In Kenya, the old men and women sitting under the tree have a name: wazee wetu, our elders. A columnist in Kenya's Education News wants young people to stop walking past them.
Writer Enock Okong'o calls the elders living libraries. They carry history, struggle and hard-won judgment, he writes — knowledge no search engine can supply. For Okong'o, they are far more than old men and women sitting under trees.
He draws on the lives of Jomo Kenyatta, Julius Nyerere, Daniel arap Moi, Nelson Mandela and Mwai Kibaki to name the values he wants passed on: courage, service, tolerance, education and dedication to building a nation.
His anchor is harambee, the Kenyan spirit of pulling together for the common good. For young people today, he writes, that means learning to build rather than break and to unite rather than divide along tribal or social lines.
His appeal is simple: embrace learning across the generations and preserve the wisdom of the elders while they are still here.
Read the original at Education News
Sources
Okong'o, E. (2026, June 16). Wazee wetu: The sacred unwritten book our youth must read. Education News. https://educationnews.co.ke/wazee-wetu-the-sacred-unwritten-book-our-youth-must-read/
