Bwana Sungo
"August and Everything After" was released in 1993. It resonated with me, if for no other reason than it perfectly encapsulated my life. Being born in August, my life is indeed August and everything after. Track number six was "The Rain King." As I listened to it, I thought surely something was behind this song and it wasn't until two years later in 1995 that I found out what that something was.
Saul Bellow wrote a book entitled "Henderson The Rain King." The eventual title character is Eugene Henderson, a wealthy, robust man who has come to a crashing hault in mid-life; loud, flushed cheeks, and boisterous. He is larger than life and bad at it...at first. He has spent his life trying to satisfy this voice in his heart that continually chants "I want. I want."
He ends up in Africa, traveling to various indigenous tribes in a effort to silence the voice; to find himself, as it were. Through a painful and long process, mistreating everyone along the way, he comes to the realization that the only way to stop the voice is to heal others and a denouement of sorts is ultimately reached.
Adam Duritz read the book, identifying with Henderson Sungo, or Henderson, The Rain King.
For me, it was Romilayu.
Romilayu was a local bushman, who had been converted to Christianity by Methodist missionaries earlier in his life. A small, unassuming and humble man, weathered by many a safari, he was hired by Henderson to be his guide. He took him to all the different villages, all the while silently enduring all of Henderson's outbursts and derogitory behavior. Henderson treated Romilayu poorly at best, yet Romilayu was ultimately his "boy" not because Henderson was paying him, but because in Romilayu's own words, he felt sorry for him. He wanted him to have piece and stayed with him until he was sure he did...as painful as it was for him.
I understood that. I always have...and I always will.
So for those of you who have ever wondered.... now you know from whence it comes. I spend my life leading others, dispite the way I may be treated. The pay's poor, the hours are long, the work hard... but at the end of the day, I am naught but the boy of my own Bwana, Bwana Yahweh....and I'll stick with it until He is pleased.
Saul Bellow wrote a book entitled "Henderson The Rain King." The eventual title character is Eugene Henderson, a wealthy, robust man who has come to a crashing hault in mid-life; loud, flushed cheeks, and boisterous. He is larger than life and bad at it...at first. He has spent his life trying to satisfy this voice in his heart that continually chants "I want. I want."
He ends up in Africa, traveling to various indigenous tribes in a effort to silence the voice; to find himself, as it were. Through a painful and long process, mistreating everyone along the way, he comes to the realization that the only way to stop the voice is to heal others and a denouement of sorts is ultimately reached.
Adam Duritz read the book, identifying with Henderson Sungo, or Henderson, The Rain King.
For me, it was Romilayu.
Romilayu was a local bushman, who had been converted to Christianity by Methodist missionaries earlier in his life. A small, unassuming and humble man, weathered by many a safari, he was hired by Henderson to be his guide. He took him to all the different villages, all the while silently enduring all of Henderson's outbursts and derogitory behavior. Henderson treated Romilayu poorly at best, yet Romilayu was ultimately his "boy" not because Henderson was paying him, but because in Romilayu's own words, he felt sorry for him. He wanted him to have piece and stayed with him until he was sure he did...as painful as it was for him.
I understood that. I always have...and I always will.
So for those of you who have ever wondered.... now you know from whence it comes. I spend my life leading others, dispite the way I may be treated. The pay's poor, the hours are long, the work hard... but at the end of the day, I am naught but the boy of my own Bwana, Bwana Yahweh....and I'll stick with it until He is pleased.
posted by rOmiLaYu at 10:11 PM
2 Comments:
"He wanted him to have piece and stayed with him ..." A piece of what? ;-)
Hey, what are friends for?
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