Echoes of Kenya and Other Poems

Born M. Norman Powell in South Africa in 1914, Ingwe is the fourth generation of a British family which immigrated there in the 1820s. Lured by tales of indescribable beauty, Ingwe and his family moved to make their home in Kenya, then known as British East Africa. This beginning a life story so filled with adventure, drama, and tragedy that it rivals the writings of Faulkner or Hemingway. Ingwe's story, however, is not fiction conceived in an author's mind. It is as real as the man himself, and his story was played out in the vast untamed African wilderness, where the native people, the wildlife, and the land itself all played their part in shaping Ingwe's life.

As a child, Ingwe was befriended by the local African tribesmen of Kenya. From these lifetime friends, Ingwe mastered the ways of African survival, hunting, and tracking, as well as the ways of the tribe and the significance of their traditions. So skilled in the ways of the wilderness and tribal customs, that M. Norman Powell, a white man of British ancestry was initiated as a member and warrior of the Akamba tribe. It was his eventual association with Zulu tribal Scouts where he received the African name Ingwe, "the Leopard."

As an adult supporting a family, politics eventually forced Ingwe to leave his ranch, his lifestyle, and the wilderness that he loved. Having previously spent ten years in the U.S. as a young man and becoming an American citizen, he returned to the U.S. in 1981 where he lives today. Although forced to leave his beloved Africa, he carries with him the memories and the lessons learned from a land and a people who once lived in harmony with the earth, but have now lost their traditional ways in this so-called civilized world.

According the Ingwe, "People need to reach out and touch. They must learn to think positively of what can be accomplished. Though the Africans taught me the skills for survival, lore, and language, the greatest gift that I received from them was a spirituality which centered on the wilderness. This gift has inspired me to pass it on to the many hundreds of youths whom I have had the opportunity to teach over the course of my life. Insight comes often to people, but the wilderness makes it all so clear."