MemeMachineGo!

A New York Times article on Enoosaen, a Masai village in Kenya, and 9/11.

Most Masai had learned of the attacks from the radio soon after they occurred. But the horrible television images passed by many Masai, who got electricity in their village only shortly before the attacks. In the oral tradition they rely on, Mr. Naiyomah sat them down and told them stories that stunned them.

Through his tales, Sept. 11 became real. The Masai felt sadness. They felt relief that Mr. Naiyomah was unscathed. They wanted to do something.

Today, in a solemn ceremony in a grassy clearing, they did, blessing 14 cows being given to the people of the United States. Elders chanted in Maa as they walked around the cows, animals held sacred by the Masai (often spelled Maasai).

[...] when Kimeli Naiyomah returned recently to this tiny village from his studies in the United States, he found only the vaguest understanding among his fellow Masai of what had happened in that far-away place called New York on Sept. 11.

[...] He had been visiting Manhattan on Sept. 11 and came home last month with first-hand accounts of the horror of that faraway event. Now a young elder in the community, Mr. Naiyomah, 25, told the others of huge fires in buildings that stretched high into the clouds, and of men with special gear who entered the structures to save lives.

"They couldn't believe that people could jump from a building so high that they would die when they reached the ground," he said.

Thanks, Enoosaen.

(Via Cogito, Ergo Sumana)