The Perfect Old Days

Do you remember those days when everything/mattered? When Akenya Ratego and "Look Me I Look You" vans were the road rulers. I don't know how you called the ones that rocked your village but I am with no doubt that every down-the-valley dusty road had one.

The strong United bread-shaped like buses, yes those ones you are rolling your eyes about. Those times when you could get on a bus and say hey to your neighbor and strike a conversation, asking about some famous person you once heard about or some long-distance relative.

An Elder standing with a walking stick on a bus as youths are sitting down. PHOTO FILE

Everyone was a relative to everybody. How sweet and respected were the women and elderly, the young would-be literally scooped from a chair to give them a seat. We never minded starting a discussion and when a person would have a problem, it would be a community issue.

I mean, do you just sometimes wonder where we missed the straight road and took the one that would then lead us into a meandering path where we lost our human touch and ethics. Nowadays life is fair only to the highest bidder, not the hardworking champ. The higher you can trade your money, the better the chances even if there's nothing on the plate being offered by the trader.

The days when women knew their places as described by the society but sharpened by the agreements and arrangements of the home. Our daughters would be seated in the kitchen, be lectured, and taught how to keep and build a home. Soft dread or the big buns hair extensions never existed, it was either natural, six lines (what we currently refer to as cornrows) or the three-knot ties (matuta) on the head and we were all beautiful.

We didn't imagine that any beauty enhancers would be our best tools in the handbags to give us that self-confidence we intentionally throw each day into the garbage.

We never even imagined that a man would one day be the woman in a relationship and the woman to be the lion. Well, no closer minute did I imagine a man staying at a lady's and making himself comfortable as if it were his own, making demands and orders around as if he's the employer yet still expecting her to provide for everything. Allow me to whine just a little bit because today's man forgot the responsibilities he was taught by grandparents at the fireplace in the evening after bringing back the cattle from far away lands of grazing.

Man, wake up and claim your position as our grandparents did. They taught themselves how to be the kings, nobody laid that bed for only for them to comfortably lie on and nobody is ever going to do that for you or else you'll continue feeling forgotten and less recognized

Then came the women empowerment slogan that most of us have missed its original intention. Most women have turned this phrase into a tool that they use to fight men and bring them down. Woman, the whole thing is not meant for you to feel so masculine or to be verbally disrespectful.

Sit down, be a lady and put your pride crown down. It won't hurt recognizing and attending to your responsibilities because nobody is going to tell you that. We are out here lying to each other with "Wamama Hoyee" slogan that is ruining us each day.

Generally, it's stinking but we won't just care. We're chasing after wealth and fame.