My Grandmother’s Past Has Brought My Family Bad Luck

My grandmother’s past has brought my family bad luck. Livestock farming is one of the main occupations of my community here in Kenya. People have built wealth through this. Those who don’t do it on a large scale still manage to make enough money from it to live comfortably. My mother has ventured into this business. My aunts and uncles have also done it. None of them could make it work.

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Yes, this same farming is what others around us have done and succeeded, but any member of my family who tried it incurred losses. No matter how much effort we put in, the livestock either die or even when they live, they don’t yield any profits.

No, we don’t do it wrong. We try to learn from others who are succeeding. We make adjustments when we learn something from them that we haven’t already tried? We’ve given it time. We’ve been consistent. Like I said, lots of effort. It all amounts to nought.

My grandmother is late but whenever her children talk about her, they recount a time when someone brought her his cow. The man asked her to keep it for him until he returned for it. My grandmother agreed to look after it but she sold the cow.

When the man returned she wasn’t even remorseful. She was rather rude to the man. The man didn’t say anything to her. He walked away quietly looking hurt. Everyone knew her betrayal broke his heart. Even people outside my family who knew the story believe we are having bad luck with animal farming because of that incident.

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If it’s true that we are paying for the sins of her past, then what do we do? She is not here to right her wrongs. We don’t know where the man lived. He may even be dead now. So how do we even apologise to him on her behalf?

The most frustrating part is that my family is not listening to me when it comes to this issue. I keep telling them we should try and find the man’s relatives so we can make amends for what happened. They are refusing to do it. Is there any way around this?

—Wambui

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