Nyimbo cia Kuinira Ngai

My earliest childhood memory: people singing  and me moving my mouth and pretending to know the song...It still happens even now. Every time i visit an Anglican church and we have to sing those old songs which if transleted, the meaning and weight gets lost.. Its never the same. Its like asking "Oh what peace we often forfeit, take it to the lord  in prayer" and the alternative in gikuyu .

I dont have a favourite song in the hymn book.... they are all so good. However both my grandmas (two women of faith) Nyina wa mahuru na Nyina wa Jathani (read Jason) mari atumia a witikio munene muno muno. I remember during one of the burials singing the song "Wihoke Mwathani Rugendoini" and i sang the song with tears in my eyes and a smile on my face. Tears because my dad was burying his mother and i watched him trying to appear strong. I watched him mouht the word from ' Ibuku ria Thaara' "Mundu owothe uciaritwo ni mutumia....."  I though it was sad because the woman in question had raised him. I was sad because this woman had fondly called me "nyakanyagia" i dont know what it means but i loved it. I was sad because i competed for her affection with my other cousins. I was sad because after the death of my mother she had done her best to teach me that life was not always fair and not everyone had your best intersts at heart.I was sad because she was for a few years before losing her memory a mother to me.


"Ngaci ya mwana wene niyo ihoragia mwaki" she always said. I smiled because she was at rest..  I smiled because she always spoke her mind without fear of being judged. I smiled because she taught me my first vulgar kikuyu words and the shock when my dad heard me say them.. I smiled becasue she told me about her circumcicion ceremony when i was eight years old.... I smiled because her food always tasted good even if it was all cooked in the same pot and was boiled together. I remembered nostalgically of how she would carry her bible in her kiondo as she went for " githomo"(service)  and me for  "sunday" (sunday school) and how later we would drink a "thota"(soda)  from " ha wa jothitu" (wa Johnstone) So with tears in my eyes, a smile on my lips and a wavering voice i sang "Wihoke mwathani rugendoini...."

Oh no i lost it .........i was going to write some of those dear songs  but i guess thats for next time