70 Years Later: Tutu’s Legacy and His Descendants

At the time of writing these brief chronicles of Patriarch Tutu’s life, 70 years have passed since his demise.

And what a lot of things have happened during that span of time! I guess that if Tutu got up from his grave

today, he would be stunned and astounded by what has happened since he passed away those many years

ago. You, dear reader, may take what we have or see every day in the course of our lives. But just take a

moment to reflect on the differences in the lives and experiences of a person who, like Tutu, was born in 190

years ago and one who was born in this, the 21st century.

Of course there are similarities in these two lives: biological, social, religious and so one. People still pass

through the same stages or phases of life as they did those many years ago, namely birth, childhood, youth,

marriage (for some, nowadays), work and death. But it is the differences between how the people living

through those phases of life now and during Tutu’s time that are somehow overwhelming to comprehend.

But then, we all know that culture and what we term as civilization is always evolving, and those who do not

accept change are forced to do so by the tides of time.

This does not mean that we should forget our histories and our past. In fact, to the contrary, knowing and

understanding our history and roots is of essence in understanding who we really are, beyond the façade of

the identities that we adopt for ourselves and how others understand us. I have got Tutu’s genes in me as so

do thousands of others spread throughout the country and the globe. Tutu being our known and common

denominator or ancestor, I think it is important to start with him and know him as part of understanding who

we, his descendants, are.

This leads us to another most important question and with which, in my opinion, is indispensible in

concluding this short narrative about our patriarch, Tutu (Magothe) Maingĩ. What is Tutu’s legacy, what

happened to those he left behind and where are his descendants today? Legacy (inheritance or patrimony) is

defined as “something transmitted by or received from an ancestor or predecessor or from the past”. Legacy

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is both tangible (property or wealth) and intangible (character, physical and other traits). During the time of

his departure, Tutu left behind a large and mostly prosperous extended family, with members numbering in

the hundreds.

During his lifetime, Tutu witnessed some of his children taking up after him in various aspects and carrying

on what he had done in his lifetime. He saw his children getting married and becoming parents, thus

widening his gene pool. Some of his children took up professions which reflected Tutu’s life, such as

leadership, healing, herding livestock, farming and commerce. The same continued after his death and

continues today. (MRS: I THINK THAT IT IS AT THIS JUNCTURE THAT WE CAN INSERT WHAT

SOME OF HIS CHILDREN THAT WE KNOW, SUCH AS NDEGWA, ARTHUR, NJEGA AND

OTHERS DID DURING THEIR LIFETIME. WHAT DO YOU THINK?)

Like seeds scattered far and wide by migratory birds, it is impossible to know exactly how many of Tutu’s

lineage exist the globe today. I have calculated that Tutu’s descendants are now in the sixth generation. That

is, the Tutu’s young progenies and those being born are his great-great-great-great-great grandchildren. To

illustrate and simplify this, let me give an example of myself. I am Tutu’s granddaughter. I have children

who have children, so I am a grandmother. Some of Tutu’s other grandchildren like me are great-

grandmothers and the may see another generation added in the lifetimes.

Meaning? Let me try to demonstrate:

Tutu Magothe Maingi – Ndegwa (my father) – Nyakiago (myself) – Kaki (my daughter) – Joshua (my

grandson) - ? (6th generation)

Many more have been born and gone in those 70 years, such that it is a gargantuan, nay, impossible task to

trace all of the patriarch’s descendants and what they are or have been engaged in. Where would one begin?

I do not know how I can qualify or quantify Tutu’s legacy, apart from saying that his family continues to

expand and that some of his famed traits are alive in several of the family members.

Tutu’s knowledge of geography (and the extent of his travels as far as the crow flies) was Gikuyuland and

Maasailand, as far as I have surmised. He definitely did not know the extent of the country, continent or
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world. Now, he would be surprised to know that his descendants, his people (andu aake, as the Agikuyu

when talking about a person’s descendants or dependents) are now to be found in virtually all corners of the

globe.

I would not like, in the unlikely event that my grandfather rose up today, to be the one to explain to him the

concept of “global village”. To tell him that his people are living in lands beyond Karogoto, Hiriga and

Maasailand and areas neighbouring Gĩkũyũland. That some are married and/or working in far off lands, in

Africa and what is loosely referred to as the diaspora, meaning the globe. Some have settled there,

permanently, and some are married there. In Tutu’s bloodline, there are now members who have

intermarried with spouses from various races on earth.

Tutu was very suspicious of Western education and religious concepts. Though later in his life he saw that

he could not defeat the tide of Westernization and reluctantly allowed his children to be enrolled in school,

he would be shocked today to learn that virtually all his descendants today have received basic formal

education and are working in diverse fields, most of which did not exist or were not advanced in his lifetime.

