Asian-Africans' heritage and the quest for an equitable Kenya

Still in Western Kenya, there is a young man who is being lionised for snatching a fair Indian lady from the clutches of her protective parents in Webuye.

Sarika Patel met Timothy Khamala when the latter came into domestic service of her family. And since his job description was not cast in stone, she carved other roles for him as a potential spouse that Man Timo accepted without hesitation.

But Sarika is not from another planet; Indians have been in our midst for at least 100 years, so the idea of intermarriage between the community and other Kenyans is not a novelty.

Or perhaps it is. When the Sikh community erected a monument to mark their first centennial in Kisumu, other locals went around town chanting: setan, setan has come to town!

And so the monument was pulled down in a cloud of scandal as Kisumu residents warned they would not allow devil worship in their midst.

This speaks volumes about Asian-African heritage in this country. Social interactions between the community and the rest of Kenyans appear to yield more disagreements than agreements.

But there is no disagreement that the community is a component of Kenya’s cultural milieu, only that the manner in which that culture is expressed creates more insularity.

I hear, for instance, that one of the prime spots at the Kenya National Museum has been turned into a permanent exhibition of Asian-African heritage. When we have 46 communities and counting, each staking a claim on the national stage, how can one sub-culture seek to hog NMK's hallowed space?