LYDIA KALEKYE NYAMBURA

I THOUGHT YOU LOVED ME

When God created us, we were friends and you looked after me. You were very caring and I knew I had a friend and a parent in you. You earned my trust and I left my life on your hands. I used to give you a lot of water, you drank from me, I gave you life. I gave you fruits and you filled your belly. You treasured the ground you walked on and I felt your love for me. During those days, you said you could not live without me but you knew I could live without you. You brought forth generations after generations. Generations came into existence and we continued to live in harmony with each other. But as years passed by, I noticed that you had changed and you felt like I was a resource to use for your own advantage, without taking into consideration that I am the one who sustained you since my maker created me. You would make me dirty without cleaning me, leave the soil bare after cutting down many trees and my friends,the wildlife would be left without a place to inhabit, graze and mate. I started getting angry but could not show you. I regenerate and clean myself up naturally, so you forsook my health and beauty because of that. You later introduced me to chemicals. You farmed using very dangerous pesticides, something that really peeled off my integrity. My life was natural and I used to regenerate myself and clean the air that you breathed in. The trees danced to the tunes of the blowing winds, the birds sang their morning tunes and you “loved” them, but you burnt their nests that they had made among the reeds in rivers, swamps and mangrove ecosystems, all in the name of development. My health was deteriorating and you distanced yourself from me. I wish you saw my tears, I wish you loved me like you used to. I couldn’t give you rain for your crops and animals, your crops died and you exerted more pressure on me. I started failing in so many ways, the sun scorched and there is nothing I could do to prevent, only you could save me. If only you planted the trees, stopped polluting me with pesticides, industrial and medical chemicals, stop burning the soil and clearing wetlands, I would become your friend and sustain you as I used to. I would help my friends the bees to regenerate and pollinate your crops, but you killed them with the heavy pesticides. They would give you honey and we would live in harmony. All my friends; the wildlife, forests, soil, water bodies among others are suffering and others you have made extinct. I want you to know that as much as you have destroyed me a great deal, we can still be friends again and I promise you that I will give you a safer future - but on one condition, restore me. Please read my letter, I need you, and you need me. Can we have a handshake?

- First published as "Kalekye the Environmentalist" at https://com313775913.wordpress.com/.