NAIROBI Kenya, Nov 25 – People preserve mementos for a variety of reasons, but the most common is to serve as a reminder of happy experiences from the past that they want to have with them always.
Kimani Kibiku, 72, and his wife Jane Wanjiru, in Kiahuria village in Kabete Constituency both retired civil servants, have in their possession, a box full of souvenirs but the most notable is a piece of a bar soap that is 58 years old.
According to Kimani, a former trainer in human resources, the bar of soap is more than a soap to him, he acknowledges that it serves as a great reminder of how life was back then and it brings back the memories of his youth.
“May I say that this is simply more than just about a piece of soap for me, this is more about the lifestyle most people my age lived back then, and the memories that this simple piece evokes which there are lots of them,” he says.
“I was keeping it as a souvenir to remember my brother for his kindness and also to remind me how life was then.”
“In contrast with current times, growing up in the 50s and 60s was quite simplistic, if I may regard it as such. Many children, I among them, went to school just for the sake of it. We helped with farm work where most of our sustenance came from, and we grew up in a very social environment,” he says.
Kimani was born and raised in a family of eight, six boys and girls where he is the sixth born and he is married to Jane Wanjiru who is a retired civil servant as well.
The couple recounted that they grew up during a time of great hardship, money was scarce and they had to scrap by. As a result of the lack of money, he observes that life was marked by financial troubles which they suffered further hardships when, in the late 1950s, their father passed away while still a little child.
“I kept the soap for economic purposes so that I can have something extra in case my brother does not have money, in case there is an happening that is an usual and I don’t have soap and I was keeping it so I can use it when there is none,” he says.
““Luckily, my eldest brother, the firstborn, had managed to finish school and got a job as a teacher, and so he took up the role of catering for us. And thus comes the story about soap. You see back then, some commodities one may take for granted today were quite scarce,” he says.
“What you could not get from the farm, like soap and cooking fat, you had to buy. Earning a shilling is such a task, these products used to be quite precious,” he says.
Kimani recalls that his brother used to go grocery shopping for them once a month, and one of the items he would pick up was a bar of soap that was divided into five equal pieces.
They would each get a piece that would last them until their next month and it was up to them to figure out how to make this item last so that they could utilize it for all of their cleaning requirements.
Kimani points out that a bar of soap cost less than a shilling during their day, compared to now when they might cost hundreds of shillings, but it was still quite a bit of money.
“When I was 14 years old, I managed to save a piece for a rainy day, and as it turned out, that day never came. After a while, I had thoughts to just use it, but then curiosity kicked in and I thought: what if I kept this to remind me of my childhood days? I marked the date I had received the soap and put it in a small box. Almost six decades later, here we are,” he says.
He added that he preserved it by wrapping it in a piece of paper and sometimes using a piece of cloth over the years and he keeps it in an open place that will allow circulation of air.
“I have never used the soap since 1964 and I will not use it at all, I have kept it for future use, in fact it is older than the age of Kenya since independence,” he says.
According to Wanjiru, who wed Kimani in 1981, they first met at work, where their romance blossomed and she says she completely agrees with what his husband is saying.
Wanjiru adds that when Kimani first told him about the soap, she was shocked and that she was contented with the explanation and reasons behind it.
“It was surprising initially because I hadn’t come across something like that before but when he told me about it, I was surprised but I let him have it because he had his own reasons for keeping it so I did not want to interfere in any way,” she says.
“I was satisfied with what he was telling me, because he said he was keeping for a rainy day so it is like this rainy day never came. That is why we are still having and keeping it up to now.”
Kimani and Wanjiru keep a box full of souvenirs. Inside is also a receipt dated July 7, 1990, for a 13kg gas cylinder refill. The indicated cost is Ksh172.25 compared to today where it costs Ksh3,300 to refill.
The 72-year-old retired civil servant notes that the souvenirs not only show a contrast in prices but a way of life.
“The reason I have kept that piece of soap for so long is because it reminds me of a life that, despite certain difficulties, is one to be desired. It is a life where one person’s success was shared and celebrated by all,” he says.
“A time when families were much more united and where I would get to visit my kin and interact with my cousins. A life when our society as a whole was more united. Something that may be somewhat lacking in our society today.”
The couple said that their working culture was molded by the struggles they had and the reminders from the mementos.
They gained invaluable knowledge about management, responsibility, hard work, and discipline, all of which have improved them as people.
“Happiness was also easier to find back then, something as simple as chapati used to make us very excited as we would only have them on Christmas, and in my opinion, it made the celebrations all the more meaningful and impactful.”
“While I appreciate that people now lead better lifestyles in terms of being able to afford such basic commodities, I do miss how much more we appreciated life in those days.”
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