From Namibia with love: Woman traces roots to Kenya via Facebook

For years, Aska Ndategako Orlale (32) had one dream – to discover her Kenyan roots and meet her paternal relatives.

Her dream came true last month when she travelled by Ethiopian Airlines from Windhoek to Nairobi to set foot on her fatherland for the first time.

The journey was not easy as she had used Facebook and X to trace her paternal relatives.

Her trip coincided with her late father, Kenneth Orlale’s, 24th anniversary on 10 January 2002.

According to her mother, Hertha Kuume, Aska’s father was one of many professionals and foreigners, especially from Africa, who dared to venture into the new nation on the eve of its independence in 1990, from the apartheid-led South African neighbouring nation, to fill the gap left by the former colonial power.

Ken had boarded several buses from Nairobi, travelling through Tanzania, Zambia and Botswana, to Windhoek in search of greener pastures.

He met Hertha when he was working at Tsandi in the Omusati region, as an English teacher at Shikongo Iipinge Senior Secondary School under the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), when the lingua franca was changed from Afrikaans to English.

Many Kenyans travelled abroad in the 1990s searching to be professionals, business people and university students. Like Ken, some returned to their country, while others chose to marry Namibian women to settle in the south west African country.

Aska is now among the generation of Namibian-Kenyans who were born and raised in Namibia. She has a step brother, Enos Orlale, named after their paternal grandfather.

When she finally decided to trace her roots and travel to Kenya last month, she was filled with a daughter’s deep urge to visit her fatherland and meet her father’s relatives, friends and former school and college mates.

She booked a round ticket to Nairobi and alerted her uncles that she would board her flight on 10 March and asked them to meet her at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) at 02h30.

She coordinated the trip with two of her uncles, Dan and Martin Orlale, who came up with a 14-day itinerary of road trips, boat rides, game drives and visits to the best public parks and museums in Nairobi.

Her search for her father’s roots was reminiscent of famous American author Alex Hailey in the 1970s, who researched and documented his roots in West Africa and came up with an international bestseller book, ‘Roots: The Saga of an American Family’, which was serialised in an American leading television station and beamed worldwide.

Aska’s story of soul-searching and self-discovery is also similar to that of former United States (US) president Barack Obama, whose father was Kenyan, who visited his fatherland as a university student in 1992 and later wrote a bestseller, ‘Dreams From My Father’.
Obama later visited Kenya as the senator for Chicago in 2006 and also as the first US sitting president in 2015.

When Aska’s plane landed at JKIA and she disembarked it alongside other passengers and cabin crew, it was with a sigh of relief to breathe the fresh air of her father’s birth place.

Tears of joy rolled down her cheeks as she remembered the short moments with her father in Windhoek when she was a toddler, before his contract with the UNDP ended and he returned to Nairobi.

Since then, the only contact they had was through written letters to her mother asking about them and her.

In one of the last letters to Aska’s mother dated 14 October 1996, the eve of her birthday, he says in part: “How are you and Aska doing? Did you get my last letter? You have been very quiet for too long. Are you now working and is Aska with you? Did Fred give you my gift as promised, if not do get in touch? I have just returned to the office and will be very busy for the next few months, but hope to visit Namibia in October or November. Wish Aska a very happy birthday from me. Best wishes from us and greet your friends.”

When Aska arrived at JKIA, she thanked God for the safe flight and the opportunity to meet the paternal relatives, with full blessings from her mother.

From the airport to her uncle’s house in Jamhuri Estate, it was 30 minutes of getting to know each other and bonding, while she admired the Nairobi skyline and modern expressway.

For the next 14 days, Aska’s itinerary was packed with activities, including a train ride to the city centre, visiting the Kenya Railways Museum and returning to her uncle’s house by matatu (minibus).

She also went on a road trip with her uncle to her father’s home at Lambwe Valley in Homa Bay County, through the Escarpment in Rift Valley region, Narok County, where she met a Maasai family friend of her uncle, and then made a brief stopover along the tree plantation in the Nyamira and Kericho counties.

The hour of reckoning came at 16h00 when they arrived at her father’s home where uncle Martin, the eldest, welcomed her with a bear’s hug and broad smile, before ushering her to the family grave site where her father’s body was buried.

She knelt down and made a prayer of thanksgiving as her uncles joined her in that memorable and emotional moment. Photos were taken to capture the gem.

Her dream had come true and she later met her father’s best friends, school and college mates and relatives.

For the next 10 days she visited a school, Kamato Mixed Secondary, which is part of her father’s legacy after returning from Namibia. He started a private school, which was later taken up by the local authorities.

Aska addressed the over 300 pupils, saying she was a product of her father’s zeal and courage to take education to the next level by teaching English in Namibia and returning to Kenya and starting a private school.

Later, she enjoyed a game drive at the nearby Ruma National Park before going on a boat ride in Lake Victoria from Mbita to Takawiri, Mfanfagano and Rusinga Islands.

She visited the mausoleums of some of Kenya’s freedom fighters and politicians, including former vice president Jaramogi Odinga, cabinet ministers Tom Mboya and Robert Ouko and former prime minister Raila Odinga.

On her last weekend in Nairobi, Aska was taken on a matatu ride at night to enjoy the loud music and disco lights in the speeding public service vehicle. She she took many portraits, thanks to the professional street photographers, to remember her Kenyan visit.

• Daniel Odhiambo Orlale is the uncle to Aska Ndategako Orlale.

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