A story about Mûgo Wa kifirû
Mũgũ wa Kĩfirũ: The Elder Who Spoke to the Hills. Story by Naomi Ng'aru. Long before the roads were cut through the highlands and before strangers came to write down the stories of the Agĩkũyũ, there lived an old man whose name was whispered from one ridge to another. His name was Mũgũ wa Kĩfirũ . Nobody knew exactly how old he was. Some elders said he had been born during the reign of many harvests. Others claimed that when they were children, their grandfathers had already spoken of Mũgũ as an old man. He lived alone at the edge of a great forest, in a small homestead surrounded by mugumo trees. His hut was simple, but people who entered it said they could smell the forest after rain, even during the dry season. Mũgũ was not feared because he carried a weapon. He was feared because he seemed to know things before they happened . When clouds gathered on a clear morning, Mũgũ would look toward the mountains and say: “The earth is thirsty. Prepare your fields....