Things are Getting Good

Many updates on The General History Project, so I’ll put them in bullet-form as a gesture of supreme respect and efficiency for my busy readers:

1. We are incorporated!  Yesterday I went to the Secretary of State Office and submitted my Articles of Incorporation (lovingly prepared by the wonderful folks at Hunton & Williams) and my check for expedited processing.  I waited for twenty minutes and then received my official certificate of incorporation.  And just like that: I went from being technically unemployed to President and Secretary of The General History Project, Inc.  In future correspondences, I respectfully request that my dear readers refer to me only as “Madam President.”  (I’m only kidding: you may also use “CEO” if that is your preference).  J
2. I am finishing up my IRS Form 1023 application for 501(c)(3) status as a tax-exempt Georgia Non-Profit.  I’m doing this under the guidance of Hunton and Williams.  Hopefully this will be filed by the end of the week or early next week.  Pending IRS approval, donations received post-filing will be tax deductible, so get the checkbooks ready! 
3. I depart for Nairobi next week, on March 4^th.  I am scheduled to return May 8^th.  I am preparing for the trip by enjoying many candlelit suppers with loved ones before I leave, so that I’m ready for the lack of electricity.  I am only kidding.  I was pleased to discover that my yellow fever vaccination is good for ten years, so I did not need to get any new shots for this trip (and dodged the wrath of my mother who threatened, “I will kill you if you do not get your Yellow Fever vaccination”).  The General’s youngest son, Murithi, will pick me up from the airport.  I will stay with his family in Nairobi for two days and then travel to the tea farm on Saturday with Murithi, in his car (yay for private transport…this time!).  The General has arranged for me to stay with his other son in Meru, next to the tea factory, where I will have (drum roll please…) ELECTRICTY!  This will prove extremely valuable in recharging my recording devices and laptop.  This is exciting news – dare I say, electrifying. 
4. I have purchased a high quality digital recording device (the Marantz PMD 620) and a HD Camcorder (Canon VIXIA HV30), which I intend to use on field trips (quite literal, as we will be in fields) and some interview sessions.  I am familiarizing myself with the operations of these devices and hope to be proficient soon.  I pray that any problems with the equipment can be fixed in Kenya with duct tape.  Otherwise, I am a little worried. 
5. I will read the following books (to complement the rest of the library I’ve acquired) before my departure: Histories of the Hanged, Facing Mt. Kenya, and History of Meru Tribal Warfare. 
6. I can proudly count to 30 in KiSwahili, I know the days of the weeks, and the time.  I know how to greet people and say please (tafadhali) and thank you very much (asante sana).  And of course I remember how to say my name, “Mzungu,” affectionately meaning “White Person.”  I will work on KiMeru when I get there (Kimeru is the tribal tongue, kiSwahili is the lengua franca).  My English is quite good, I think.  My Atlanta Swahili teacher, Mwalimu, is an amazing person and a generous man with his time and knowledge.  He is giving me free instruction: I only buy the chai at Caribou Coffee (which we called Karibu Coffee, meaning “Welcome” in Swahili).
7. I am learning to navigate the technical worlds of Twitter and Facebook in order to spread awareness about this project. Ironically, these worlds are much more foreign to me than I will likely find Africa.  Please help me in this intimidating task by being my cyber friend and asking others to do the same.  Please also share this blog with people who you think might enjoy it (or hate it, really, because either way will generate discussion: please just share it!).  I have high hopes that my blogs from Kenya will be far more interesting than the preceding ones, so please humor me for the next nine days. Oh, oh, oh: leave comments here tafadhali! 
8. I have raised $2,966.  I hope to raise more than $5000, in order to do the best job possible with this project and future projects.  I may need to hire an interpreter in order to allow The General to tell the best stories in the language he is most comfortable in.  This will be an additional expense.  I have invested in high quality equipment, which is more expensive but will hopefully produce a better product. I have filing fees for my IRS application and Articles of Incorporation.  I am watching my savings account dwindle like sand from an hourglass with one eye closed and a furrowed brow.  I love all of you who have supported me in this endeavor.  I beg all of you who have not to do so, if you are able (seriously – $10 will help!).  If you are not able, please send this to someone who drives a nicer car than you do.  Hehehe…
9. I feel as though I should come up with ten points here, to be a round number, but I am going to close on nine.  I do not want to create an additional point just for convention’s sake and waste your time.  All is fine with me.  I am learning a ton and thinking that what we are doing can really change this world.  The General History Project is an opportunity for the West and the non-West to work together, to improve each other, and to remember the past while creating a better future.   Sending lots of good energy your way as we work together to accomplish this task…

Kwaheri – Laura Lee Huttenbach            

When we were young…

A historian by the name of Jeffrey Fadiman documented the life and customs of the Meru people, the tribe of The General.  He spent over a year completing field work in Mt. Kenya and recording their oral history.  He found that elders were willing to share their secret histories because the youth were not interested in learning it.  They feared that hundreds of years of tribal knowledge would be lost if not recorded with the random white man (a paraphrase of his words, not mine). 

