Under the Mpundu Tree

UNDER THE MPUNDU TREE

This is the conversation between a father and his eldest son who faces the grim spectre of HIV/AIDS. The young man bravely fights to survive. He denies that “Slim” is about to take his life. He sits under the shade of a Mpundu tree, awaiting his fate. Banished from his ancestral home, he will face death alone. The elder is first to speak:

"I have nothing more to do with you

You are no longer my child

No longer my trusty worthy child

Once mine, you will soon be replaced by another

Ah! I see I have shocked you

Sit down and tell me all the news you have for me"

Under the shade of Mpundu tree 

Tears streaming down to the soles of his feet

Taken aback, and barely able to open his lips, the son replies,

"You have no idea how much I have been sweating at night!

With this involuntary weight loss, how do I break the news?

With these persistent diarrheas, how will I sit down?  

With this chronic weakness, who will serve me?

With this documented fever, who will cool me down?

With this irregular heartbeat, who will come to my aid?

With ugly scabies, who will squeeze me oozing pus?

With these skeleton legs that can’t put me in motion

Who will fetch me my crutches?

My family and community will now throw me out."

Under the shade of Mpundu tree

Tears streaming down to the soles of his feet

"Everybody is scared of you

No one wants to be associated with you

Not your mother, father, brothers, sisters and the community

Except perhaps your wife and children and grand parents

Your big sunken eyes, sharp pointed countable ribs

Diarrhea like water running from a tap,

You have harvested all the green leaves

Boils and herpes have taken their strategic positions

Your dignity is gone, you are nothing

Look at your hair, sparsely populated,

Curled like that of a new born baby

They will throw you food like to a dog"

Under the shade of Mpundu tree 

Tears streaming down to the soles of his feet

“I am not afraid of Slim

You are mistaken - I do belong to you

You want to taint my family black

Slim attacks the poor, uneducated, and lazy in rural places

He is not for beautiful and handsome people like me and my family

He is an ugly chameleon with white big cotton eyes,

I am not his child, I am busy at university studying

Ask my mother and father how it can be me

A bad seed in my own family! No never! You are out of your mind"

Under the shade of Mpundu tree

Tears streaming down to the soles of his feet

"Have you not seen, are you so blind...

Raindrops roll down the cheeks of your wife and children

Isolated to a narrow dark house of banana leaves

You are far out from your parents’ home

No one wants to touch you, no one to give even a drop of water

No one wants to sit next or share clothes with you

Appetite is gone , sleep is futile

Your stomach is full of butterflies

Sharp pain penetrates deep down, every nerve alive

You call for euthanasia for not even ARVs can ease the pain”

Waiting, waiting, you wait for the clock to stop

A casket waits for you to join Slim’s choir

There's nothing left to say"

Under the Mpundu tree

No more tears - it is finished

Patricia Makori, Oyugis Kenya
MBA, U of Nairobi
BA, U East Africa, Baraton
KCSE Bishop Charles Mugendi Nyamokenye, Kisii

Patricia with friends celebrating the completion of her MBA

The Mpundu Tree is associated with David Livingstone, the famous Scottish missionary and explorer who died at Ilala near Victoria Falls. Livingstone's heart had been buried under a mpundu tree. Common to central and east Africa, its fruits are bitter to the taste.  Faithful attendants enclosed his embalmed body in a cylinder of Mpundu bark, wrapped in sailcloth and carried it to the coast and then sailed to London, arriving the following year. As the Doctor had been away from England for so long a correct identification of the remains was required and this was verified by the badly set broken arm that had been crushed by a lion. Dr Livingstone was buried in Westminster Abbey, his heart left in his beloved Africa.