My First Earthquake, Githingithia, Damathia. MaDVD Official Thread

Meria

Elder Lister
Staff member
One early evening in late 1977 while having mukimo and dubia for supper, our mabati house in Nairobi rural (Dagoretti) shook, and shook i mean vibrating like a compressor used to dig up stones in a quarry. Everything vibrated, the table and the food on it, infact my dubia which was still full in the mug spilled, the window panes rattled while the single light bulb which hung from the roof beam swung side to side in an erratic manner like a drunk who had imbibed one too many. Then the floor shifted and Dad shouted an order "Everybody out!", shosh and mum fell down and had to be carried out. The vibrations lasted for a minute and we had to sit on the ground to avoid falling over.
30 seconds after the vibrations disappeared as suddenly as the had come all pandemonium broke lose, our whole ridge came alive with screams, From the east west north and south screams rent the air, my dad our hero was around and no one in our homestead screamed, then from across the river in the next ridge a fire broke out, a house was ablaze, the first house fire my 9yr old eyes had seen, gradually the flames increased in intensity and after a few minutes they reached the sky and night became day, in my young mind i knew this was the end of the world, i looked up expecting to see Jesus riding down to earth in his chariot of white horses. we didnt get back into the house till all the able bodied men who had gone to fight the fire came back, reluctantly the family streamed slowly inside to the now cold supper which had to be warmed again.
Then the questions begun, what had just happened, my dad a teacher informed us it was a "githigithia" an Earthquake, my small inquisitive curious mind couldnt grasp that and after a barrage of questions to shut me up shosh told me that a "Damathia" that sleeps deep underground had turned over after getting tired of sleeping on one side. I enquired whats a Damathia and was told "acha maswali mingi nenda kalale" (Stop your many questions go to sleep).
Following day on the way to school i made sure i passed by where the house had burnt down and was surprised to find that the timber house had burnt to the ground, at school the earthquake story was trending on all pupils mouths, everyone was talking about their experience, of all explanations about what had happened my damathia story was tops and i became kind of a super star thanks to shosh after everyone took up the story.
Much later in secondary school during a CRE lesson is when i came across the word Leviathan and it triggered the memory of Damathia, i had to investigate.
Leviathan (Hebrew Livyatan) in Jewish mythology is a primordial sea serpent. it is mentoned in Isaiah 27:1, In Job 41, it is a sea monster and a symbol of God's power of creation and in Psalms 74:14 as a multiheaded sea serpent that is killed by God and given as food to the Hebrews in the wilderness. The fellows who had translated the bible to Gikuyu had given it the name Damathia and it dawned on me that this is where shosh had gotten the name to silence me that night in1977.
Talking of earthquakes they are measured with the Ritcher scale, in geology its a numerical scale for expressing the magnitude of an earthquake on the basis of seismograph oscillations. The more destructive earthquakes typically have magnitudes between about 5.5 and 8.9; it is a logarithmic scale and a difference of one represents an approximate thirtyfold difference in magnitude. the 1977 earthquake was measured at 5.6, its epic center was in Singida Central TZ and yet we felt it in Nairobi and its environs.
What if such an earthquake were to occur today God forbid. With all the fake cowboy contractors who cut shortcuts and crooked county officials all over who were hired not because of their competence but because of nepotism many many structures would come down. the whole construction industry needs to go back to default settings, ile ukora iko huko ni mob, from the manufacturer who produces fake material to the supplier in a Tata truck who lies he is delivering 20 tons while the Tata can only carry 15 tons. The building code was thrown out of the window long time ago.
nimechoka kuandika
Have you ever experienced an earthquake?
Earthquake ya leo ya 0.2 on the Ritcher scale unaigojea ukiwa wapi?
Ni mtaa gani huwezi ishi juu majumba zinakaa unstable?
247164089_139236601777313_6534789088304860109_n.jpg
 

