KaberaWrites

At the beginning of this whole pandemic; and I mean the Covid-19 pandemic, I was under the impression that perhaps the world was coming to an end. This was the only logical explanation for the tragedy that the year 2020 had brought along with it. It had never occurred to me that anything could be worse than a global health crisis. A few days ago, I grasped that there’re much worse pandemics that have been going on in the world for many years. Recently, a viral video shed light on one pandemic that has been terrorizing “black” people and other people of varying ethnic backgrounds all over the world for centuries; racism. George Floyd has become a household name for all the wrong reasons; he was a black man murdered by a white police officer all in the name of carrying out an “arrest”; and yes, it is vital that I note the color of both the oppressor’s and the victim’s skin color. Many have described racism as a new pandemic of its own but I do beg to differ because there is nothing new...

ELIYA   The apartments I live in are maintained by an old man who we refer to as 'Mzee' to mean 'elder'. No one knows his real name or where he comes from. What we do know is that Mzee comes very early in the morning to weed the compound, sweep the dried leaves and occasionally  trim the grass.  Mzee has a young son of about five years named Elias but the locals around call him 'Eliya'. Eliya's mother is a mad woman named Rita who lives under the staircase and talks to herself all day. The gossips say Mzee bewitched her. This trio is no stranger to poverty and the harsh word economy that has no time to think about them. During the few years I have lived here, I have grown fond of  Eliya. Eliya having been raised in a in very different family is by all means a different child. Eliya wears a tattered red t-shirt under his dirty orange jumper and a pair of greenish-brown shorts. Sometimes he has shoes on and other times he doesn't. Eliya plays with t...