Echoes From a Distant Land by Frank Coates

Maxwell said, pulling an envelope, already opened, from his jacket pocket.
    His teacher’s expression gave nothing away. Sam was afraid to speak. He stood there with his fists clenched by his sides and his eyes on Maxwell as he solemnly unfolded the letter and made a show of studying the contents.
    â€˜This time, a second in the high jump was good enough,’ his teacher said as his face creased in a broad smile. ‘Sam Wangira … you’re going to America.’
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    A few days after receiving his invitation to enrol at NYU, Sam caught the train to Nyeri to visit his village. He told his family he would be leaving Igobu, and British East Africa, for a long time.
    Sam explained he would study in America, at a university in one of the world’s largest cities. His father nodded but remained silent. Sam could see he was unable to comprehend the news, but was too proud to ask the questions that must have filled his mind.
    Word spread through Igobu. It was received with shock and consternation by the older generation in the village. Soon the wholecommunity heard the news and large delegations came to Igobu to commiserate with his family. They spoke to his father in soft voices and glanced at Sam as if he were already dead. The old people came with sad eyes and blessed him for luck.
    When it was time to leave, Sam’s father embraced his son in a bear hug. He then held him by the shoulders at arm’s length, and stared into Sam’s eyes for a long time. Sam feared he’d find disappointment behind those stern eyes. He’d hoped for approval. In the end he found neither. It was impossible to know what was in his father’s mind. Finally, Kungu dropped his arms and went to his hut.
    Sam completed his farewells without seeing his father again.
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    Sam stood at the door of his rail carriage. Below him on the Nairobi Station platform were scores of his classmates, there to wish him bon voyage.
    It wasn’t Sam’s first train journey. During his two years at Kinangop Academy, he’d made rail journeys home to Igobu for term holidays, but this time was different. He was about to travel over three hundred miles to the Indian Ocean, and Mombasa, where he would board a ship to take him to the other side of the world.
    He was surprised at the turnout and wondered why so many had come to see him off. His journey to New York had obviously captured everyone’s imagination. Most of the white boys’ mothers had been sent ‘home’ to the British Isles for their births and regularly returned there for leave. Since the outbreak of the Great War, however, they’d been confined in British East Africa. Sam was the first of them to escape; perhaps this was the reason he had become a celebrity. He wouldn’t admit even to himself that his teachers and classmates admired and genuinely liked him; nor that this was the real reason they’d come to see him off.
    The students and teaching staff all agreed that Sam’s scholarship to New York University was a triumph for the Kinangop Academy, and his sendoff was therefore a cause for great celebration. Thetearful farewell at Igobu was forgotten in the jubilation of his school friends; and Sam was even more excited when a loud blast on the steam whistle signalled the train’s imminent departure and Sister Rosalba appeared.
    The students cleared a path for her and she stood before him with pride and sadness in her eyes.
    â€˜Sister Rosalba,’ he said. ‘Why … you’re here!’
    â€˜Yes. I’m sorry I missed you at Igobu. The bishop called me away. But now I am here.’
    â€˜You didn’t have to come all this way …’
    â€˜Maybe I just-a want to make sure you go,’ she said with a smile.
    â€˜Thank you,’ he said.
    â€˜Oh, it’s-a nothing. I took the donkey wagon to Thika.’
    â€˜No … I mean, thank you for giving me this chance. I could never have passed the