I invite you to read some excerpts of his book, When We Were Young, There Were Witchmen, posted below.  I’m sorry that this is a longer blog post than usual.  I think that if you take an additional 4 minutes and read below, you will come to appreciate the African tradition of respect for the elder and the rich history that they possess.  When I was younger and visiting my grandparents, I would not go to bed until Granddad told me my story.  He would select one of the many in his repertoire, most relating to his childhood growing up with his teasing siblings.  Or how his summer chore was to walk the family cow from their home to the summer cottage.  Or how this cow would moo every time he came home from a date, and his parents knew what time he arrived and if he was late for curfew. 

I gained an appreciation of his past, of his life, and his perspective.  I plan to share his stories with my children.  I worry that grandchildren these days have not or will not know this bond.  It seems to be a universal trend that we, the youth, have access to more resources, so we rely less on those who came before us.  Our elders can share knowledge that Google searches do not produce.  But we have to give them the opportunity to speak, as slowly as necessary.  My former boss, Kenny Leon, always said, “Ah, the youth is wasted on the young.”  This doesn’t always have to be the case… 

Okay, enough of my jabbering…here are the excerpts:    

The value in recording the history:

Each time an old man dies in Africa a library is lost to humankind, for within the memories of the old men lies the history of an entire people.  It is a complex tale, as rich in drama, incident, and narrative as the far more widely known drama of Homer’s Troy, the Viking sagas, or the samurai epics of Japan.  Some African traditions take hours to tell, a few take days; those that make up the body of this book stretched over months.  Some traditions are fictional, others are based entirely on fact.  Some blend fiction and fact, often so artfully that anyone who listens is held spellbound.  Some can be retold only in song, often only by tribal troubadours.  These traditions are folk art at it finest; they hold Africa’s rich past.

***

The disinterest of younger generations in learning from their elders:

The younger age-sets had been either exposed to British schooling or aspired to it, thus forming the first generation of Meru’s new literates.  More and more of them believed that wisdom lay in books and schoolrooms, not in the old traditions. 

Tradition was that younger generations would visit their elders, bearing presents in the form of food, drink, or tobacco.  In return, the elders would share their wisdom and the youth would better understand their history and life in general.  The elders in these communities are scared to (and of) death, because the youth refuse to learn from them. 

For every prior generation these formal visits had acted as an informal but effective system of social security.  Too old for physical labor, the elders still served the tribe by passing on their knowledge to the young.

The older a man grew, the more he was assumed to know, the more often his juniors would seek him out, and thus the more frequent his gift became.  The old, old men of Meru, unlike those in Western societies, were never seen as useless and left to age and die alone.

Without exception those who formed the oldest living age-sets were embittered at those younger than themselves.  Most, when asked, felt that the younger age-sets had been ‘bent by British as though they were twigs instead of men,’ and ‘they scratch in books like foolish guinea hens, seeking seeds of wisdom from white men while ignoring their own.’  In consequence all elders feared death in a way unknown to prior generations, less for the loss of their own existence than the loss of the entire Meru past. 

More to come later…

-LL

Ps: This entire book is available free, online: http://www.escholarship.org/editions/view?docId=ft8199p24c&chunk.id=d0e204&toc.depth=1&toc.id=d0e204&brand=ucpress

“Small World” doesn’t begin to describe…

I decided that I didn’t have enough on my plate in preparation for Kenya…my reading load, my website, my meetings, my writings, my immunizations, my travel plans, my non-profit…still left me with seven hours of peaceful slumber each night.  I knew I could do more.  So I did what any self-respecting, over-ambitious perfectionist would do in a similar circumstance: I began to study Swahili.

As with all Laura Lee-related pursuits, there is a story behind the Swahili lessons.  I did a Google search, “Swahili lessons Atlanta.”  I found a post, I emailed the teacher and briefly described my project.  In his response, I noticed that his middle name was “Murithi,” also the name of The General’s youngest son.  I thought it likely he was from the same tribe, the Meru tribe. 

I responded many days later, saying that I was interested in meeting with him and sent him a link to this website.  Two hours later, I received the following email (they call me “Nkirote”):

Nkirote;

I am happy to hear from you after some time. I am even happier to learn you got a name from my community- I am born and raised on the eastern slopes of Mt. Kenya. More so I visited your website and apparently I know the “General”. Mr Nkungi is a great friend of my dad and he stayed with us here in Atlanta when he last visited the US. I can assure you that he will be a great source of historical information. I will send you some pictures I took with him.

My dad is currently in Kenya and if you ever needed any help that end; he can be of help. Similarly, my wife is a college tutor and would assist as necessary.

There seems to be a cosmic force pushing me to do this work (“pushing” is not the right word…perhaps “gently nudging,” is better, which I joyfully absorb).  A lot of people will say they don’t believe in coincidences.  I’ve always rolled my eyes and thought, “Sure, right, it’s all part of ‘the plan.’  Aren’t you late to yoga class, weirdo?”  But I think I’m starting to eat my words (how intellectual they taste!).  And I just went to a yoga class yesterday.  My world is really changing…

More news soon – LL