I don’t know who wrote this, but it will certainly resonate with many I grew up with. If you know the author, please post a comment. Minor edits are mine.
To the wonderful kids who were born in Africa and survived the 1950s,
60s, 70s and 80s.
First, we survived being born to mothers who took aspirin, ate
whatever food was put on the table, and didn’t get tested for diabetes.
They were mothers who did not check their blood pressure every few minutes.
Then after that trauma, our baby cribs and bassinets were covered with
brightly coloured lead-based paints. We were put in prams and sent out with
ayahs to meet other children with ayahs, whilst our parents were busy.
We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets, and when
we rode our bikes we had no helmets, not to mention the risks we took
hitchhiking or going out on our own. As children, we would ride in cars with
no seat belts or airbags. We sat on each other’s laps, for God’s sake. Riding
in the back of a station wagon on a warm day was always a special treat.
We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle, and NO ONE
actually died from this. We would share a samosa; dip a chapatti into
someone else’s plate of mchuzi without batting an eyelid. We ate jam
sandwiches or pickle on bread and butter, raw mangoes with salt that set our
teeth on edge, and drank orange squash with sugar and water in it. We ate at
roadside stalls, drank water from tender coconuts, ate everything that was
bad for us: njusu, mix, kababs, bhajias and kachori; but we weren’t
overweight because WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!
We would leave home in the morning and play all day during the holidays, we
were never ever bored, and we were allowed freedom all day as long as we
were back when the streetlights came on, or when our parents told us to do
so. No one was able to reach us all day by mobile phone or phone. And we
were OK.
We would spend hours making paper kites, building things out of scraps with
old pram wheels or cycle rims, inventing our own games, playing traditional
games called hide and seek, kick the can and rounders, ride old cycles and
then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After
running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.
We swam with an inflated tube which we got from somebody who was replacing
their car tyres. We swam in the open sea without wearing any protective
clothing or reef shoes. We never used sun screen lotions. We ran barefoot
without thinking about it; if we got cut we used iodine on it which made us
jump. We did not wash our hands ten times a day. And we were OK.
We did not have Playstations, Nintendos, X-boxes; no video games at all, no
99 channels on cable, no video tape movies, no surround sound, no mobile
phones, no personal computers, no iPods, no internet or internet chat
rooms, no TV, full stop.
We did not have parents who said things like “what would you like for
breakfast, lunch or dinner?”. We ate what was put in front of us and best of
all, there were never any leftovers. We polished the lot.
WE HAD FRIENDS, great friends, whose parents we called Uncle and Aunty, and
we went outside and found them!
We fell out of trees numerous times, got cut, broke bones and teeth and
there were no compensation claims from these accidents.
We ate fruit lying on the ground that we shook down from the tree above. And
we never washed the fruit. We had a bath using a bucket and mug and used
Lifebuoy soap. We did not know what conditioners meant.
We made up games with sticks and tennis balls. We rode cycles everywhere and
someone sat on the carrier or across the bar to school or the pictures, not
cinema, or you walked to a friend’s house and knocked on the door or rang
the bell, or just walked in and talked to them!
Not everyone made it into the teams we wanted to. Those who didn’t had to
learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!
The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They
actually sided with the law!
This generation of ours has produced some of the best risk takers, problem
solvers and inventors ever!
The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas. We had
freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned HOW TO DEAL
WITH IT ALL!
Please pass this on to others who have had the luck and good fortune to grow
up as kids in Africa, before the lawyers and the government regulated our
lives, ostensibly for our own good, that changed what was good into bad and
what was bad into worse
No related posts.
{ 37 comments… read them below or add one }
I remember walking over to my friend’s house every weekend when I was about 7 years old. I had to pass several kiosks on the way and each time one of the kiosk owners would shout out to me “Nikwega” and throw me a Big G or Black Pussycat gum as a treat. No one frowned upon the fact that I was accepting treats from complete strangers. Goodness me, now even smiling at strangers is practically against the law.
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Wonderful piece! It just shows me how much the world has changed from when I was a kid, rather sad to say the least.
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De ja vu at its best…those were the days. Growing up in Nairobi was interesting. Lunch was never at home, you would always be invited to eat at your friend’s and vice versa. The food was different but we all ate like one family. Life was safe, clean and good. Kenya wasn’t rich materially then but it was wealthy in love.
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What about the mini ‘Safari Rally’ that boys used to hold? Pulling a little Matchbox car on a string through puddles, slopes, mud sections etc? It was all meticulously planned, with checkpoints and scorecards, and the rally ran on for days, just as the real one did. We would go to sleep thinking about the next day’s sections, and how to make up the points gap, and how we had to get a better car next year…
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I grew up in South ‘B’, and it is similarly unrecognisable.
Yes, the mock rallies went on for 4-5 days, just like the real thing, and were a feat of organisation in themselves. Because everyone was a participant, there was no referee – so we all had to check on each other. If your car tipped over onto its side – 1 penalty point; if it went on its back – 2 points. So you could be ‘first on the road’ but not win because of your accumulated penalties – just like in the real Safari!
