Since I was a child, I have felt restlessness, a need for constant movement, like I had to let an energy inside me out, like the land wouldn’t let me settle. I couldn’t name it then, but I felt the energies and emotions around me, feelings of rage, betrayal, fear, grief – unspoken but felt.

I first left Embu 20 years ago, escaping a weight and heaviness that I could not name, and I was pulled to a land my ũma (grandpa) cautioned me about.

I am from the village of Makengi Embu, on the southeastern slopes of Kĩrĩma Kĩrĩnyaga – the mountain with glaciers, so-called Mount Kenya. This is my family ...

 

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