Mau displaced people find artistic expression in giant bamboo grass

Hudson Sang’ hardly cuts the mien of a prominent figure, but he at least credits himself with being one of the first Kenyans to learn the art of a scribe on a bamboo sheet

Enrolled at Oloruet primary school in 1982 and too poor to buy books, Sang’ says he first honed his writing skills on a sheet peeled off the bark of a young bamboo plant.

“When the bamboo plant is still young, its bark can be used as a writing sheet,” says Sang’.
“I used to write on it because my parents were poor and could not afford to buy me stationery,” he says.

These days however, Sang’ and hundreds of other Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) who were evicted from the Mau Forest, are finding a new use the giant grass.

Forgotten and left to idle at Kapkempu IDP camp Sang’, like many of his kind, would watch helplessly as the days passed with nothing to lift their spirits except for the occasional food relief parcels that humanitarian agencies would deliver after three months.

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