Archivist's death symbolises the tragedy of fading mobile archives

Archivist Dr Maina David Kagombe. [File Courtesy]

Among the tragedies of modern times is the disappearance of living archives through human attrition, either in death, senility, or contrived stupidity. Death gives those left behind time to reflect on the meaning of life. Where do people come from before reporting for earthly assignment through mothers, as assisted by fathers? Given that the travel time from one pre-earth station to a designated place takes roughly nine months, the metaphysical distance from the previous world to the earth is very big. The claim that people pass through the earth on the way either to heaven or hell reinforces the belief that people might have been elsewhere before birth.

When Kenya's renowned archivist Dr Maina David Kagombe died on April 13, for instance, people assembled at Gitweku in Kiharu, Murang'a, to remember a local boy who became 'somebody' because he had knowledge of the past and on preserving African heritage. Not even Kagombe, however, could answer the metaphysical question of where he was before conception and birth.