The latest University of California – Irvine Spring 2017 Magazine features our friend and colleague, Professor Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o’s beautiful fictional story about why humans walk upright.
In the story, the human limbs concoct challenges for each other to establish who is the winner. However, upon completion of the challenges, the human limbs and organs realized: “What was the body anyway, they all asked, and they realized the body was them all together; they were into each other. Every organ had to function well for all to function well.” Thus, to resolve the issue, it was decided that the body would walk upright and all tasks would also be divided up.
“However, the organs of the body realized that the permanent arrangement they had arrived at could still bring conflict. The head being up there might make it feel that it was better than the feet that touched the ground or that it was the master and the organs below it were servants only. They stressed that in terms of power, the head and whatever was below it were equal. To underline this, the organs made sure that the pain and joy of any one of the organs was felt by all.”
Ngugi’s story concludes: “When humans learn from the net-work of organs, they do well; but when they see the body and the head as parties at war, one being atop of the other, they come close to their animal cousins who rejected the upright revolution.”
First published in 2016 by the Jalada Africa Trust in its inaugural Translation Issue, the full piece in the UCI magazine can be found here.
Featured image is an illustration by Sara Tyson.