KALFUMA

Nubian elder (65)

When our grandfathers talked about Kibra they talked about how they had been given this place by the British because they lost their families and their lives. They were taken to fight and were given Kibra to be a place that was their own land, land for the Nubians. Back then it was just a forest.  That is why they said, “We have been given a Kibra.”  A forest.  They started there, in that forest, and turned it into a village.  

When I was a girl growing up in Kibra, the place was so green. People had their farms there. They planted a lot of fruit there. They had their cows there. They were settled by that time.  They knew that the place was their place. From Langata up to the Golf Course was all Nubian land.  You found only Nubians there.  

We had one school in Kibra.  That was the only school we had.  And also there was a very big hall in Makina next to the mosque where we had all of our ceremonies. It was a very big space, so if you wanted to do a ceremony, your ceremony was there.

But now, that place is not there.  Now, even we don’t have a place to keep the chickens.  Now, we are really squeezed, squeezed, squeezed. 

When you need space for a ceremony, it isn’t there. The land is not there. And the school, it is still there, but it is not ours anymore.  It was built in 1953 and was built for Nubians. Even Queen Elizabeth is the one who came and opened that school.  But now it is not ours.  When we go for an education, the school is not ours. The school now is for the public and even the Nubians are not known there. Even the graveyard is running out of space because this place is so squeezed. We have been here all this time, but things are not ours. The Nubian identity is not here anymore.

People today, if they heard the word Kibra, they would not even know what Kibra is.  They just know it as Kibera. But it is not Kibera.  It is Kibra.  I wish that people could know Kibra when it was a forest. Some of the people who are now grown up, they are very sad because there are times when they remember things the way they used to be. Where is our Kibra? Where has our Kibra gone? They say things like this.

When I hear the word Kibera, I think about what has been lost to our generation and lost to the generations to come. The land of Kibra is only a memory now.  That is all it is.      

I think the younger generation is very concerned about things in Kibera.  They think about Kibera now and they think, “Where are we going to go with our families?” The place is so squeezed.  When you never go away from Kibera, you are a community.  But when you have to move away from our own community, that is when our community is going to get lost. We are dividing now. 

I have five people in my family, and they are now grown up.  They grew up in Kibra. And they know Kibra is our community place. Now, because of the circumstances and the forces, the place is so squeezed we cannot stay together as a happy family. They now have to go out and look for another place to live. And they will not all go as five families together.  One will go to one place, another somewhere else, and another in a different place. We have already separated the community and even the family. When you go outside to a different place, you are there but you are lost from your community.

A long time ago we found our family because they were together. They were together as a community. But now if we separate ourselves by going outside, will we ever get our community back?  It will be very hard. And it is really sad.

How are we going to help our community not lose itself?  How are we going to help ourselves to be in the same community as the community our grandfathers left us? I paint a picture in my head of Kibra and tears come out because the way they left us is not the same way we are now. I am really praying for God to let our children stay here in Kibra.  Let us remain as Nubians. Although we are so few, let us remain as Nubians.