Tuesday, February 28, 2023

UNIVERSITY OF NAIROBI

FACULTY OF ARTS AND SOCIAL SCIENCES

DEPARTMENT OF LITERATURE

 

Dedication

Prof. Wangari Maathai

Daughter of Africa, winner of Nobel Prize for Peace 2004

 

The Mugumo tree

Kimingichi wabende

In future when our children awake,

Step out in a bright morning,

Smell the freshness of nature’s fragrance,

See the blooming and the blossoming flowers.

Touch the dew droplets on green leaves,

Feel the sensation of young sunrays,

They will see the good in God’s creations   And in fullness of their voices proclaim

“Today is a Wangari morning!”

For such is the freshness, you bequeath the world

 

Wangari, you of the leopard,

Born of the wild, and accustomed to the night,

In the days your spots are a spectacle, in the night your eyes sparkle.

In the days your spots are spectacle, in the night your eyes sparkle.

You know your way around the woods, grassland blends with your spots.

You quench your thirst in mountain springs where the birds sing

You take refuge in trees, with guile you lay in traces of shades

Your enemies you rattle, because you’re a sly hunter ready for battle.

You are at home with nature that’s why you were hard to capture

 

You belonged to the world, all in the wild you nurtured,

May tried to have you tethered, in hope you will be domesticated,

Bend your will to their whims and answer to all they demanded,

But your wild spirit was unbound, your desires unfettered

While they thought of you caged, and your hands manacled,

In hard times you cried you sought repair,

When we felt despair you sought repair,

When our souls were pained you brought solace.

 

As a leopard,

You didn’t need to proclaim your leopardess,

All those who saw you noticed your gracefulness,

Those who tried to soil you could not rub off your spots                                                 

Weren’t you always the first?

The dark girl from Nyeri

Who scaled heights in anatomy

The first African doctorate in the region

But you found the library a prison.

 

So you set out to explore the environ

‘Cause cutting of trees was ruining the economy

And you wanted to spare us agony

In process won accolades in botany

The world noticed you were noble

It was your country you wanted to accolades in botany

The world noticed you are noble

It was your country you wanted to enable

So they decorated you first African women peace Noble

You the Mugumo, the community trunk,

From you a tribe will spring,

Whose identity is the colour green,

Rivulets will flow like springs

Gather into a mighty stream

You sparked all with a female scream

Marking the beginning of our dream

Trees will be planted in your name

Watering them will be the name of the game

Your name will be written in hall of fame

For  the monument that you built

Will be protected by the green commandos

And all your followers will come before it

The Wangari Shrine, A mugumo tree.