The Water Hole

Category: Forest, Marine | Date: Dec 07 2007 | By: admin

Last weekend I managed to sneak out of my place behind the computer and wonder into a remote Island in the northern part of Kenya’s Indian Ocean coastline. Well, to be honest I just didn’t wander, I was there on a mission.

My mission was to go in and interview an old man (mzee in Swahili) who’s been planting mangroves for as long as any villager at Kinyaole (a tiny fishing village between Malindi and Lamu in Kenya) could remember. I had been told that his story was extraordinary, and it was.

In my previous blog post, I had told you about the awkward situation that mangroves were in at Shimoni area further to the south. This information had been given to me by the Marine Program Director, Hadley Becha, and Project Assistant Phyllis among others. Tucked away in an obscure corner of Dishon’s report was a note in the lines of ‘an old man who’s been planting mangroves’. It caught my eye and I thought ‘why not go find out what he is doing?’

After travelling down to Robinson’s Island where Kinyaole fishing village is situated, and wading through ankle deep mud inside the thick mangrove forest, and dodging hundreds of sharp mollusk shells and tiny ‘one-armed’ crabs (I wonder what they are) scurrying into their tunnels, I emerged into the villagers’ farms (for they are not only fisher folk but also fruit tree farmers).

This particular farm belonged to one Mzee Shali Mwalimu Mbwarali: the reason for my adventurous journey to this hermit. He has some magnificent coconut trees and a collection of about 11 different types of fruit trees. ‘So the old man can plant’ I think to myself. When later I visit ‘his’ mangroves, I am not disappointed.

Mzee Shali has - according to his estimate - planted more than 10-million mangroves in a mangrove-planting passion lasting more than 30 years. The 10-million mangroves, he admits, are not all his. His are about 7-million. The other 3-million have been planted together with other members of the Kinyaole community which is now organising itself into conservation groups and starting to take care of their environment.

Mzee Shali has been re-planting cleared patches of these mangrove forests since 1978. Nobody ‘important’ had noticed his undying diligence to keep the forests healthy until 2002 when he started planting them in rows (he previously just planted them). True the villagers had noticed. But they would only ask him, ‘why do you plant mangroves?’ ‘Why not plant mangoes or coconuts?’ they would suggest. But Mzee Shali knows - although he has never been to school - that mangroves are important. They provide building poles, they prevent soil erosion, attract rain and they protect the environment. How he knows all this is anyone’s guess.

So he continues planting mangroves without expecting any reward. ‘It is for my community that I plant the mangroves’, he says. And he knows all the 9 mangrove species and sub-species.

Later on when he takes me around his mangroves, he shows me eight of the species (calling them by their local names): Mkandaa (panya and mwena sub-species), Mwia, Msindi (panya and mwena), Mtu, Mlilana, and Mkomafi. ‘That makes eight’ I say to him. ‘Oh yes’ he says ‘there is also Msukundazi but you don’t find that one here’. The old man sure knows his mangroves. I am still trying to decipher their scientific and English names.

I asked him what his challenges are and he said he needs help. The mangroves are disappearing faster than he can plant them. And he is aging, his eyesight failing (due to looking up into the sun too long as he collects mangrove seeds). He only asked for protective eyewear (for the glare and particles falling into his eyes), rubber boots (to wade in the mud), protective industrial suits (to protect him from mosquitoes and from being scratched by the mangrove roots) and seed collection and preservation implements.

I ask him whether his poverty bothers him and he answers with a proverb, ‘umaskini una nkia’, which crudely translates to ‘poverty has tails’. He explains that when you are poor you can plan to do something good tomorrow but since you don’t have funds, you may never achieve that. You will postpone your plans for ever.

He wants to bring the community together so that they can keep the mangrove forests healthy, and he wants to plant a few more millions of mangroves before his sunset. He needs help.

I have heard mentioned here in my office that the old man will be given one of EAWLS Conservation Awards. I sincerely hope that it will happen soon. Personally, I will publish his story in Swara Magazine (the EAWLS quarterly) so that the whole world knows.

What will you do for the old man and his mangroves?

Technorati : Kenya, coast, mangroves, marine, wetlands

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