Local author inspired by Maasai gift to U.S. after 9/11

Kimeli Naiyomah, a native of Enoosaen, happened to be in New York City that day.

“I witnessed so much hurting and my heart was wounded for America,” Naiyomah recalled in a recent phone interview from California, where he has earned a master’s degree in molecular biology from Stanford University. He was so moved that he wanted to “give part of myself.”

“My heart conjured the gift of a calf, the ultimate sacrifice, that would be blessed by my people,’’ he said.

“This is an animal that God gave us when we descended from the sky,” he explained. “We came with the cow. We made a pledge to the cow that we would never give it away and will bring it back if ever it were taken away. That pledge ties the Maasai, the cow and God all together.”

When Naiyomah returned to his village eight months after the Sept. 11 attacks, he related the horrors of that day. His people live in huts with roofs made of sun-baked dung. They could hardly imagine “buildings so tall they can touch the sky.”

Trembling, Naiyomah asked for the blessing of his fellow villagers to give away his only calf. As he did, he “felt the arms of my people reach around me and wrap around all of America.” Thirteen additional cows were offered and blessed for America.

“We had to view Americans as our kinsmen in order to make this huge decision,” said Naiyomah, who served as a consultant on Deedy’s picture book. “That way, we did not betray our promise to the cow.”

The story’s lush and detailed scenes were painted by Atlanta artist Thomas Gonzalez. On many of the bright, jewel-toned pages, readers may discover subtle reminders of the former World Trade Center towers in such images as a pair of walking sticks or two roaming giraffes.

The collaboration is especially meaningful for Deedy and Gonzalez; author and artist grew up together in metro Atlanta’s community of Cuban refugees.

A high point of the story is the depiction of a magnificent tribal ceremony, attended by a diplomat from the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi. The diplomat and his wife made the arduous 600-mile round trip journey to Enoosaen to formally accept the gift of 14 cows.

Because it wasn’t practical to transport the cows to America, the U.S. embassy asked the tribe to keep the blessed cows on behalf of the American people, who are encouraged to visit them as a way to honor those who perished on Sept. 11. The original herd of 14 gifted cattle has grown to 35 (and counting); all these “American” cows are marked on their ear with a symbol resembling the twin towers.

Naiyomah, now a Rotary International World Peace Fellow, will soon bring a carton of the books to his tribe, who don’t even understand about children’s picture books -- what they are,” he said. One book they will also receive is Deedy’s “Martina the Beautiful Cockroach” (2007). “Children in my village do know what cockroaches are,” Naiyomah said.

While completing her award-winning cockroach story, Deedy wrestled over how to tell the “14 Cows” tale.

“An attack of that magnitude was a heart punch for most Americans,” she said. “The thought of writing about it or composing any art from it was not something I could think of doing for a while. But there was something I couldn’t let go of. I’m talking about when you are so deeply hurt by something, and someone who scarcely knows you sends you some measure of kindness and comfort — that unexpected and powerful generosity.”

The story’s “meaning” eluded her for a while. Then, a couple of years ago, Deedy was reading an early draft of her “14 Cows” manuscript to a class of metro Atlanta fourth-graders. One student “raised her hand and said, ‘Oh, it’s just like that Aesop’s fable, you know the one about the lion and the mouse and the mouse helps the lion when it’s trapped? You know, big needs little?’ ”

The girl had nailed it.