We introduce a new story by Abdifatah Shafat, who explores issues of migration and return. His latest offering, “The Final Visit”, traces the experience of a returned son whose appreciation of the land he grew up has been changed by his stay overseas, yet he has never stopped caring about the home things that matter to him and his mother. While the mother’s belief system is still the same, what has changed now is how her worldview will readily clash with that of her son. Shafat renders this story with a tenderness that stirs the reader’s compassion and imagination. Abdifatah Shafat was born in Kenya, and he is now based in the USA where he is doing a PhD in Anthropology. He is a short story writer, having previously been published in African Writing Online as well as Mizna.
Hardly three days have passed since Omar arrived in Bura, northern Kenya. From there he trekked for hours to reach the hamlet where he was told his mother lived. However, soon after arriving, he came down with an illness. At first he thought it was the boredom. But later, when the symptoms manifested themselves prominently, he knew they were more than mere boredom. The symptoms are familiar and start as they always have: a mild headache, tingling in the kidneys, loss of appetite, and by the end of the third day, his entire body convulses with an agonizing pain. The never-ending procession of neighbors who have initially trooped over for the used t-shirt from the Goodwill store in America, the orange fruit from Nairobi, to relieve themselves of their Asalam Aleikums, or to listen to the stories from the Strange Land have reduced into a trickle.
For Omar, though, most of the neighbors are new. Those who lived here when he disappeared ten years earlier are not around anymore. Life is so short in this part of Kenya. Like his uncles, aunts, and the numerous other relatives that he can no longer remember, death can either be long and painful or fast and swift. When Omar’s sickness spreads, it immediately transforms into a communal concern.
