Osman Marach Mang'eng' Babu

This is a tribute to one man: Osman Marach Mang'eng' Babu.

Osman Marach Mang'eng' Babu

Sometimes God uses people, brings them into our lives as angels. One such man is Osman Marach. He is a bit 'mentally incapacitated'. He just came from nowhere. But he totally transformed our lives. He has numerous anecdotes to his name. One day, he was just staring into the space in the evening. At such times, he would be very quiet and could just burst out laughing. My mother asked him: "Babu, unacheka nini?" "Babu, why are you laughing".  Then he would laugh again and say, "Mabata wameshangaa" "The ducks are suprised". That was his answer.

He is a muslim. He makes sure that all meat are "halali" "legal" and not "haramu" "Prohibited". I remember mum buying a warthog meat one day. Osman Marach kicked the charcoal jiko in protest saying, "Mnataka kuniua na nyama haramu!" "Do you want to kill me with a prohibited meat!".


Osman Marach is a hardworking man. He works during the day and comes in the evening with what he has gotten during the day and buys Lizzy and Billy, my twin brother and sister, some mandazis. He calls my brothers 'Pashe' and 'Pashaka'. When we wanted to have fun as children we would begin:

"Babu, unakula nyama ya mbuzi?"                    "Babu, you eat goat-meat?
"Heeeee"                                                             "Yes"
"Na ya ng'ombe?"                                               "And beef?"
"Heeeee"                                                              "Yes"
"Na ya punda?"                                                   "And donkey's?"
"Heeee"                                                                "Yes."

We would burst out laughing. Then he would refute his last acceptance.

When all is said and done, Osman Marach will forever embedded in our minds and the collective memory of people at Kacheliba. Interacting with him has taught me to live with somebody who is 'mentally imbalanced' yet when I think about it he is one of the finest, welcoming human person. His love and concern is not pretentious like the one you encounter all over the place. He is content and lives for a day, not like us who are forever whining and dreaming of big dreams. He knows God and respects him. He knows that Allah prohibits eating meat from an animal that has not been slaughtered. He toils during the day and eats the fruit of his labour, not like most beggars ( no offence meant) who are physically fit yet they stretch the beggar's bowl. He is human, he is a loving human. Thank you Osman Marach for what you are. You will never read this but I have written it up for you. Your lessons need to be shared with others. And this I have done.