The vanity of environmental ‘care’ in Kulet’s Vanishing Herds

It is not surprising that Henry Ole Kulet’s latest novel is titled Vanishing Herds. Not surprising since Kulet’s novels grapple with the question of identity and this latest text is no exception.  The novel imaginatively recreates the love story of Norpisia and Kedoki; the star-crossed love birds whose fate is sealed through a cattle raid tragedy. Both Norpisia and Kedoki lose their siblings at a tender age: a brother and sister simultaneously. It is Kedoki’s selflessness that deeply touches Norpisia when she learns that even though he has come to mourn with them, he, too, has lost his only siblings. She is so mesmerised by his humility and strength that she remembers the stranger up to the day that she is betrothed to him. But I am rushing ahead of myself here.

The story decries the devastation of the environment and the ravages of wanton human activity on Mother Nature. The story subtly suggests that hell hath no fury than an environment destroyed! As the narrator notes, human beings have indiscriminately allowed their greed to prevail upon them to destroy the environment. This has been exemplified through the felling of trees even those that have traditionally been preserved for their religious and medicinal value. Consequently, the people begin to witness unusual happenings in the form of prolonged droughts, flash floods and as the narrator observes, “It was as if nature was on a furious revenge mission” (110). These happenings are reconstructed through the eyes of the two lovers as they traverse the endless pastoral lands herding their livestock.

Norpisia is an unusual woman who defies the entrenched Maasai traditional roles assigned to women. She takes up roles that would otherwise have been assumed to belong to men in the Maasai patriarchal society in which she is brought up. Her mentoring takes a turn from the traditional socialising approach when hyenas attack and kill the sheep belonging to her grandmother. When the grandmother comes back and discovers that the sheep had been attacked and Norpisia had done nothing she is so cross with Norpisia that she admonishes her and cajoles her as being good for nothing. Unknown to the grandmother, Norpisia takes up the challenge and in a few days manages to kill several hyenas hence feeling vindicated for her negligence.

This is one of the things that Norpisia begins to learn under the tutelage of her grandmother – self-defence. She is also taught voyeurism, traditional medicines and how to treat different ailments. These are part of the things that decorate her life when she gets married to Kedoki. She not only experiences nightmares, but she also apprehensively looks around as most of the things she dreams about come true. It is also her ability to carry weapons and defend herself that makes Masintet, their friend, refer to Kedoki, her husband, as a Lesiote – the legendary man who had been brought for a woman but did not know what to make of her. The jests of the men about Norpisia carrying weapons are however quashed when she singlehandedly defends her husband against cattle raiders who ambush them in the forest while they are herding their livestock. Their disbelief transposes into admiration and respect for her especially when they realise that she is also very good with the herbs and other medicinal trees.

Kulet succeeds to infuse the text, Vanishing Herds, with Maa diction and the flavour of the language is so fluidly intertwined in the narrative that the reader hardly realises that s/he is interpreting the story from the lenses of a local language. The story not only underscores the vanishing forests, wild animals and domestic animals as well, but it also predicts a sad premonition; that human beings, the only educated herd, might also be staring its own effacement from the earth straight in the eye. Our unabated destruction, encroachment and unbridled use of natural resources might eventually result in the end of the world literally speaking.

The story moralises us on the need to exercise restraint in how we utilise Mother Nature’s resources. It also creatively suggests some noble ways of preserving the environment and suggests that some of the ways through which we imagine to be taking care of the environment are in essence an indication of our vanity as human beings. There is also a subtle suggestion that certain misconceptions and myths about the environment, certain tribes amongst others are baseless. Consequently, as we embrace technological advancement, there is need to take stock of our cultural milieu and integrate that which is beneficial even as we discard practices that might hold us prisoners of unfounded traditional mores.

Ultimately, the text warns us that if we don’t take heed to preserve our environment for posterity, we might as well be sojourning to another life as part of the Vanishing Herds that are depicted in Kulet’s novel.         
PS: This review was first posted on the Daystar Language & Performing Arts Book Reviews Section long before the novel won the Jomo Kenyatta Literary Prize