#Imagine Kenya, through the lens of Mitch

My name is Mitchell McTough. I am originally from Kenya, having schooled and grown up in the lakeside city of Kisumu until the age of 13. Whilst in Kenya I studied at an English boarding school at a place called St. Andrews Turi. My mother, siblings and I eventually moved to North Yorkshire, UK, during the summer of my 13^th birthday. All three of us attended a school called Ampleforth College. After completing my GCSEs and A Levels I went on to spend a year working and volunteering in the ecotourism sector in Kenya from 2007-2008. It was here that I carved my passion. After completing this, I then went on to study at Sussex University, in Biomedical Science. However this did not last long (2 months). In love and recklessly for love I moved north and began at Bradford University, in Geography and Environmental Management (From 2008-2014 with a 2 year leave). Whilst working and completing my 2^nd year, I founded (along with 3 other Leeds East African Students), the Tribal Instinct fashion show and movement at Leeds University. Several months on in 2011, I launched Tribal Instinct Volunteers. From 2011-2013 I ran the programmes, however addressing the many issues on the ground was difficult without truly understanding the causes. In January 2014 I decided to formerly launch Wild Instincts www.wildinstincts.co.uk a non-profit ecotourism organisation. This, alongside entering into a Masters in African Peace and Conflict was what I believed would strengthen my understanding on how to tackle the problems facing particular nations in East Africa.

My current hobbies include sailing (summer), running/trail running/fell running, gym, and art.

Imagining a peace and Kenya as I know it:

To imagine Kenya, is to believe that I can create an image in my mind so vivid and evoking that it conjures the green pastures of the Western and Central provinces, starkly contrasted by the rugged mountains and plains of the North, the sand and palm swept scenes of the coastline, to the savannah grasslands of the South. The intertwining of diverse cultures, communities, and urbanised areas with nature. I see a myriad of harmonious settings, smiles, eyes looking to the future and hands held together across a strong and peaceful nation. Though my imagination is mangled and distorted by the fears that peer into it, the knowledge of environmental degradation, the political agendas and corruption, the societal failures, it can only be expressed in poetry:

 The ‘Eighth’ deadly sin? Mans foot print:

 I walk along this meandering path,

Marked with a footprint of wrath,

Nestled in, nobody hears, nobody sees, nobody speaks,

Like Gaia’s vein pierced the pain creeps,

To you and I alike a needle to the thumb,

To her a feeling that will never numb,

I walk on mighty and tall.

 Within this jungle, a gloomy haze mirrors a gaze,

The past is catching the present,

This I will not just call a phase,

The sky is vast, but a deformed crescent,

I walk on mighty and tall.

 I shall wonder then in the thieving breeze,

For where I stand, a distance from the shivering trees,

Like a great and wondrous tease,

They sway and wave those dotted leaves,

And like the bird resting pert and who believes…

“You merchants of deadly disease,

I too shall wheeze in this time of despair.”

Life empty now and so bare, I ask myself:

“Oh why did I even dare”?

Goodbye today, goodbye tomorrow,

Stealing from you is not to borrow,

Oh no, it really is not fair,

Gaia’s tree I leave you be,

I set you free.

 Kenya is a beautiful nation with a beautiful future, but to accept and address the fact that we are capable of both bringing peace in all areas of life and also destruction is the most important two facets of humanity. Our imagination can only stretch so far, and the responsibility to reality brings us back again to seek out this utopian image.

 ***

We get to a point where our imagination is better expressed in Poetry. Goodbye today, goodbye tomorrow, stealing from you is not to borrow.

Worldview

In some part of the world, if a child is born with locks it’s a sign of an omen, but how come some of us grow up and decide to lock our hair? If you live in Bradford, you’ll probably hear ‘Alright love’ from the cashier when you purchase something meanwhile some people regard the use of the word Love for someone with deep affection. What is the proper attire to be worn by the bride and groom on their wedding day? My cousin recently got married which shouldn’t be news but there was something different in his attire. He didn’t wear the regular Suit worn by the groom rather he wore a native attire known as ‘Agbada’ for the Church service. I put up his picture on BBM and asked the question, who wears such to a wedding? My charmer Eziaha responded by saying she liked the concept and besides who sets the rules. For the records the wedding was held in the US and I’m pretty sure a couple of people were surprised.

The world had shaped my perception about weddings, somewhere in my head the lady wears a white gown and the guy puts on a black suit. But what does this really mean; the lady in white represents purity and the guy in black erm …. Guess you can figure it out. In recent times people are deviating from the ‘norm’ while a few people have accepted it some are still trying to figure it out. We live in a globalised world, hence there’s a huge tendency to mix up with people of different culture, race, religion or ideology.

I recently came up with a Project on the blog after listening to the All Star rendition of Imagine by John Lennon for UNICEF as part of the celebration to mark the 25^th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of Child. I think some of the lyrics of the song could form part of the solution to what we need in our world at the moment. From the missing Mexican students, protests in Hong Kong, killings and abduction of school girls in Nigeria it is evident we are indeed living in trying times. I wanted to see through the lens of people of different cultures, religions and nationalities. The aim of the project is to imagine a world of peace, a world their kids could live in.

Just reading through some of the entries got me thinking. All of them had something to say about the propagation of Human Rights, a better environment to live in. I kept on asking myself how we can achieve this task together regardless of the colour of our skin, religious, cultural and national beliefs. A post will be put up each day depending on the number of entries I get in the month of December by different nationalities. Let’s bear in mind that all the posts are personal views and not that of the entire country. If you want to send in an entry, please send it to this email address ccogbogu@yahoo.com

Imagine there’s no countries
It isn’t hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion, too

Imagine all the people

Living life in peace

You may say I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you will join us
And the world will be as one

Loads of Love

JMAD

N/B Picture Credit : Creationwiki