are no longer what we were.
We have forgotten what we knew.
We do not know who we are now.
We once knew where God was; but now He is not there.
We’ve lost what we never thought we had.
We’ve gained what we did not think we’d need.
We gave away what was not ours to give,
And took what was not ours.
This place is changed, no longer earth,
The country empty before us.
A string that keeps sounding, broken within us.
“What is your name? What is your true name?”
Kirinyaga. Place of Brightness:
Let your veil descend.
Clothe your naked slopes in green. And send us rain.
Echoes of elephant cries, a rhino horn still warm,
Wander like the last cheetah on Earth. Send us rain.
“Where are you, Lord?”
Martin Rowe 