Michael Burton

I also cannot recall having images. I sometimes get a brief glimpse of one that lasts less than a second, always of some landscape, never of a person. However, in 1982, when I was age 40, I had an amazing episode of full color video that lasted several hours, keeping me awake for some time.  I had conducted anthropological field research in Kenya from 1973-74, and the event happened during my first return to Kenya, for a few weeks.  As it happened, there was a coup attempt just before I arrived.  That had involved a lot of violence.  I arrived the morning of the first day that martial law ended.  Many people were in the street, restaurants, or bars.  I joined them that evening and had a lot to drink.  The next day I went to visit people at the University of Nairobi, and talked to some people.  During the next week I visited the Loita Hills Masai community where I had done most of my research.  People everywhere were talking freely about events in their lives and during the violence.  One day, as I was in bed at my hotel, I had saw an extended parade of thousands of Kenyan people in many settings.  This was like a documentary.   I was seeing the faces and bodies of all of the Kenyan people whom I had ever seen. This was during a time of high emotional arousal for me and for everybody else in Kenya.