Mongrel

Elder Lister
One early evening in late 1977 while having mukimo and dubia for supper, our mabati house in Nairobi rural (Dagoretti) shook, and shook i mean vibrating like a compressor used to dig up stones in a quarry. Everything vibrated, the table and the food on it, infact my dubia which was still full in the mug spilled, the window panes rattled while the single light bulb which hung from the roof beam swung side to side in an erratic manner like a drunk who had imbibed one too many. Then the floor shifted and Dad shouted an order "Everybody out!", shosh and mum fell down and had to be carried out. The vibrations lasted for a minute and we had to sit on the ground to avoid falling over.
30 seconds after the vibrations disappeared as suddenly as the had come all pandemonium broke lose, our whole ridge came alive with screams, From the east west north and south screams rent the air, my dad our hero was around and no one in our homestead screamed, then from across the river in the next ridge a fire broke out, a house was ablaze, the first house fire my 9yr old eyes had seen, gradually the flames increased in intensity and after a few minutes they reached the sky and night became day, in my young mind i knew this was the end of the world, i looked up expecting to see Jesus riding down to earth in his chariot of white horses. we didnt get back into the house till all the able bodied men who had gone to fight the fire came back, reluctantly the family streamed slowly inside to the now cold supper which had to be warmed again.
Then the questions begun, what had just happened, my dad a teacher informed us it was a "githigithia" an Earthquake, my small inquisitive curious mind couldnt grasp that and after a barrage of questions to shut me up shosh told me that a "Damathia" that sleeps deep underground had turned over after getting tired of sleeping on one side. I enquired whats a Damathia and was told "acha maswali mingi nenda kalale" (Stop your many questions go to sleep).
Following day on the way to school i made sure i passed by where the house had burnt down and was surprised to find that the timber house had burnt to the ground, at school the earthquake story was trending on all pupils mouths, everyone was talking about their experience, of all explanations about what had happened my damathia story was tops and i became kind of a super star thanks to shosh after everyone took up the story.
Much later in secondary school during a CRE lesson is when i came across the word Leviathan and it triggered the memory of Damathia, i had to investigate.
Leviathan (Hebrew Livyatan) in Jewish mythology is a primordial sea serpent. it is mentoned in Isaiah 27:1, In Job 41, it is a sea monster and a symbol of God's power of creation and in Psalms 74:14 as a multiheaded sea serpent that is killed by God and given as food to the Hebrews in the wilderness. The fellows who had translated the bible to Gikuyu had given it the name Damathia and it dawned on me that this is where shosh had gotten the name to silence me that night in1977.
Talking of earthquakes they are measured with the Ritcher scale, in geology its a numerical scale for expressing the magnitude of an earthquake on the basis of seismograph oscillations. The more destructive earthquakes typically have magnitudes between about 5.5 and 8.9; it is a logarithmic scale and a difference of one represents an approximate thirtyfold difference in magnitude. the 1977 earthquake was measured at 5.6, its epic center was in Singida Central TZ and yet we felt it in Nairobi and its environs.
What if such an earthquake were to occur today God forbid. With all the fake cowboy contractors who cut shortcuts and crooked county officials all over who were hired not because of their competence but because of nepotism many many structures would come down. the whole construction industry needs to go back to default settings, ile ukora iko huko ni mob, from the manufacturer who produces fake material to the supplier in a Tata truck who lies he is delivering 20 tons while the Tata can only carry 15 tons. The building code was thrown out of the window long time ago.
nimechoka kuandika
Have you ever experienced an earthquake?
Earthquake ya leo ya 0.2 on the Ritcher scale unaigojea ukiwa wapi?
Ni mtaa gani huwezi ishi juu majumba zinakaa unstable?
View attachment 52376
Musubcounty kweli wewe ni ngombe,how do 15tonnes instead of 20 compromise house quality?
 

mzeiya

Elder Lister
Very well written tale.
Anyone with an idea where Muthee Githingithia from the early days of Kameme FM went?
Mans really helped me in speaking Kyuk fluently
 
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