ELIMO NJAU CARRIED A CROSS ON EASTER SUNDAY

PAA YA PAA GALLERIST AND ARTIST ELIMO NJAU HAS BEEN CARRYING A HEAVY BURDEN IN THE LAST FEW MONTHS

By Margaretta wa Gacheru

Easter 2016

Elimo Njau in a ceremonial role, carrying the cross reminiscent of what Jesus Christ had to endure before his resurrection and ascension

When the Ridgeways Baptist church invited their neighbor Elimo Njau, co-founder and current managing director of Paa ya Paa Art Centre, to carry a cross as part of their Easter Sunday service recently, they had no idea how meaningful such an event would be for this 84 year old artist who’s been a Christian all his life.

Easter services were conducted all over the country and quite a few must have had members of their congregations carrying a cross in remembrance of the sorrowful moments when Jesus had to walk to his own crucifixion carrying the instrument that would facilitate his torture and cruel demise.

But I wonder how many services also celebrated the resurrection with an elegant contemporary dance, beautifully choreographed by Arthur Jude Maura who also accompanied three graceful women dancers, one of whom was the professional African American dancer Amber Anderson.

Some Christians might have disapproved on their dancing in Church but it was such a tasteful performance that even the most conservative Christians could have appreciated it.

In any case, the Baptists, like many New Age and mega-churches, bring a number of musical instruments (besides the traditional organ) with them when they come to evangelize in countries like Kenya.

On Easter Sunday, the Ridgeways Baptists had three keyboards accompanying their choir and congregation as well as the dancers who embodied the joyous experience that Christians celebrate at Easter, that of Jesus Christ’s resurrection from the grave.

Njau’s performance of carrying the cross preceded that of the dancers since the idea was to dramatize both the darkest and the brightest moments that culminated in Jesus’ resurrection.

The Easter message was especially significant to Elimo since he too has been carrying a heavy burden in the last few months, ever since people came and constructed a mabati (corrugated iron) fence across his land and claimed the acreage on the far side of the fence belonged to them.

According to Njau, the whole five acres were bought by his former secondary school English teacher, Maurice Wolfe back in the 1970s in Njau’s name but meant for the development of Kenyan contemporary art and artists. The fence was actually pulled down once by local artists but it was reconstructed without Njau’s or Wolfe’s permission.

Elimo's grandson assists his father Nikita to carry the cross

In any case, the 84 year old Njau was immensely consoled this Easter by the Christian message which is essentially that the darkest hour precedes the dawn of a new day of hope and divine possibilities.

Graffiti artists painted their concept of the Resurrection dawn on the corrugated iron fence on Elimo's side of the contested land