The warmth of Africa in wintry Vermont

By Lani StackPrint Story | Email Story
Tribesman Joseph Lemasolai Lekuton. (Submitted Photo)
MANCHESTER, Vt. — Throughout a snowy week in mid-March, Joseph Lemasolai Lekuton could be found in southern Vermont wearing only his scarlet nanga (a sleeveless, toga-like Kenyan robe), leather sandals, brightly beaded bracelets wrapped around his wrists and biceps and beaded necklaces twined around his neck. Lekuton is a Samburu tribesman of the Ariaal, a sub-group of the Maasai people. He was born in a remote village in the Northern Frontier District of Kenya, just south of Ethiopia, approximately 34 years ago — he isn’t sure of his exact age — and raised in a traditional culture of nomadic cattle herders. Lekuton visited Manchester and Dorset from his American home in Virginia to share his native culture and childhood experiences with students at the Long Trail School and Maple Street School on Thursday, and with Dorset Elementary School and Manchester Elementary-Middle School on Friday. Nancy Calicchio, head of the Maple Street, said he spoke to 86 children, ages 5 through 14, and approximately 70 parents, for an hour and a half. “He had something for everyone. He told fabulous stories and everyone was engaged. I’ve never seen my little ones sit still for so long,” Calicchio said. “Joseph explained that his mission was to expose his culture to us. He began by asking the children for their questions. Most of their questions had a lot to do with animals — I think they think of Africa in terms of the richness of its wildlife.” “Kids know about lions and the open savanna,” said Lekuton, in his musical, slightly accented voice. “And adults, the first thing that comes to their minds when they think of Africa, is poverty, They think of war, and starvation, and AIDS.” None of these perceptions is inaccurate, according to Lekuton, and he wants to help Americans expand their understanding of the continent and its people — to learn about the strong family values fostered in his tribe, along with their community spirit, work ethic, initiation rites and celebrations. “Most of all, I want them to understand other cultures,” he explained. “There are a lot of stories; this is my story — someone from a cow-dung hut can go to best school in the world. If someone who has nothing, who can’t even read, can go to Harvard, then American kids, who have a lot more opportunities, they need to take advantage of these opportunities. I want them to look at me as someone who has made it.” He modestly backtracked, “Not just me, but I want them to look at what I did as an example. If I could do it, they can do it too. And the parents, they need to learn to believe in their kids. My mom, she gave me a good education. She didn’t know what she gave me, but she believes in me.” Kathleen Wright, a sixth-grade teacher at Manchester Elementary-Middle School, said Lekuton’s visit sent a message that any goal could be achieved. “It was really inspirational for the kids to see how he had his dream of getting an education, and despite all the challenges, he continued to pursue it. He’s phenomenal,” Wright said. Lekuton is a longtime friend of Dorset resident Kathleen Colson and has visited Vermont several times. Three years ago, he delivered an inspiring graduation speech for the Long Trail School. Colson has been fascinated with Africa since 1978, when she studied at The University of Nairobi. She has since worked with African wildlife federations and charities and moved, with her family to Dorset five years ago, after working with the United Nations High Commission on Refugees in London. She met Lekuton 13 years ago at St. Lawrence University in upstate New York. “From my experiences in Kenya, I knew right where he was from, and we had a lot of common interests,” she said. “My family sort of adopted him. He came to my home in New Jersey for his school holidays and breaks. As my three children grew up, Joseph was always ‘show and tell’ at their schools — and he loved sharing his culture. So, whenever he visits, I think of ways to get him into the schools.” She added, “When Joseph talks to the kids, especially, he is very animated. He walks around and interacts with them. A lot of these kids have never seen a black man before, and he is just fascinating to them. It was great to watch the kids’ faces light up. They’d ask him questions like, ‘Do you have a girlfriend?’ and ‘What’s your favorite food?’” Lekuton said he grew up drinking an “especially tasty” mixture of fresh milk and cow’s blood; Vermont children found this concoction revoltingly fascinating. His nomadic, non-literate tribe raises cattle as its livelihood and periodically uproots, breaking down and rebuilding their cow-dung huts, as grazing and climate conditions change. He credits his mother, Nkasiko, who cannot read or write, with giving him a priceless — if accidental — education. Soldiers from the Kenyan government came to Lekuton’s village and demanded that each family send one son to a nearby missionary school. His second-oldest brother was selected, but he hated the boarding school and hid in a hyena den for days rather than attend. Lekuton’s mother then sent young Lemasolai — which means “proud one.” He was christened “Joseph” by the missionaries, in his brother’s stead. Lekuton returned to his village every three months, but because his tribe follows its cattle, his home was, literally, a moving target. Lekuton said he excelled in academics and was advanced to a preparatory school in the city of Nakuru. After graduation, he caught the eye of an American recruiting Africans for a scholarship program at St. Lawrence University. He left Africa for the first time in 1989, bound for America. His village raised and sold as many cows as it could to purchase his plane ticket. During his first few days in America, he said he was so worried about not eating with “proper” American manners and utensils that he starved for four days rather than embarrass himself. Yet he learned and thrived, receiving his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from St. Lawrence and earning a master’s in International Education Policy from Harvard’s Graduate School of Education in May. While he gave the commencement speech at Harvard, his mother and older brothers were half a world away in a cow-dung hut in rural Kenya. None of his family has ever visited him in America. “What is America to them?” he asked. “They have their life there, they don’t understand America. I came to America for the education. If there were good schools in Kenya, I would have stayed. I would not have known anything different.” A tribesman at heart, Lekuton still lives a nomadic life. In the summer months, he dons traditional dress and follows the cattle with his tribe. He spends the school year in McLean, Va., where he has taught social studies for eight years at the Langley School. Langley is a prestigious private school where he is known as one of the most demanding teachers, yet students clamor to get into his class. Sarah Chuzi, a freshman at Williams College who was a student in Lekuton’s seventh and eighth grade classes said, “What was special about Mr. Lekuton is that he got to his students in different ways. He taught us things that can’t be found in a middle school textbook: the current state of Africa, the history of the Maasai, injustice, oppression. …He was so curious about what everyone thought and so eager to fire back questions at us if we seemed uncertain about our arguments. He definitely taught us how to form an opinion and stand behind it.” He also introduces his students to the Maasai culture and lifestyle firsthand. For several years, he has brought Langley schoolchildren to his village. This summer he will take 40 of his students and 50 of their parents along with him to Kenya for two weeks. They will wear traditional dress, participate in daily chores, herd Maasai cattle, eat Maasai meals and learn the songs, dances, and rites of the Maasai. Chuzi is among students who have made the trip. “I went to Kenya the summer after eighth grade,”she said. “It was an incredible experience that I will never forget. Mr. Lekuton took us to a school where we visited classrooms filled with children, and they sang and danced for us. Eventually, our entire tour group was up and dancing with them as well. He also organized a basketball game between the Langley team and a high school team. It was amazing to see the two completely different cultures from opposite sides of the world bond through a basketball game.” Lekuton is involved in numerous community development projects in rural Kenya. Through his work in several nonprofit organizations, he has provided more than 100 nomadic children with education scholarships, established the Karare Boarding School and constructed a water system delivering clean water to a dozen villages in Maasailand. In June 2001, he became the youngest recipient of Kenya’s Order of the Grand Warrior, honored for his exemplary service to the country. To help children better understand his love of Africa and his community, Lekuton wrote a memoir about his nomadic childhood and the dichotomies he faced as he was educated in America. “One way to help people understand the Maasai is to write something. To explore that the Maasai people aren’t a bunch of people running around with spears,” he said. “Where I live in northern Kenya, the lion is a symbol of bravery and pride,” explained Lekuton in the opening chapter of “Facing the Lion: Growing Up Maasai on the African Savanna,” published by National Geographic last year. “If you kill a lion, you are respected by everyone. Other warriors even make up songs about how brave you are. So it is every warrior’s dream to kill a lion at one point or another.” When, as a young and untried warrior, Lekuton met his first lion, he said eh assumed a stance of bravado — only to run away at the last minute. No longer a career cattle herder and warrior, Lekuton has been facing his fears, his “lions,” with every new and daunting experience he takes on. And he no longer runs. “I asked the kids what they think their ‘lions’ are,” Lekuton said of his Vermont school visits. “They said drugs, peer pressure, cutthroat competition. The answers are very different from what Kenyan children would say. Their ‘lion’ is hunger, not having enough to eat — and education, the competition to get into schools. And keeping the balance between their culture and technology.” Bob Allen, president of Vermont Country School, and his wife, Karen, donated 28 copies of Lekuton’s book to the Dorset Elementary School, where their son attends the fourth grade. They said they hope the books will be used in classroom curricula. “As a parent in Vermont, the biggest challenge is the lack of diversity,” Bob Allen said. “We need to expose our children to cultural and ethnical diversity as much as possible. It was wonderful to have Joseph visit our area and share his experiences.” Colson, Lekuton’s longtime friend, said his visit to Manchester and Dorset helped Vermonters form new perceptions of, and connections to, Africa. “A professor of mine at the University of Nairobi said that Africa is the ‘cradle of mankind. Basically, we’re all Africans,’” she said. To learn more about the Maasai Environmental Resource Coalition and ways to help, visit www.maasaierc.org or call Colson, 802-362-1440. To hear Lekuton speak, tune in to National Public Radio on May 2. His memoir, “Facing the Lion” is available at most bookstores.
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Letter: Is the Select Board Listening to Dalton Voters?

