upepo
Elder Lister
Gitu wa Kahengeri started his working life, in the early 40s, as a telephone operator, first in Ruiru and later in Makuyu, Muranga.
Then, only white settlers owned telephones.
Gitu’s job therefore, involved connecting these white folks who needed to talk to each other over the phone. These mzungu chaps were quite impatient, entitled and rude. Often, they would racially insult the poor African phone operators, for not getting connected, fast enough, to the other end; despite the fact that the subscriber on the other end was engaged.
The telephone exchange where Gitu worked, in Makuyu, was housed in a shop run by an Indian trader, who was equally quite rude to Africans. Matters came to a head one day, when a mzungu complained that Gitu did not connect his call fast enough.
The Indian guy grabbed Gitu’s collar and tried pushing him around.
Gitu had had enough of the mistreatment by the Indian fellow: he grabbed a bakora, that was lying around, and rained several blows on the muhindi’s back and promptly resigned from the job.
