Around. Hello. This is bbc news. Prince harry reveals hes had counselling, after spending nearly 20 years not thinking about his mothers death. Theres actually a lot of stuff here i need to deal with. It was 20 years of not thinking about it and then two years of total chaos. Us Vice President mike pence tells north korea neither the United States nor south korea would tolerate further missile and nuclear tests. Turkeys president erdogan vows to press ahead with new sweeping powers after narrowly winning the constitutional referendum. Police in the us state of ohio are searching for a man suspected of posting a video on facebook of him shooting dead an elderly stranger. Police are investigating an incident in which acid was sprayed inside a nightclub in hackney in the early hours of this morning. 12 people attended hospital with burns. Now on bbc news the remarkable story of the woman thought to be the oldest living in africa as she celebrates her 117th birthday. Welcome to my Great Grandmothers 117th birthday. Right now shes taking pictures of people who have come to see her and celebrate this big day with her. Theres more than 90 years difference between me and her. Shes 117 and im just 23. Im priscilla. Returning to my Ancestral Home in kenya to celebrate the remarkable birthday of one of the oldest people in the world. My Great Grandmother, elizabeth. Im here to discover the secrets of her long life as she throws a party and reunites five generations of my family. This is where i was born. Its about ten miles from nairobi, the capital of kenya. This fertile land has been home to my family for at least six generations. Today there are hundreds of us, like me, spread around the world. Im returning from my home in london to visit a woman very close to my heart, who has never left kenya but has cultivated a global family. Were just heading up to my great grandmas house. The road is bumpy. Its like a makeshift road. This is a shrine where most of my family are buried, my great granddad, my grandad, his children and five wives. My great grandma is the fifth wife out of six. Were heading up to my great grandmas home. She lives by the side of where any great granddad used to live. Im really excited to see her. There she is. Hi hello. How are you . Im fine. Good to see you. Its a long time. Long time, many years. This is my Great Grandmother, elizabeth. Shes going to be 117. This is my great aunt, irene. Shes here to help me with the translation because i can understand everything my Great Grandmother tells me, but to speak the language is really difficult. Great grandma elizabeth has lived on this last for 90 years. She grew up tending cattle on her fathers farm. Then she moved here as a young bride and raised seven children. She built this house with profits from the farm. My Great Grandmother is proud of her government identity card. It doesnt show the exact month or day that she was born. But it does have the year of birth as 1900. The tribal tradition of age groups gives the same name to all children born in the same year. My Great Grandmother belongs to this age group which means we know she was born some time between 1899 and 1900. Do you remember when you got married . Do you remember your wedding day . Force 7 so. She was brought by force. She was married by force because she was too young. At that time she didnt want to get married to an old person, because she was the fifth wife. Great grandmother elizabeth was the fifth of six wives of the senior chief. He worked with the british during colonial rule and is well known in kenya for playing a part in the countrys independence. Was it difficult for you to be the fifth wife . Leonard koinange is elizabeths sixth child and hes my great uncle. He lives next door to my Great Grandmother. He was a child during the 1950s, when his father was detained during the mau mau uprising. That was a revolt against European Land ownership. Archive they were being checked and all members of the same tribe who have suffered most under the mau mau. The kikuyu. A State Of Emergency was declared, but though it led to the end of british rule, it was a tough time for my great grandparents. And for my uncle leonard. In 1952, my father was taken into detention. Kenya had been declared emergency and he was detained for the next seven years, he was in detention. We used to be children of a chief. We became beggars. We were being helped by those people who we would have called poor. During now the mau mau it was not only affected our family. It affected other families. One of my auntie, who had i think there were nine children, my mother took them. Already she had taken two other children who belonged to our sister, who had died. My mothers sister. We were, my mother was raising about 20 children. Wow. Yeah. We had a lot of it was chaotic, you know . Like we are fighting for food. This shrine is the resting place of my great grandfather. He lies alongside his five wives and theres a space reserved for my Great Grandmother, elizabeth. As theirs was a polygamist marriage, visiting the shrine puts into perspective how large the chiefs family really was. My great grandfather is resting here. But his legacy is living on in hundreds of descendants. What do you think about polygamy today . Would you advise me to go down that route . You wouldnt like me to . No . You were the last one to practice polygamy, does that mean that our family will now be smaller and smaller and how do you feel about that . So you wouldnt want me to just have one or two kids, you want me to have five, six. . Regardless of how many children i may have in the future, theres no doubt that the family is growing. My Great Grandmother gave birth to seven children. There are tens of grandchildren. My father was one of them. Im his second child of three, making me one of many, many great grandchildren to elizabeth. Whos in this picture . Is that you . That picture there, i think its you and theres kids around you . I can see that photographs play a big part in my Great Grandmothers life. To celebrate her birthday, shes throwing a party. Were going to attempt something very special. A family photograph, a living family tree. With five generations of my family and my Great Grandmother at the centre. But with so many people involved, it could take a while. The first of january is a big day for my Great Grandmother, elizabeth koinange. Shes invited family and friends to celebrate her 117th birthday. Weve travelled from far and wide and for me, its a chance to