When Anarchy Reigns in My Village

When anarchy reigns, the wealthy can flee to exile but when Mother Nature turns her wrath on humanity for mistreating her, there will be no place to hide.

Let's face it. Environmental degradation is the greatest danger to existence- on land, sea or in air-and one needs to be a real fool not to fathom this simple fact. And it takes another real fool to be beseeched to save own life and that of people he purports to lead.

Danger signs are everywhere, as my village folks now reckon. I remember the crystal clear Kaluo stream, with its tantalizing, as it meandered through hush vegetation and rolling hills.

There were clearly designated sections for different activities upstream, near the source, was a miniature falls that provided clean drinking water, below it was a clean pool from where we drank directly.

A few metres further were animals drinking joint while down further women bathed and washed clothes. Not far away was men's bathing point but separated from the women's section by dense vegetation. We could hear their animated chatter and laughter that often drowned in the flow of the stream and the chirping and cooing of birds.

Men never used towels after their bathing spree, which could last hours. After a cold splash- and cold it was - they simply “dried up” on nearby rocks. With their collective privacy guaranteed, all they feared were green snakes attracted by Rexona {Type of bathing soap with nice smell easily forms soap foam when in water}

As naked men whiled time amid fabricated tales of romantic conquests, little boys downstream fished, watched tortoise, frogs and crabs or tried to catch “evikoli”- elusive tiny black creatures that swim fast in circles in clear shallow water.

If you strayed further in search wild fruits and berries, you were likely to startle gazelles and hares from there lairs, stumble on guinea fowl eggs or even encounter monkeys in compromising situations.

This idyllic co-existence between man and nature sounds like a glimpse in the world of fantasy. But it was a way of life only 20yrs ago. Kaluo stream is virtually no more. It's now an eyesore stretch and even in the heart of the rainy season, its water is dirty due to siltation and pollution.

Due to combination of population pressure, greed, ignorance and lethargic leadership, folks have cleared the streams source and cultivated along its banks.

The luxuriant vegetations and animals that co-existed harmoniously in the halcyon days can as well be mentioned in the same breath as dinosaurs and dodos.

Drinking directly from the stream is a dalliance with death. Bathing is unthinkable: you risk a stint in a mental asylum for stripping in the open.

The streams former vibrancy and its now slow death is stark testimony of the folly of interfering with Mother Nature.

Kaluo village is simply a microcosm of the global population that is busy presiding over the peril of posterity despite chilling warning signs.

Our generation rarely saw the kaluo stream-go dry and where the stream used to lie a few years ago is now a naked dusty ugly field of rotting crocodiles and mudfish.