Nostalgia: How fundi wa viatu ‘threaded’ dry January

January was, and has always been tough, in terms of dough that is. It was the month, in years now happily gone by, that Kenyan families trooped to the estate fundi wa nguo for that ‘tailor’s signature’ since a trouser sporting a kiraka next to the back pocket was no big deal.

Indeed, most families had the tools for kushona nguo: the thread (in all hues on the colour wheel) and sindano (that always got lost and couldn’t be found) were a must.

The other important person come January was the estate cobbler. For strange reasons, fundi wa viatu invariably operated under a tree. He had the awl; a long pointed needle with which he wekad a kiraka on your Tiger shoes besides using the cobbler’s hammer to straighten the sole after it regained its shape from a day inside the wooden shoe stretch.

As for your dad, well, his shoes chapad more mileage when the cobbler put a ‘tap’ - that half-moon shaped metal ‘stopper’ that prevented the angled shoe from bending his ankles on one side.

Such was life in dry January.