Lupita Nyong'o / Mind Your Own Host (2:58)
This episode contains strong language and graphic imagery. Sensitive listeners, please be advised. I don't know one Kenyan who would rule out witchcraft. Juju Urogi. Ah, no, it doesn't exist. I feel in some capacity, every Kenyan has a little belief, a hidden belief in urogi. In my family it was very much, the Lord is our shepherd and the blood of the lamb will cover me and protect me. But also, watch out for that dude, watch out for that corner. Just err on the side of caution. Today we're going to get into all of that superstition. Urogi Juju. We're crossing into the shadow side. I'm Lupita Nyong' o and this is Mind your own. When I was in Year seven, I was hanging out in our field at school. I'd finished my activities and I was waiting for the late bus. Me and my friends were gathered at the edge of the playing field. We were lying on the ground, we were chatting amongst ourselves, just kicking it. And there was a group of boys, I think they were like in year five, running around the field. But for some reason they decided to run in our area. They were running around us and one of the boys decided to jump over my legs. Over my legs. And I was like, so shocked because that is such a bad thing to do. In my culture, there's a superstitious belief that if you jump over someone's legs, you stunt their growth and you could make them barren. The way you undo it is he has to jump over you again. So I'm like, come back here. You come back here. Jump over me. How could you do that? So he comes, he jumps over me and now he's giggling. I'm like, you shouldn't be jumping over us. There's a whole field, go play elsewhere. Me and my friends are huffing and puffing, like, why are they doing this to us? Shame on them. They were so irritated, these small boys, you know? And then I decide, okay, if he does it again, man, I'm gonna have to have a word with him. He does it again. All my purges are falling on deaf ears. I swear to God, next time this boy comes my way, I'm gonna trip him. I'm just gonna kick my leg up, casually the way I have been doing and trip him. So, you know, I get back into conversation. But now my attention is fully on these boys. I'm pretending to engage in this gossip session, but no, I am like listening to the pitter patter of these boys feet, waiting for them to approach. And I lift my foot and it catches his and he falls. Yes, did it. But just as soon as I've rejoiced, I recognize, almost like in retrospect, that the fall didn't sound right. It was a P. And so I'm like, wait, what? I get up, all my friends get up. We're looking at the boy. He sits up, cradling his hand, and he goes, ow. And he looks down at his arm. I look down at his arm and I see that where it's supposed to be brown, there is something white jutting out. And no sooner have I seen that white thing jutting out of blood, his hand is facing the wrong direction. And then he starts to scream. I'm about to be in a lot of trouble. I broke someone's arm. I don't know what to do. There is panic all around me. My friends have run to call the receptionist. The teachers have shown up in no time. There's an ambulance there, you know, I just wanted him to trip and maybe have a little graze on his elbow. That's it, you know, a little whoops. I didn't want him to, like, I didn't want him to end up in hospital. He's put on a stretcher and he's carried away. The teachers that are left behind are trying to figure out what happened. And I feel like everybody knows that I did it on purpose. I'm hearing the boys that were running around, they're telling the teachers, oh, we were playing, we were playing. And then he jumped over. He jumped over their legs and tripped. I realized that nobody knew that I had done it intentionally. And so I chose not to say anything. I was crying and crying. And I remember like my teacher saying, why are you crying so much? You're fine. Can't you see that the boy is hurt? You need to have sympathy for him. Surely they would find out. Surely he would say something. I wanted to find out what hospital he was in. But then I realized that if I take too much action, they might figure it out. And then I might get expelled. My parents might have to pay the hospital bill. At that point, things were tight financially and I knew that he was out of school for a while, maybe a week or two. We were asked to write him a get well soon card. And so I signed the card. And I was just so sure that when he got better and came back to school, he would come for me. When I heard he was back that day, I didn't hear anything my teacher said in those first sessions of class, Man. Cause all I could think about was like, I'm gonna see him. I'm gonna run into him at recess. He was going to point a finger at me and yell at the top of his voice, it's her fault. It's her fault. It's her. Who did was break time. And very unceremoniously, he just passed me by. He had one hell of a cast on. He saw me, he said hi. I said hi. And he just went on. It was like he didn't even recognize me. Like he didn't equate me to his accident at all. At first I was perplexed because here I was and I saw his face every night. And so to see him so unburdened by me was really quite surprising. And then I thought, phew, that means I am really in the clear. I felt relief. And I just kept the guilt. I didn't get suspended, I didn't miss one day of school, and I didn't get socially condemned. If I didn't tell this story, nobody'd know. But I would. So what constitutes getting away with it? Don't go anywhere more. Mind your own after this quick break
