arrangements. He said very little, and it is only when he sorted through a few of the old man’s belongings that I saw
him begin to weep.
Granny stood up and brushed the grass off her skirt. The yard was hushed, the silence broken only by a bird’s anxious
trill. “It’s going to rain,” she said, and we all gathered up the mats and cups and carried them into the house.
Once inside, I asked Granny if she had anything left of the Old Man’s or our grandfather’s. She went into her
bedroom, sorting through the contents of an old leather trunk. A few minutes later, she emerged with a rust-colored
book the size of a passport, along with a few papers of different colors, stapled together and chewed at an angle along
one side.
“I’m afraid this is all I could find,” she said to Auma. “The rats got to the papers before I had a chance to put them
away.”
Auma and I sat down and set the book and papers on the low table in front of us. The binding on the red book had
crumbled away, but the cover was still legible: Domestic Servant’s Pocket Register, it read, and in smaller letters,
Issued under the Authority of the Registration of Domestic Servant’s Ordinance, 1928 , Colony and Protectorate of
Kenya. On the book’s inside cover, we found a two-shilling stamp above Onyango’s left and right thumbprints. The
swirls were still clear, like an imprint of coral. The box was empty where the photograph once had been.
The preamble explained: The object of this Ordinance is to provide every person employed in a domestic capacity
with a record of such employment, and to safeguard his or her interests as well as to protect employers against the
employment of persons who have rendered themselves unsuitable for such work.
The term servant was defined: cook, house servant, waiter, butler, nurse, valet, bar boy, footmen, or chauffeur, or
washermen. The rules governing the carrying of such passbooks: servants found to be working without such books, or
in any way injuring such books, are liable to a fine not exceeding one hundred shillings or to imprisonment not
exceeding six months or to both. And then, the particulars of said Registered Servant, filled out in the elegant,
unhurried script of a nameless clerk:
Name: Hussein II Onyango.
Native Registration Ordinance No.: Rwl A NBI 0976717.
Race or Tribe: Ja’Luo.
Usual Place of Residence When Not Employed: Kisumu.
Sex: M.
Age: 35.
Height and Build: 6'0" Medium.
Complexion: Dark.
Nose: Flat.
Mouth: Large.
Hair: Curly.