Tales of Names: Identities
The most popular question is in the name of a neighborhood, ours, though small has an answer to this question. Our neighborhood has popularly been known as ‘Site Kaburi’ but its official name as the government records it is ‘Site and Service Estate B’. If you would ask most residents of our town a location by the latter name, most would scratch their heads and refer you to the next person as the former name is renowned. So, one may ask, ‘why that name?’ as kaburi refers to a graveyard in Swahili language. Your guess is correct, our neighborhood hosts two graveyards (Christian and Muslim Cemeteries) no wonder the name.
In the early 2000s, when the population was scarce, the area was underdeveloped as most people believed that ghosts existed in this part of the town, so the brave and courageous ‘ghost-whisperers’ settled here earlier, it was quieter, crime free (I tend to think thieves feared the dead too) and everybody knew their next-door neighbor and helped in times of need.
Gradually, people became accustomed to the fact that the dead are already dead and have no business with the living, the area became populated, so densely populated that we have outnumbered the dead. With development, came investment of churches as the popular belief has been claiming blessings over the neighborhood, you would not miss a church at every corner street in the neighborhood.
Tapping into the blessings, pastors and evangelists have teamed up so zealously to have the neighborhood referred to as ‘Site Baraka’ baraka is a Swahili name for blessings. This went a notch higher when a sign post was imprinted at the highway junction ‘Site Baraka’ giving the ‘B’ a whole new meaning, needless to say, there is a ‘Site and Service Estate A’ so probably the Baraka part will only be known to the local pastors.
This is 2024, a name sticks, even children born in the 2020s in the neighborhood know that this hood is ‘Site Kaburi’ .You cannot get lost in this neighborhood as it is located on the farthest end of the town, almost bordering Morendat (Naivasha) and the landmarks being the cemeteries.
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