Returning Life

Once again, Peter leads a group of Chagga-speaking men down the slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro in northern Tanzania and across the border into neighbouring Kenya. There, they meet with a group of Kamba-speaking elders to butcher animals and pour milk, beer, and blood on the ground for their distant forebear Horombo, requesting rain in return. More than 60 years after Peter first accompanied his grandfather, the last colonial ‘chief’ of the area, Mangi Tengia, it is his final trip to the plains, hoping to bring rain for their continued existence.
Returning Life documents a unique ceremony that simultaneously crosses linguistic, ethnic, and international boundaries. It reveals the hospitality and generosity of subsistence farmers in this part of East Africa, and shows their abiding care for the environment, as well as their respect for the past and concern for the future.