Hashtag Jacaranda Propaganda
The colonial history of one tree in Kenya being reclaimed as our own
When the British left Kenya at the end of their colonial rule of the country, one of the things they left us was the gift of the jacaranda tree. Growing up in Kisumu, a city in the Western part of Kenya, we would see them, these jacarandas, blooming in hues of seismic purple every January, heralding the new year. By Jomo Kenyatta Highway, Oginga Odinga Street, on the streets and avenues of Kisumu, the jacarandas would stand, towering over the vehicular and foot traffic on the roads. Sometimes, these jacarandas were rarely noticeable, but once you ventured to several bastions of the city, you would see them, dominating everything else. One of these bastions was Milimani Estate, where the British settlers in the city had built themselves houses, and planted jacarandas en masse to remind themselves of home, of Britain. Another was the one in town by the Barclays branch under which men would gather to discuss politics. Another was on the Kisumu-Busia highway, where for a glorious stretch of five hundred or so metres just before the turnoff to the airport, a grove of jacaranda trees shaded the road, and bid one goodbye from the city.
The primary school I attended was an old one, and the buildings it then occupied, and still occupies, had been opened by the then…