Letter to the Editor

To the Editor:

A reasonable expectation by the people of a community is that their Select Board rises above personal preference and represents the collective interests of the community. On Tuesday night [Nov. 12], what occurred is reason for concern that might not be true in Dalton.

This all began when a Select Board member submitted his resignation effective Oct. 1 to the Town Clerk. Wishing to fill the vacated Select Board seat, in good faith I followed the state law, prepared a petition, and collected the required 200-plus signatures of which the Town Clerk certified 223. The Town Manager, who already had a copy of the Select Board member's resignation, was notified of the certified petitions the following day. All required steps had been completed.

Or had they? At the Oct. 9 Select Board meeting when Board members discussed the submitted petition, there was no mention about how they were informed of the petition or that they had not seen the resignation letter. Then a month later at the Nov. 12 Select Board meeting we learn that providing the resignation letter and certified petitions to the Town Manager was insufficient. However, by informing the Town Manager back in October the Select Board had been informed. Thus, the contentions raised at the Nov. 12 meeting by John Boyle seem like a thinly veiled attempt to delay a decision until the end of January deadline to have a special election has passed.

If this is happening with the Special Election, can we realistically hope that the present Board will listen to the call by residents to halt the rapid increases in spending and our taxes that have been occurring the last few years and pass a level-funded budget for next year, or to not harness the taxpayers in town with the majority of the cost for a new police station? I am sure these issues are of concern to many in town. However, to make a change many people need to speak up.

Please reach out to a Select Board member and let them know you are concerned and want the Special Election issue addressed and finalized at their Nov. 25 meeting.

Robert E.W. Collins
Dalton, Mass.

 

 

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