Mount Kenya - Part I

Other Gods

They saw the mound

of black and white plumes

hunched back of a giant ostrich

kirinyaga, said the Kikuyus

kii’nyaa, said the Kambas

two tongues, two tribes, One Faith!

Blending with the skies

veiled from prying eyes

Unmanifest, it stood there

somewhere, above the treeline

at daybreak, when the clouds parted

as sheers peeled by temple priest

marbled Idols were revealed

in a rare darshan to believers – all

The vision:

of snow-clad peaks on dark massif

rising from the Equator floor -

of Day and Night

of Light and Darkness

in that one sight!

The resting place:

Of Creator Ngai, Lord of Nature

Revered and feared…

The houses they built facing the Mount

lore they wove round the slopes

Farms they laid at His feet, crops at the altar

An offering –

without disturbing His creed.

Cedar, oak, bamboo, redwood

Elephant, buffalo, antelope, turaco

Gladioli, violets, orchids, and ferns

Embellishments, they preserved in piety.

Centre of Universe, it was

for the First Man

until…

baptized, bastardized by Outsiders

seeking to conquer, demystify

Mount Kenya – it became

yet another peak to be scaled

that lent their land its foreign name!

Born of the Great Rift

Of juices spewed from Earth’s womb

Rising from the Ashes…

Once tallest of them all

Towering above Kilimanjaro, Everest even

Since then, weathered, eroded

Grand, it stands, nonetheless –

Nemesis of the mountaineer clan

To the subjects, still

the sacred ‘Mountain of Brightness’

to be worshipped –

this Abode of God

The Almighty African Himalayas!

When men and mountain meet

During the day, as I looked above the treeline on the opposite edge of the salt lick, from my balcony, I wouldn’t have suspected that the grey-blue sky speckled with clouds could hide a massive secret. But at daybreak, as one rubbed the sleep off ones eyes, dream-like an apparition of snow-draped mountains loomed in the near distance. In a rare gesture, Mount Kenya, the Mountain of God for the local inhabitants – the Kikuyus and Kambas, revealed itself, in benediction. Watching the magnificence moulded of million years, rear its head thus made me size my insignificance, and yet, somewhere, I felt the connection of both of us being Earth’s children, blessed in that moment of meeting of man and mountain.