Soma was a stark beauty, songs were composed about her. Suitors from far and wide would travel the treacherous roads, valleys and mountains to gaze upon this divine creation. Her beauty was simplistic, yet so elegant, she glowed. Despite the attention she received, she was still a humble girl.
Her parents always celebrated their beauty gene with a long line of 12 offspring just as stunningly beautiful as Soma. But for some reason Soma’s beauty drew a flood gate of people. Suitors of all colours and creeds sought her hand in marriage. But one after the other, Soma’s father a renowned teacher, turned them all away. No one was good enough for his Soma.
Every man sought after Soma’s long trim torso, perky robust breasts, protruding belly button, long elegant limbs and long feminine feet to balance such gait. And in turn Soma’s father, Mwalimu, sought a man with the strength and charm of Lwanda Magere who was meek and diligent as Nyamgondho before he acquired wealth. Mwalimu sought for a fictional character not a man.
Soma watched as all her 11 siblings married, 6 sisters and 5 brothers. Her sisters in law were all jealous of Soma. The praise and attention that their husband’s gave their sister was too much for them to bear. Eliud, the eldest brother once told his wife that she should be “glad that I settled for your inferior beauty.” Other brothers married several times, all seeking to find a beauty as stunning as their sister; a corresponding gene of ageless beauty.
A feminine beauty with a neck carved long and elegant with which a graceful set of jet black curl kinky hair rested upon. Eyes round and bright like a boiled eggs, egg white, ears poised right in the middle of her head on either side, with long beautiful ear lobes adorned with beaded jewelry. Lips, moon shaped and pink, that curl at their edge with a smile that any blind man would see.
Soma’s beauty slowly turned into a curse. Her father’s greed and insensitivity to her desires caused Soma to retreat. Marriage was something she was never to experience, she was resigned to solitude. Soma would spend days and nights by a bamboo shack she built by the river. There she would sit and watch and hear people go about their day and mock her.
Soma never returned home, 80 years and wrinkled, she resides in that shack till this day, generations passed. But what drew her out of decades of self pity was a familiar face, young, yet familiar to yesteryears. This was a face with a voice that drew out the joys and beauty of her youth, a voice that gave her hope and laughter.
Mkate Nusu 