Applying RC in Kenya
My name is Griffins Otieno Ndhine. I am a twenty-three-year-old Kenyan RCer and a fourth-year student at the University of Nairobi pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in Education Science (Computer Science and Mathematics).
I first came into contact with RC through the book The Human Side of Human Beings, in 2013 when I was a first-year student at the University of Nairobi. Wanjiku Kironyo (the Regional Reference Person for Northern Africa and East Africa) introduced it to me. I read it before I began attending RC workshops and meetings. For the last three years I have attended workshops led by Wanjiku.
In the process of acquiring and using RC, I have been able to understand how colonialism made us Africans lose our cultural identity and acquire another people’s culture. I have been able to understand my origin and the values that guided our people. I have been able to ask why I was named Griffins and go back to my roots and accept my true identity as Otieno—then merge the two for a better me.
I have learned to appreciate my own language and other people’s languages. It has not been easy to erase the eighteen years of formal white man’s education that took away my identity. But I have been able to appreciate my language and understand that it is my true identity.
From when we were very young, our parents told us not to play with children from a certain community. They did that because of the stereotypes and tribalism imposed on our people by the colonizer. With RC I have been able to get past this. I have been able to appreciate people of different ethnic groups and work on breaking stereotypes and enlightening people about tribalism and negative ethnicity.
In doing RC family work, I have understood “special time” and learned to listen to children. This has made it possible for me to train children in “talent development.” I go deep into the slums of Mathare Valley every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Saturday and meet with children, ages five to fifteen, for talent development sessions and playdays. The children have managed to be on television as the defending champions for Poetry Slam Africa, an event held every year in Nairobi. This shows that every human can tap into his or her full intelligence by discharging past hurts.
Wycliffe Mwiti and I are leading men’s liberation work in Kenya. Our men are oppressed. We are always told to “be a man,” not cry, not feel, and to harden.
I also go to the women’s prison in Kenya every third Saturday of the month and listen to the prisoners and help them discharge. I encourage them to share their stories of how they went to prison and to discharge on that part of their lives.
Migori County, Kenya