Kenta, O.M. (1983). Unclean child. Kijabe, Kenya: Kesho Publications.

OVERVIEW

Interest in this short novel emerges from its author—a Maasai high school student who writes about growing up in Maasai country. Its theme is forgiveness.

Tito, a young Maasai girl, grows up being disdained by elders and rejected by her age mates. Still, she is happy in the care of her mother and new-found Christian faith and baptism. But her happiness is shattered one day when her mother tells her the sad story of Tito’s birth:

I’ll tell you, my only one. I grew up in a wealthy family. My father had many herds of cattle and flocks of cattle and flocks of sheep. Like all other wealthy Maasai men, he had more than one wife, he had twelve of them. My mother, who should have been your grandmother, was the eldest. I was her fourth child and the only daughter. I was the center of attention of my mother and my brothers.

My father loved me so. When father sat under his favourite shady fig tree, I sat by him to bring him more tobacco to chew or soda ash when he needed it.

He loved to see me swing my neck in the rhythm of the songs of my people. He bought me many ornaments for me with rams and oxen. I grew up and became more beautiful every day.

Father was preparing for my circumcision when it happened. I met a young man and loved him. He tricked me and I fell into the trap of fornication. And alas! I conceived you. And worse, I was uncircumcised.

I knew my brothers would spear me if they saw it...In the middle of that night, mother woke me up and led me out. She made a small opening in the fence and gestured to me to pass through. When I was outside the fence, she handed me three items. A calabash, a hide rope and a small hide bag...That was the last I ever saw of my mother, your grandmother.

Where I was taking you was unknown nor how an uncircumcised girl could be a mother.

Tito, I have watched you grow for all these years and I can’t stand it any more. My heart is broken and its pieces cannot be fitted together again.

One piece of advice I give you: don’t despair nor give up, but find a way to live a worthy life. I know it will be difficult for an unclean child, but try for there is always a way of truth...if there was none the Creator wouldn’t have let you come into this world...Then she looked at Tito with tear-filled eyes and kissed her one last time.

Tito’s mother then left, never to return. She was found a few days later hanging on a tree. Tito, who had somehow found her way back to the manyatta (Maasai village), was taken in by Ole Nasipa’s family.

The crippled Ole Nasipa loves and accepts Tito as his very own. But Tito’s foster mother hates her and treats her cruelly. Tito experiences problems common to many rural youth growing up today. Her faith, loving forgiveness of terrible wrongs, and perseverance in the face of great difficulties bring Tito to a maturity and new hope.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION AND DISCUSSION

1. How can one learn more of Maasai culture?
2. How can learning about the Maasai culture help one better understand one’s own culture?
3. What would good youth work look like among rural Maasai?

IMPLICATIONS

1. As shown in the book, the Maasai people are devout, and they have a deep sense of right and wrong.
2. The special need for love and care needed by so many of today’s young people is revealed in this story. For awhile Tito had her mother, then she had Ole Nasipa. But there were times when she felt she had no one. Youth workers especially ought to be always alert for such needs.
3. This is a story of faith overcoming adversity, loving forgiveness conquering hate and disdain. It is a story that encourages perseverance in the lives of young people who often become discouraged and turn to negative diversions.

cCYS