11 April 2010

The Thing about Knowledge.

Towards the end of his memoir, The Worlds of a Maasai Warrior: An Autobiography (1986), Tepilit Ole Saitoti reflects on the educational opportunities that he sought and received in the UK and US. Contemplating the increased awareness resulting from his cross-cultural and inter-continental experiences, he writes:

"By then I had come face to face with the painful realities of knowledge. One who understands is freer in the head but sadder in the heart. It is sad to know that there is so much wrong in our world, and for the most part we are helpless to do anything about it.
...
Western education had opened up so many vistas for me, and made me aware of so many complications. It confronted me with the broader spectrum of things within which I live. My brothers live according to the seasons and accept death and rebirth as normal. They are spared the anguish and the failures I sometimes experience."

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