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You made me smile there, Sunny. Yep, our rallies used to coincide with the main one during the April holidays. It was real fun with the logistics – prepping the wire cars with mudguards, bottle tops on the roof etc. I remember we used to hold our rally legs – leg 1 Eastleigh, leg 2 all the way to Buru Buru, leg 3 Kimathi Estate and Bahati.
You know I can’t recognise the Eastlands that I grew up in; it was a good place then. The safari winner got a soda after every participant had contributed 5 cents as prize money, we used to pay another 5 cents for organisation which of course went to the neighbourhood bully…ha ha ha…of course he is the one who used to flag off the rally…luckily for me the neighbourhood bully was my big bro…the good days!
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Big up big up whoever wrote dis one guan staff i wish de world would keep the guan old tym ting´s 21st dem kid we spoiling dem man if u live abroad sent them ya kids to Africa fi dem to learn him hard lyf. I really feel lucky to have beena born if de black contint word iit up Jah pple lets us Nation up coz tommorrow it would de only guan place fi stay. Am an African and so proud to be live op man jah guidance and protexion Aire Aire conquer babylon .
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Incidentally, a new report by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (I’m not kidding, there is such a thing!) says that kids should be allowed to play outside, climb trees etc without parents worrying too much. They will learn ‘life-long lessons’ from their cuts and bruises, says the report.
Another survey reported that 43 per cent of UK parents don’t think children under 14 should go out unsupervised…
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Yes, those were the days and unfortunately things have changed so much these days. I think that is why this new generation of kids is unable to cope with some of life’s simple problems. I don’t think in those days there was much heard about drugs and irresponsible sexual behaviour..problems affecting today’s teenager. They have been exposed to so many things from the western culture courtesy of this thing called the television. I think life was much safer then and one took life day at a time.
It’s rather unfortunate that this is happening and the only thing we can do is just pray and hope that this new generation will learn a bit from the older ones.
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Hi Sunny, thanks for a brilliant website … This particular article made me nostalgic about letter writing (using a biro and paper that is, not email or sms!!!)… I remember the best part of Sunday papers in the 80s ( I was in primary school then) was the penpal section – imagining the places some of the names came from and waiting for replies that more often than not never came … but I still wrote describing what interesting thing I did that day – a brilliant journal if any!!!. In high school over prep, we exchanged letter pads depending on who you were writing to – boyfriends got flowery pads, pals got the fullscap from the biology notes file … drafts were written and rewritten to make sure you expressed yourself right … letter writing was a culture in itself! It has been so long since i wrote a letter, I’m now hooked on the efficiency of email and sms.
I think the difference between NOW and THEN is that human contact has been lost to the efficiency of machines. Today I can work from home … alone … as long as I’ve got internet! Office gossip, endless tea and mandazi breaks may not make cents but they make us alive… and so for me the nostalgia is about just being human …
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I miss the days when there would be a black out, especially at night since that would mean playing ‘hide and seek’…too bad for the person who was ‘hoping’( looking for others)…kids nowadays rant and rave when lights go out coz they can’t play ‘hitman’ or use their playsations..or cannot recharge their ‘camera-mp3-webaccessed’ cellphones just to say goodnight to their next door neighbour!!!!
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THIS IS THE STORY THAT SHOULD BE TOLD NOW.A SYMBOL OF THE KENYAN WAY OF LIFE-PEACE,LOVE AND UNITY. HOW I MISS WHEN WE USED TO PLAY ‘BONO’ [MARBLES] !
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Hi Sunny,this is amazing.I was born in the late 80′s and am proud to have enjoyed all that you’ve talked about.I remember leaving for another estate to play ‘BANO’ – marbles – and the best part was planning the escape after losing your marbles to them yet you still owned them some more.I would escape bare feet on hot murram soil and this was the our idea of fun.
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Kibue:
I certainly spent far too much of my youth playing ‘BANO’. And what fun it was…
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Great article that one – and so true it brings memories. I grew up in Buru phase one in the 70s and early 80s, and I have no recollection of ever being bored as a child – too many games, too little time. We only had one TV station KBC at it the TV “woke up” at around 5.30p.m. Despite the numerous TV channels we have now, you can actually keep switching stations and find nothing of interest. In the days of the one KBC, you were always assured of a good weekend movie on Sato. Not to forget the Six Million Dollar Man, and the Incredible Hulk. One more addition – all the mums came home in the evening before dark. They didnt go to night school.
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Pleasant:
I remember the daily TV ritual with great affection. VoK (not KBC) would come on at 5.30, followed by the ONE daily cartoon at 5.35 – Felix the Cat, Magilla Gorilla, The Roadrunner spring to mind – and all the kids on our road would gather at the ONE house that had a (BW) TV, sitting on the floor and cheering and laughing…
Ah, good times.
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Those were the golden days. When life was really LIFE.
