The Story Teller

The Story Teller

Mzee Omar Mjumbe, now in his 90's and almost blind, one of the last story tellers and recounter of Mashairi, the old Swahili poems of Shela Village in Lamu.

Omar still remembers the good old days when Lamu was a producer of crops which were sold to the African mainland and further afield.

He also remembers the bad days when the income almost dried up but what he doesn't know is just how bad the situation had become by the year 1968.

Then Lamu's total earnings from exporting Cotton, Cotton Seed, Charcoal, Coconut Oil, Fish, Mangrove Poles, Mats & Mat Bags, Cashew Nuts, Sesame, Copra, Tobacco, Mangoes, Betel Leaves, Antiques, Cowries and other shells, Coir, Beche-de-mer, Tamarind and Ivory had sunk to the miserable sum of £185,900.

It gives a poignant meaning to one of the old mashairi that he tells to anyone who cares to listen:

"Last year I ploughed and raked the soil,
The famine was bad and haunting.
I never saw anyone come to me
And stuff me with their bread.
Now the number is great who come
And say ‘lend me some of your grain’,
But I did not bring any grain with me,
I left it on the ground in the wilderness."

This is one of many portraits I took of the old people on the islands for the book I have finished about the Lamu Archipelago. Anyone who wants to see it can do so by visiting my website www.daviddeveson.com