Grace Ogot - The Promised Land

The novella is about a couple who emigrated to Tanganyika - being uprooted from their people - in search of a better life. It echoes, in many ways, the same complexities of emigration that people experience today.   In the 1930's - the promised land -  for the tribal people of Seme - was perhaps Kisumu or Tanganyika where families sometimes emigrated in search of the promised land - never to return to the land of their ancestors. With globalisation, it is now Mombasa, Europe, the Americas or even far away Russia. Immigration is a topical issue in Europe and USA where laws are enacted to stem the flow of unwanted immigrants. That said, immigration is not a novel issue given that since eons past, people have laid their stake to a place and been wary of 'foreigners'. They have dealt with newcomers in the way they deemed fit - from hostility, witchcraft, wars and laws. When all is said and done, it is survival for the fittest and the side that manages to subdue and conquer become the new owners on the look out for those who might wish to unlodge them from their 'rightful' place.  But human beings are resilient and do not 'learn',  for - then as now - people will continue to emigrate in hordes in search of the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Some will succeed and others will fail and return.

 

I enjoyed reading Grace Ogot's Promised Land, not so much for the story - which was enjoyable - but more to confirm the fact that indeed before everything there was indeed a history of a people. Whether we like it or not - before the white man ventured into Africa - there was a life. Although the story is set in the 1930's the actors make reference to their ancestors, cultures and times past through a traditional folklore that has been passed down mostly orally and therefor gets lost. When my son and daughter wanted to study A level History, I was distressed that none of the modules were centered on African History.  I took to buying books that had been promulgated through the "African Writers Series" but to my chagrin my children found it difficult to relate to them.

 

I couldn't help but relate this story to that of Sisyphus. Just when it seemed that Ochola and Nyalpol had settled and prospered in the promised land, disaster struck and they were back to square zero for unexplainable reasons. They had to flee and return to the lands of their people poorer than when they first set set out

 

Although not from Nyanza, I was drawn  to the culture and names of the Luo peoples of Nyanza. The people of Seme, Gem, Awasi, Nyahera.   Interestingly the story was not juxtaposed with other people of present day Kenya but more the cross border peoples of Musoma. My best character was Nyalpol - the new bride who reminded me of W's wife wondering whether they looked the same.

 

Whilst reading this novella, I pondered Nicholas Sarkozy's infamous 2007 rant that the "The African Man Has Never Fully Entered History". I can only offer a rebuttal in the comfort of my rant by disagreeing for indeed there is a rich history of the African peoples.  The main weakness is to always make conclusions about the african people through a foreign prism and pass a judgement that does not always reflect the truth. God Forbid that those who come behind us forget that before Stacy & Stephanie there was Nyalpol & Abonyo and that before French & English there was Luo & Zulu. Last but not least, before Lake Victoria & Victoria Falls there was Nam Lolwe & Mosi 'o Tunya - The smoke that thunders. As I read the novellla, I continue to be convinced beyond the shadow of a doubt that the African people had their own cultures, religions, medicines, names, values, languages,  institutions and histories. That these are being forgotten does not indicate the lack of their existence but more the way of the world...that in order to survive one must adapt.