Freddie's Corner

FREDDIE'S CORNER

The lord of the cassava of Tezo

Memories of a Kenya 30 years ago

17-08-2023 by Freddie del Curatolo

I remember the first time I set foot in Tezo, more than 30 years ago.

The first thing I thought was the paradox, as an Italian, of that name pronounced with a soft zeta, Teso.

There was absolutely nothing "tense" about that place, along the Kenyan coast smiling and dozing in the sun.

The people were much more "pole pole" than in Malindi, the clusters of mud huts and makuti were realities on eternal pause in the shade of the palm trees and the many cashew trees.

There was a shed where they piled up the fruits of that wonderful tree as patient as they were and cleaned them with such "phlegm" that I could not imitate it except by falling into a trance-like state.

And there was a man beside the shed who was cutting thin slices of a cassava root with even more imperturbability, then frying it.

I stayed with him chatting and eating that popular delicacy, like the stories he told me.

At the end of the day, the workers in the shed would spend a good part of their pocket money on palm wine at the bar, and there were also rooms that were about as spacious as the locker rooms in a municipal swimming pool in Italy, where they could hang out with girls of dubious but almost obligatory morality.

Today that village on the dusty Kilifi-Malindi axis is an industrious suburb traversed by trucks, and dozens of buildings with stores of all kinds line the once-poor road: hardware stores, greengrocers, dealers in auto parts, cell phones and gas cylinders. Plus cafeterias, small restaurants and other diminutives of business to the public.

This place, unlike others, gives you the idea that there are people working.

Even the cassava man works, in his own way. He has white hair and is a living advertisement for what he sells, as he eats a fried pastry of his product with gusto.

I approach and discover that incredibly he is the same person I knew back in the day. I would never have figured it out on my own; he is the one who remembers me, as is often the case around here.

Not many white people stop, especially with my hair.

He is one of the old souls of the country, telling me that at one time the shed stood exactly across the street from his stall and was part of one of the farms where cashews were shelled.

There would be much to sit and discuss about how even here in thirty years we have gone from cashews and whores to motor scooters and free porn sites.

Then going back to smashing coral stones in quarries near the sea because cashew factories, one of the prides of Kilifi and environs, have closed and wild construction instead has increased exponentially, along with transportation.

Kenya Kambia, I used to say in a song-monologue of mine, with the K highlighting the (they say necessary) distortions of this society.

Fortunately in Africa it will take a few more lifetimes to see all the damage realized. In the meantime, I, even if I am a little "tezo" from time to time, do not tire of going around looking for other places as Tezo once was, and meeting other cassava lords.

TAGS: cassavatezoricordifreddie

"Muhogo wa Nyama" (meat with cassava) is a typical dish of Kenyan cuisine. The cassava is a tuber completely similar to the manioc, it is used to make flour or potatoes, both fried and stewed. Its taste reminds a bit of...

READ ALL THE RECIPE

Do you remember how many times you have dreamt of Kenya?
Its...

READ ALL THE ARTICLE

It is a very nutritious and resilient tuber and Kenya will have to rely on this resource to feed that...

READ ALL THE ARTICLE

In the markets and on the edges of many roads in Kenya you can see the sellers (yes, usually...

READ ALL THE ARTICLE

A week to celebrate gastronomy and Italian culture in Nairobi, with music, exhibitions, dance, theater and other events. The event was...

READ ALL THE REVIEW

These are days when fate brings back memories overbearingly and painfully, and with them faces...

READ THE STORY

I remember the first time I set foot in Tezo.
The ...

READ ALL THE ARTICLE AND SEE THE PICTURES

Already a full house in Malindi for the first of the five evenings in August of the new serial ...

READ ALL THE ARTICLE

Put the greatest poet of the Kenyan coast, the history of his homeland and its legends recited with passion. Add a songwriter that of the heart and true stories has made a way of life, even more than an artistic...

READ ALL AND SEE THE GALLERY

by redazione

by redazione

Imagine a place where the sky does not overlook you, it passes through you.
You don't simply breathe the...

READ THE ARTICLE

by redazione

The first Italian event with Freddie's Kenya Evenings is set for Saturday, May 20 at the Filodrammatici Theater in Treviglio, near Bergamo.
Last year the event organized by Medicallife and Maxlife, came together over 300 people and was a success beyond...

READ ALL THE REVIEW

A leopard roams the Arabuko Sokoke forest, the vast green patch that stretches from Mida Creek to the road...

READ THE ARTICLE

When you go back to Kenya, it'll be a good day.
When...

READ ALL THE ARTICLE