Orphan teaches life skills from his own experience

Amos Onyango, Twists and Turns: A Story of Survival. Abuja: Caltop Publications, 2020. Pages 145.  ISBN 978 978 566 7677

A story was once whispered into my ears by a woman of wisdom. It was about a boy, a beach, an old man, an ocean and a shoal of fish. It happened that one sunny day in May, the sun was in a clear blue sky.

Beneath this splendour, a dialogue ensued between a boy and lone old man. The topic was not clear but one thing was clear. The old man in his long life had seen many things. Yet this one scene he saw that day was unique indeed and in deed.

Walking along a coastline, he had stumbled upon a boy and a shoal of fish. The fish had been swept to the beach by a tide. The fish were flip-flopping in the air as they struggled with death. Unaccustomed to living outside the blue ocean, they battled with death to save their lives.

The boy was oddly helping them conquer death. He was scooping the fish and throwing them back into the water. Their slipperiness made this not an easy task at all. The boy was not losing hope. He did all he could to get the fish back to their watery world. He was helping them save their lives.

The old man asked the boy why he was doing this almost impossible task. Sweating, slipping, falling but trying, the boy had answered that he would be happy if he could save just but one fish. One fish saved by being returned to the sea was to him a victory, even if he failed to rescue all the others.

Now the old man was accustomed to fishing life. He knew that fish out of water was food. Fish should not be returned to the waters. It should be removed from the waters.

The boy should have been doing the opposite: preventing the fish from returning to the waters! Fish is food. This was a good, God-given gift of food that the boy was “destroying”. What do you think, dear reader? Save or eat the fishes? Confront death with life as the boy? Or confront life with death as the old man?

This week, I had the same conundrum when I read nonstop a new book gift. The book is by a former student of mine called Amos Onyango. It is titled: Twists and Turns: A Story of Survival (2020). It is a slender, action-packed memoir of his formative years.

I taught Amos for four years at the university. I remember him instantly as a leader of his mates. He did not need to reintroduce himself when we met this week. It is three years since he graduated as a teacher of English and Literature. His resolute face and sparkling eyes brought his name back to my mind.

Young Amos has made good his fortune in the world of civilians. He has embraced the world outside college with commerce and conviction. The leader in him has prevailed in the manner he has led his life to become a mentor of fellow youth.

Currently, he is a personal assistant of the famous Professor PLO Lumumba, who is his lead mentor. He is also a project manager of the PLO Lumumba Foundation and deals in African textile and ornamentation merchandise. He uses e-commerce skills to ply his trade offline and online.

Yet life has not always been one of scores and success for this young, vibrant Kenyan with a gift of the gab. Amos grew up an orphan, having lost his parents at the tender age of 12. He grew up with extended families before ending up in the streets of Migori.

His book is a recollection of the spirit and succor that have led him to his current station in life. It is a catalogue of life skills that youth can imbibe as they face challenges of contemporary society. To read his story of survival is to remember the story of the boy.

Life is the nemesis of death. When accosted with the death of his life-givers, his parents, young Amos opted to retaliate with life. He refused to give up on himself and on his future.

From hawking chips in Nyanza to chasing Wings to Fly scholarship in Nairobi, we meet a youth fuelled by inner fortitude. The words and memories of his mother’s voice counter the taunts of bullies as he navigates the perilous life of puberty to sponsored varsity life.

I recommend this inspirational book for the lucid lyrical management of language it demonstrates. It reads like narrative poetry, yet in it, creative imagination serves a higher cause. Here the finesse of speech weaves webs of empathy in a reader’s heart.  

The book is available from the author at [email protected]

Dr Makokha teaches Literature and Theatre at Kenyatta University