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Tuesday, July 04, 2006
Patriotism swells in the heart of the American bear
Back about this time in 1993 I was spending a summer semester in Kenya at the University of Nairobi Law School. We had been told in class one day that the American embassy there (which only a few years later would be bombed by al Qaeda) invited all Americans in the city to a 4th of July celebration that they held every year. That sounded kind of cool but several friends and I decided to pass since we had a couple extra days off and were planning to go on safari that weekend. We ended up in the Samboro Game Reserve with an African guide that some of us had met on an earlier trip. He was a very nice man and had a great understanding of wildlife and animal behavior. (It sounds odd but that is not true of many of the guides we had come across.) One day while driving in our little safari vehicle he sang us a song in Swahili:
"Jambo, Jambo bwana
Habari gani,
Mzuri sana..."
When he was done we all clapped and he asked us to sing him "an American song." We were stumped for a while trying to figure out something we all knew the words to but someone eventually started America, the Beautiful. And we all sang it, half way around the world, in a beat-up old truck, driving thru the African bush. It wasn't until we were done that someone pointed out it was July 4th and we were all a little choked up at the thought, I think. The 4th of July is among the most secular of our holidays and just about my favorite. (At least conceptually. Even I'll admit to putting a lot more effort into Christmas.) And it never rolls around without my thinking of that day and that wistful sense of patriotism I shared with a few friends who were as far from home as I was.
We were in Kenya at the right time of year to see the great wildebeest migration and one day we were stopped in our truck as hundreds passed around us thundering thru the grass plains and I thought this must be a glimpse of what my own home state once looked like before the vast herds of buffalo were wiped out. And of course being a Gatsby fan I also thought of "the old island that flowered once for Dutch sailor's eyes." I guess it's a little strange that some of my strongest feelings for my country came when I was so far away from it. Granted it wasn't planting the flag on Iwo Jima or anything, but there you have it. I love this country as much as anyone I know and maybe that's why I get so pissed off about people fucking it up.
So, anyway, happy Independence Day.
(By the way, I had the nickname Jambo long before I learned it was the Swahili word for hello. And, not that anyone cares, they're pronounced differently. My name having the sound of "a" in "and" with the Swahili greeting having the sound of "a" in "auto".)
4 Comments:
I thought you were a Springsteen fan. Doesn't Bruce rather dislike America the Beautiful? Aren't you supposed to sing This Land is Your Land instead?
I had not heard that, tho I know he is a big Woody Guthrie fan, so it sounds plausible.
Check out the 4 album concert set from the 1980s. He introduces This Land is Your Land talking about Woodie Guthrie writing his song as an answer to Irving Berlin's song.
I have that but the trouble is that it really is an "album" so I have no way to listen to it. I'm sure Jerjo will eventually chime in to give me an exact quote. Or maybe Joey.
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