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So true…We can all relate this. even those of us who grew up in the 80s and 90s. Nostalgia…
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you would get a new dust bin just by presenting a water bill at the City Council. garbage collection was regular as clockwork. could watch ‘continuos shows’ at Odeon, Cameo(12, 2, 4, 6 &9pm). its true, we drank tap water. no bottled water – never imagined that one day we would actually buy drinking water.
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Growing up I remember in ’84 the famine, excitedly eating Coloured (yellow) ugali, an invasion of green army worms that came from the countryside up to the kitchen gardens in nairobi estates.Relatives from the diaspora calling worried sick after watching Mo’ Amin’s footage of hunger in Ethiopia.The legend of the rabid T9 dogs that were released from Tz(Biological warfare?) into kenya that had us scared of walking at night when in shagz
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Haki ya mungu
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Sunny,
what an article, it has really taken me back, thanks for writing it
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This was a great article that sent me back to my childhood with my siblings and cousins. We had our own safari rallies too. Can’t believe they don’t make patcos and pussycats anymore.
. My siblings, cousins and I are now all residing abroad from Kenya and whenever we meet all we can do is reminisce about our childhood and think how the children of today grow too quick.
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Caroline:
As I noted above, I didn’t write it, still trying to find out who did so that we can attribute it properly…
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Anyone remember Hero fountain pens? Wonderful writing instruments, in the days when the pen mattered. They’re still around, but who buys them now…
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This read leaves me with a nostalgic smile, Sunny!
We actually used to cut the brakes off the bikes – it made downhill racing (no pedalling – feet up on the bicycle frame) more thrilling.
We didn’t just eat fruit that fell out of trees. We fell out of the trees ourselves, having climbed to shake fruit out of the higher branches. We landed on our backs and lay there stunned for a few seconds, then got up and ate the fruit.
We were accountable to every adult! We got smacked by a neighbourhood parent, for some misdeed, and didn’t go running to tell tales – that would have earned us another smacking at home, for whatever we did.
Bring back those simple days!
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She-ra, He-man, Kids Incorporated, Berenstain Bears…i could go on, on and on. Born mid 70s, growing up in Nbi was epic. Do they sell Goody Goody in shops nowadays?
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thanks so much Sunny, happy trip down memory lane. Gichenje my folk held on the that city council issued dustbin maybe 4 years ago, it had no handles and no bottom…this was the era when some of us got addicted to mabuyu and kashata…and we called sweets “puru!”…when aunts visited and gave you 50cents and you were the rich kid on the block…walking around with a handful of pato wrapped in a gazetti. and the TV …how could you not know the national anthem..
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Great article, great comments! Ah! The good old days! Eating mangoes with piling pili, roasted cassava (mihogo)… playing ‘kati’ and ‘blada’ and my all time favorite- shake!
We would leave our shoes at some spot, go play almost a mile away and still come back to find them exactly where we left them! On hot days, we’d pool our few coins together and buy one ‘cool’ which we’d share between 4 kids!
Such fond memories… Life was so simple!
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Carol:
It’s true that despite the poverty, people didn’t really steal or rob much. Gates and doors were usually left wide open all day long and into the night. You could leave your possessions unattended. Robbing accident victims was unthinkable. How do we explain that, when everyone was poorer?
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Suneeta:
Yours is a common tale. Emigrants from Africa seem to never, ever forget their childhoods!
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Mo:
I admit my friends and I were chased away by many an angry tree-owner…only to return the following day and try again.
Now fruit is freely available to kids, but none of them seem to want it…
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Wawendo:
I remember the first bag of chips I bought for myself cost a princely Shs 2/50…shared it with 3 other boys.
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Suneeta, Patcos are still there, each wrapped in clear paper. Still ask for em whenever I go to a kiosk.
I miss goody goody, playing three sticks, rounders… Kids don’t know what they’re missing!
Thanks for sharing Sunny.
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Good old days… when bread was Elliots or Elliots premium on special days; when juice was Tree Top or Hey Ho; when soda had a choice of Pepsi, 7UP, Tarino & Schweppes; when family movies included Kojak, Barnaby Jones & Little house on the prairies; when Fox Drive in was the family week end outing; when outdoor food was Fish & Chips (I can smell it); when MOW and CID swimming pools in South C were not for members only if you could afford the 0.5 cents (fiu); when we could “fish” tadpoles with our bare hands without risk of bilhazia etc; when public schools like Kongoni, Mariakani and Our Lady were schools for kids of who-is-who….
How I miss those days. My kids are always envious when I tell them of my childhood. I don’t envy them.
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AB:
Barnaby Jones, who never ever got shot but always got his man with just one shot in the end, never killing him, just disarming him…ha ha.
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Oh…and when residential estates had enough play grounds for the entire neighbourhood; when tenants in flats had parrots on their balcony who said ‘jambo’ to school kids; when we used to hunt ‘dush’ with ‘feya”; when it was watchmen who wear ‘akala’ shoes….
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