reunite with my kenyan family. So the family, your children, your childrens children, were all spread out across the world. Like me, im in london. Do you like that were all over the world now . Have you always celebrated on january 1, since you can remember . Right now, everyones preparing the food. Theres going to be loads of meat, vegetables. So now i think its time for me to get changed, as all the guests are slowly arriving. Im going to wear something thats a bit more comfortable. By throwing this party, my Great Grandmother is continuing the tradition started by her late husband, of Gathering Friends And Family together on the first day of the year. So right now, the partys in full swing. Most people have eaten. Theres still some people getting served over here. We still have some late arrivals coming in, as you can expect. We have my great uncle right now giving a speech and saying once everyones eaten, all the family get together and take a Group Picture of ourfamily tree. Next, time for the guest of honour to take the microphone. Time for cake and one of elizabeths granddaughters does the honours. Happy birthday. To you. Happy birthday. Applause great grandma puts her longevity down to a diet of boiled yam and milky tea. But for today shes happy to indulge. Everyone has been given some cake. The first people to be given some cake was everyone named after my great granddad. So what my auntie said is all the koinanges come and get some cake. Come and give her some cake. Shes really happy. I think shes had a lot of cake. Hopefully when im holder than 100 years old, i will be fed cake by all the people who come after me. Yeah, its a beautiful thing. Im quitejealous, to be honest. Were just going to wait. This cake is good. Were going to wait for my Great Grandmother to go to where were taking a family picture. 0nce shes sat down, we will start moving towards that area. 0rganising so many people is a tough task. Everybodys keen to catch up. While Great Grandmother patiently waits, its a chance to meet relatives i didnt know i had. Do you know how were related . I belong to the grandmother older than her. This is my cousin. Cousin . His son is your dad . Yeah. Hi. Thank you very much. Im your aunt. Yeah . People are so excited to see each other that theyre socialising and theyre slowly, slowly, slowly moving towards this way. Hopefully we get the picture by the end of the day. First to join our living family true, Great Grandmother elizabeth, surrounded by her six surviving children, who have a combined age of more than 400. Next to join, my aunts and uncles. Now, the Third Generation has been called. So that means the people who call my Great Grandmother Great Grandmother, so im part of them and im going tojoin them. My mother has been holding this party for about 20 years. She enjoys it. She would like to do it every quarter of a year. Shes happy to see her family coming together. She has become like the pillar for the family unit. Applause. Many of us Enjoy Tracing our family tree. But for most families, gathering so many generations together like this isnt possible. Its no surprise that people have travelled from far and wide because Great Grandmother elizabeths enthusiasm for life is infectious. I finally got my selfie. Hers is a life well lived. A life focussed on providing her descendants with advantages that she didnt get to enjoy. Faith, love and food are the fundamentals of my Great Grandmothers life. Although she rarely leaves her small house, the world comes to her through her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren, like me. One of the things which i like about her, and i think this is god given, is her memory. Because she doesnt get old. If you come here and you talk, say hello to her, and you talk to her, next time you come, she remember you very well. She cant forget. Bye. Bye bye. Improvements in medicine mean we can all expect a longer life. But its how you live it that really matters. And for this, my Great Grandmother elizabeth is my inspiration. I hope you are having a pleasant easter. There has been a lot of cloud but many areas across england and wales, just like in east sussex, the sunshine is breaking up. Showery rain is sinking west. And south. Far north east, more significant. We have had rain, sleet, hail, and even some snow showers. Have had rain, sleet, hail, and even some snow showers. The daffodils dont know what is happening. A cold front, we will see some cold air introduced. Sinking southwards through the afternoon. With higher areas, a wintry mix. During cold as the cold air date stamp. 6 9 c. The odd spit and spot of rain in the cloud. Highest values of 13 and 1a. Showers slipping south through the night. 0utbreaks showers slipping south through the night. Outbreaks of rain in east anglia and the south east corner. They hide it, temperatures falling away. Towns and city centres harbouring crusty freezing, and in rural parts minus six or minus eight degrees. A hard frost in the final. That could be an issue for young spring plans and vegetation. J on tuesday if you are heading back to work. If you are off with the kids a better day. Top temperatures of 814. A better day. Top temperatures of 8 14. High pressure trying to hang on in there for most of the week. A good deal of dry weather. These Weather Fronts rushing across the top will introduce more cloud. The wind springs to a westerly direction. Not quite as cold through the middle of the week. Best of his own chain across england and wales with highs of own chain across england and wales with highs 01 14 degrees. Double digits in scotland on the whole. The week ahead, quiet. Rain is infrequent. Clear skies overnight. Gardeners and growers, on the frosty site, take note. Prince harry reveals hes had counselling to help him come to terms with the death of his mother. The prince says it was not until his late 20s that he processed his grief over losing his mother, princess diana. I can safely say that losing my mum at the age of 12 and therefore shutting down all of my emotions for the last 20 years has had a quite serious effect on not only my personal life but also my work as well. A country divided, as turkeys president Erdogan Promises to press ahead with new powers after narrowly winning the referendum. Us Vice President mike pence warns that his countrys era of strategic patience with north korea is over. And a new super sewer under the river thames, to deal with londons growing population
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