Today, Tutu’s descendants are working in virtually all sectors in Kenya and other parts of the world. They

include professionals in fields such as commerce, healthcare, engineering, accountancy, education,

administration, agriculture and so on. Others of his descendants, he would be told, are in various diverse

fields, some of which did not exist or would have imagined in his lifetime. Some are actuaries, gym

instructors, Human resource and bank managers, lawyers, university lecturers, chiropodists, yoga experts,

and so on and so forth. Some are nuclear scientists based in various locations in the globe.

Since it is not possible to list all the descendants and what they do, I will take the liberty of giving some

examples of the situation that Tutu would find (in the unlikely event) if he rose from his resting place and

joined his descendants today.

I imagine the first thing he would notice in his surroundings would be the environment. Instead of the plush,

green and heavily forested surroundings he left behind in Hĩrĩga in the 1950s, he would find that treed areas

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are few and far between and that most spaces are now farms planted with crops and other plants, some of

which he would have no inkling as to their nature and use. He would then notice the houses and other and

their architecture and if he looked farther up the hill to the area known as 38, he would see storied structures,

build by his descendants on spots that had once contained only mud, wood and grass dwellings.

If he had not fainted, he would then take a few steps and start noticing the people. They would be staring at

him in horror, of course, and they would be dressed in styles and fashions that he would think were out of

this world, so say. Almost everybody, including toddlers and children, would be wearing shoes. The

womenfolk would have hairstyles that would remind him of subhuman creatures in his wildest dreams, some

with wild curls, braids painted in colours such as pink and blue. Perhaps he would notice that some women

were wearing ‘men’s’ clothing (trousers0 and one or two would be smoking a cigarette.

At this juncture, an old lady or man, who would turn out to be his grandchild, would recognize him and

approach him, with caution and fear of course. The grandchild would introduce herself/himself and Tutu

would beckon the person to sit on the grass near him and tell him what had been going on in his 70 year

absence. And like Rip van Winkle (Google that), he would see and here of things and happenings which he

would not have imagined in his lifetime.

In his lifetime, Tutu had thought that white people were alien, magician creatures who could fly in the air in

metal birds. He thought it was some magic or witchcraft that the African like him could not begin to

understand. In fact, he had thought that it was a supernatural thing, something that defied rational

explanation or logic. Now, a chopper would roar up the sky and as Tutu stared at it, he would be told that a

number of his own descendants were now pilots who rode those metallic birds to all corners of the earth.

Others, he would be told, owned and drove cars just like some of the white people had driven in his lifetime.

A person would pass nearby talking into a small gadget which was glued to his ear, and the grandchild

narrating to Tutu would tell the patriarch that the person was talking to another one in a different part of the

country or anywhere in the world.

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He would be told that due to the white man’s education, his great (grand x 5 or 5th generation) grand-

daughter (a girl!), Nyacira, daughter of ………………………, who is named after his favourite wife (this

writer’s grandmother) is currently a student in one of the world’s most prestigious universities, Yale, in a

country thousands of miles away and called the United States of America. Another of his 5th generation

descendants. Nyathigi (named, down the genertions, after Tutu’s mother and a daughter of

………………………….) is cybercrime buster, having studied and mastered the art with the best of the best

in the field. Tutu would not, of course, understand what he was being told even if his informant explained to

him for several years.

As for the rest, the progenies of Tutu and his 18-plus wives, the task of explaining there whereabouts and

what they do, who they are married to and where would be overwhelming to narrate, impossible. But he

would be pleased to hear that some are doctors like he used to be. They might not be as revered or feared for

their science as he was in his days. The current doctors, he would be told, mostly used factory-made

medicine and also herbal medicines. He would be told that instead of the mumbo-jumbo, abracadabra, stones

and other things that he and his fellow medicine men used to diagnose and treat illnesses, the current

generation of doctors used x-rays, MRI and Ct scans and other machines.

Whatever is remembered, said or written about Tutu, whether good or bad, grand or negative, the fact is that

the grand old patriarch left a thumbprint on Earth will never be erased. Believe it or not, we, the

descendants, all have his genes and blood, and it is because of this man that we are here today and we are

what we are. And for this, we, our children, our families and communities in current and future generations

should forever be grateful to this patriarch.

If, as we are told, all people will at one time meet again in other lives or circumstances, Tutu and his myriad

descendants will have a lot of catching up to do. I, for one, will have a few thousand questions to ask him

and we won’t have a shortage of topics to discuss. I am sure that you, the reader, whether or not you are of

Tutu’s lineage, will also have a lot to ask and tell. Perhaps then we shall understand one another and the

invisible threads that link together generations and time. Think about it
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REST IN PEACE, PATRIARCH TUTU MAGOTHE MAINGI.

Marjory Nyakĩago Kĩmani, nee Ndegwa Tutu,

Nairobi, 2024