Grazing livestock and facilitating knowledge transfer have little in common other than the different levels at which these activities occur.

With every set of skills gained, a new level is unlocked.

Being a herds boy is one of life’s biggest privileges. Not the long hours of going 7-6 without eating. Nah, that is torture. The solitude is rare and unbearable too, but you learn to go with it.

The real privilege comes from the character development herding gives you. How it forces you to prioritize the welfare of those animals. Where are the pastures greenest this time of year? Where is there water close by – especially if you are herding cattle?

You learn that there are many types of pastures. And you learn to pick which one works best for every kind of situation.

The Popular Pastures

The popular pastures are always close to people. Near a shopping center. Inside the overgrown school compound. By the roadsides. In that large farm no one knows the owner and all the neighborhood kids come to play all sorts of games in the afternoons.

Popular pastures are FUN! You never get bored herding there. And neither do the sheep. If you ever rode on a ram, guarantee it happened at a popular pasture. Two or three other kids held it down for you, and you did the same for them when it was their turn.

Needless to say, the grass is not very lush here. Not enough to fatten the sheep or produce 10 liters of milk in the evening. And the best herds boys don’t graze here forever. They eventually graduate to the next level.

Treeline Pastures

Treeline pastures are further away from the village. This is where ‘going to graze in the forest’ begins. It is serious work because you have to be careful about the rustlers.

To show that you are serious, you must carry a machete the first few days. Once every often after that, but definitely for the first few days or weeks. Caring for one of your clan’s store of wealth is serious business, after all!

You get to know all the treeline kid-folk, and hopefully make friends of them. They have lived at the edge of civilization all their lives and you haven’t. Respect. That.

For them, coming out to graze if optional. They can just as easily tether their livestock where the grass is lush and go back home. Which means that the treeline pasture pass is temporary.

Soon, you must leave the treeline pastures for the treeline folk. You must venture deeper into the darkened foliage into the clearings.

The Clearings

There is something magical about forest clearings. I call them forest islands. You walk through the dark umbrella of close-growing trees stretching as far as the eye can see. Monkeys barking chattering noisily overhead, and suddenly finding yourself in that space.

The clearings close to the treeline are often small. Ten to twenty meters in diameter – if that. The grass is always so green and fresh, you could graze in the same one for days without even herding anything.

Sheep just keep their heads down and chomp chomp chomp. If they are starting to wander off, then you know it’s time to find a new one.

And if you are deemed mature enough to handle the cows, then you already know several. Because you can’t be the herds boy who aaalways grazes at one particular clearing. You lose forest cred when you do that.

Large Forest Areas

Ruui Tamen, Kwa Muiruri, Nduthi, Foresti (Nursery), Faina, Kaburi, Kianugu.

The larger, further out forest areas were always named. Younger herds boys were expected to know where the older herders were going. Chances were, someone else would come asking.

To qualify for the large forest areas you definitely had to carry a machete. Or a grazing staff and plenty of courage. A dog came in plenty handy too. If anyone ever enjoyed the luxury of roasted game meat or ugali in the wild, it happened here.

The veterans of the game had stashed a sufuria somewhere years ago. You could always landmark by noting which charred tree served as one of their many wild kitchens.

As Relates to Publishing

Grazing livestock and facilitating knowledge transfer have little in common other than the different levels at which these activities occur.

With every set of skills gained, a new level is unlocked.

But you know what? The people who owned the livestock never did the grazing. It made more economic sense to pay someone else to do it for you.

The herder earned an income by combine your 10 cows with five or six other households, charging 100 shillings per head per month, and earning his keep that way.

Guess I never stopped being a herds boy. I just moved from the forest to the boardroom!