Making the Mark. Miroslava Prazak

       Acknowledgments

      Almost thirty years ago a colleague in graduate school suggested that I do research with “his people.” This led to the voyage of a lifetime—geographically, physically, culturally, and intellectually. In the intervening decades I have spent many years with Kuria people in southwestern Kenya, living my life alongside theirs, studying, learning, teaching, and enjoying. I started out there as umuiseke, and now I am umukungu, with grown children of my own. Over the many years I have enjoyed the generosity, kindness, understanding, and empathy of many individuals and families. Here I would like to acknowledge their importance in my life.

      I begin with my father, Jiri, who, had he lived two centuries ago, would have been an intrepid explorer. He did not allow his birth in a small central European country to contain him. His genuine eagerness to explore places he knew only from a map in an atlas, and curiosity about ways of life other than his own, led him all over the globe. My mother, Katerina, accompanied him and, despite a longing for home, set up households on four continents. My sister, Alena, was my soul mate and constant companion, and to this day embodies family—the family that was the one constant of our wandering youth. Together we moved through life, and ultimately found ourselves in North America. Our journeys were not only through geographical space, but through ways of living.

      My second family is from my life in the United States. John and Martha Conant hosted me, a Czech student coming from Pakistan at the beginning of my college career, and have remained a supporting, loving family in the decades that I have made my life here. My “second” siblings Alex, Tim, Chris, Johnny, Justus, Sophie, and now their families, continue to share many of the adventures, milestones, and everyday moments in which our lives unfold.

      Just as my life has unfolded in different phases accompanied by significant change, the lives of the people I came to know in East Africa have passed through dramatically different periods of social change. From early on in my stays in Bukuria, I was incorporated into a large and important family in the community central to my work, and through its kindness of spirit and willingness to associate with an outsider, I came to know Kuria life from the inside. I thank my Kuria parents, the late Irisabeti Wankio and Boniface Rioba, for treating me as one of their own, teaching me right from wrong and the skills of acceptance and tolerance. My Kenyan siblings, my brothers Nyamoraba, Bageni, and Machera and sisters Robi, Nyangige, Monika, Rose, and Maseke, have each in his or her own way made important marks on who I am. I have relied on all of them at various points and have been so very grateful for their being a part of my life. Their spouses, children, and extended families are my people. On the occasions my European parents, my sister, or my nephew JP visited Bukuria, they were accepted as family, linking our worlds in yet another way.

      I have been friends with, spoken to, interviewed, and hung out with many, many other Abakuria. I acknowledge those whose participation was crucial in the research and the writing of this book on genital cutting. I begin with the people who opened their homesteads to me, giving me a central home during my esaaro research. They are the late Anna Gaati Chacha and family, including Mwita, Boke, Mariba, Maria, Daudi, Sarah, and Jenipher; Susan and Sawi Maroa and family, especially Mwita and Machera; the late Boniface Rioba Machera and my brothers, Nyamoraba, Bageni, and Machera, and their families; and the late Joseph Mahanga, his wife, Robi Christine, and their family.

      In the course of my research I employed a number of people who helped arrange and carry out interviews, collect data, transcribe, and translate tapes. These include Tyson Mwita Chacha, Christine Gaati Kisito, Mwita Kisito, Winston Mwasi Mahanga, Christine Nyandawa, Janet Weisiko Sawi, and Maroa Thomas. The work was often difficult and tedious, and their skill, dedication, and perseverance are greatly appreciated. In the preparation of this book, I relied on the assistance of Joseph Mwita Kisito for fine-tuning the translations of poems and songs, Erica Frohnhoefer in cataloguing images, and Rachel Kelleher in drafting the glossary and bibliography. Others have contributed to various aspects of the final product out of the kindness of their hearts. They include David Mwita Chacha, who tirelessly checked facts, searched for meanings, and followed up on unresolved questions; Tim Voice and Robert Pini, who created the illustrations; Heather Booth, who helped in analyzing and clarifying demographic data; and Nino Mendolia, who aided in formatting and solving computer issues. Their contributions have made this book possible.

      Equally important have been the contributions of friends who shared stories, answered questions, and in many ways ensured that my understanding was accurate and thorough. For their kindness and generosity

Скачать книгу