Posts Tagged ‘Kenya’
By Muli wa Kyendo
For nearly 15 years now, I have been among those in the forefront, urging the Kenya government to develop local cultures as important component of tourism. But seventy years of colonialism had taught Kenyans to frown upon African cultures. That is why it is refreshing to see a new enthusiasm among Kenyans-the government included—to promote local cultures.
I was thrilled to watch on the NTV, youthful “film-makers”, determined to compete despite what they say is unequal playing ground with the West Africans film makers. “West African films are smuggled into the country. Smugglers don’t pay taxes. So they undercut our prices,” one film-maker lamented. But they are soldiering on, convinced that Kenyan culture can make a mark in Africa and beyond.
Riverwood
And as there is Hollywood in the USA and Bollywood in Bombay, India, so the Kenyans have their Riverwood. Like in America and India, the name originates from River Road, the area of Nairobi in which the “film making industry” is located. It’s a historically colorful area, about which most Kenyans have many fond memories.
In the colonial time, River Road, one of the longest streets in our capital city, divided the so-called European areas to the north and the African locations to the south. Along the street was the terminus of most of the significant buses coming from upcountry. Among these was the ubiquitous East African Road Services with its a “towering” 5-storey building headquarters. Next to it was a famous stage for the City Buses, then known as the Kenya Bus Services. A few meters away was the so-called Machakos Airport. It was, and still is, the nickname of the city’s bustling country bus terminus.
The Legacy of River Road
With all this, it isn’t surprising that the River Road, named after the Nairobi River across which it runs, became synonymous with Nairobi to the African. It was the street every African who travelled to the city must know and the street every African who lived in the city must know. It was the meeting place. Indeed, in the 1960s, the street was so famous that many musicians made money with popular songs about one aspect or another of the street. The late Daudi Kabaka’s “Nielezeni River Road Nyuma na Mbele” (Tell Me Where River Road Starts and Ends) and the late John Mwale’s “Msichana wa Marashi” about meeting a stunningly beautiful girl he met in River Road, are some of the best known. Kenyan novelist Meja Mwangi, named his popular novel Going Down River Road after the street.
There isn’t therefore, a better place to locate a film industry than River Road.
13 Cultural Centres
The government, on its part, has now announced plans to help in the establishment of 13 cultural centers around the country in an initial program of 19 cultural centers in a renewed strengthening of local cultures. Already the government, according to its reports, has spent more than Kenya Sh22 million (about US$370,000) to establish three cultural centers located in the eastern, western and coast provinces.
“The African setting is changing rapidly every day. Through these cultural centers, we hope to create an enabling environment for the new generations to learn local cultures and to realize their full cultural potential,” the director for culture Mr. Silverse Anami was quoted by the Daily Nation newspaper as having said.
Neglected Blueprint
In 1994, our group consisting of eight cultural organizations that included the Syokimau Cultural Centre, of which I am the Director, drafted a cultural policy for the country which today gathers dust in some government office. Our argument then was that tapping the country’s rich cultural background, packaging it and modernizing it would go a long way in encouraging tourism, a key component of the Kenyan economy. It is the same argument the film makers are advancing. It’s the same argument the government is advancing.
The Appeal
My appeal is to Kenyans in the diasporas to help spread Kenyan culture wherever they are. We shall earn the respect of others only when we begin to respect ourselves. You can write to us with any queries and we shall do our best to respond.
By Muli wa Kyendo
David G. Maillu’s book, Our Kind of Polygamy, is the only one in Kenya – as far as I know – that tries to defend what he calls, “African Polygamy”. The difference between the African polygamy and the European polygamy, according to him, is that the African lives with all his wives at once while the European “polygamist” lives his wives at different periods of time.
The African has practiced polygamy since time immemorial. The Bible, universally accepted as a record of the story of faith of an African polygamist and his descendants – is full of stories of more polygamists. Polygamy and faith – are the foundations of the Bible.
The Whiteman, who did not understand these two concepts, tried to raise many questions that he considered fundamental such as: Can love between a man and a woman exist in a polygamous home? Maillu tries to answer such question by examining the actual reasons for marriage. There are many who would agree with his conclusion that marriage stability, which polygamy encouraged, is much more desirable than ideas of fleeting “love”.
In a chapter entitled “Considering Polygamy”, he examines the reasons why men married second or third wives. He looks at the traditional methods of getting a second wife and then discusses polygamy in modern, money economy. In traditional society, land was all that was required. And it was in plenty and free. A polygamist needed only a few cows to put a second wife on her feet. Today, much more is required, especially if you live in town or cities. You may need a bigger house. You may need more finances to feed, clothe and house the expanded family. You will certainly need money to educate the children.
All these things mean that a potential polygamist must think twice – at least about his pockets.
Of course, a second wife will mean competition for the husband’s attention often with intense psychological warfare. And this is where Maillu thinks that a modern polygamist must learn some management skills. These skills were taught to boys by the fathers before the traditional system started crumbling.
One of the interesting chapters in this book is entitled “Other Special Aspects of Polygamy”. It looks at what the author calls the corporate existence of a polygamous family – a term he borrows from the best known Mukamba religious writer, John S. Mbiti. Prof. Mbiti who has written many books and who has taught in many universities both in Africa and abroad “tries to defend to defend polygamy values by saying that when a family is made up of several wives with their households, it means that in times of need, there will be someone to help.”
“In monogamy, when the wife dies, the husband eventually brings a stranger to the children for a stepmother who may or may not discharge the needed care. To her, these are ordinary children with no corporate relations with her.
“Traditionally, in case of sickness, other wives will fetch water from the river, cut firewood and virtually take up all other jobs for the family. When one becomes barren, others bear children for the family. When one is weak, others strengthen the family.”
This aspect of polygamous families is certainly an aspect that many children brought up in those families will look back on with nostalgia.
By Muli wa Kyendo
Today’s post is in reply to Sister Yeye Akilimali Funua Olade who, through an email, told me that she and her friends are promoting polygamy and the greatness of the black race. My dear sister, I read most of your blogs and I must say I am impressed by your enthusiasm, hard work and sacrifice. Although you are an American, in deed you live in the USA, you said you have lived in Nigeria for many years and raised your children there so they could learn the Yuroba language and culture. So I don’t need to bore you with the general details of our life in the East of our Great Continent. But I can assure you, we are a happy lot – happy because our lives are full of “cultural” drama, contradictions, ups and downs, ebbs and flows. As one man said, we take three steps forward and two back, but we are happily moving forward – slowly.
Polygamy
Like in the case of polygamy. Several years ago, my friend and writer David G. Maillu, published a book titled Our Kind of Polygamy to defend this age-old practice. He puts essentially the same arguments as you put – too many women chasing too few men, the right for all women to be married, the right of children to have legitimate fathers and so on. He even adds a manual for polygamous men on how to manage their wives. But I haven’t seen many men (or women) reading or referring to the book here in Kenya. My guess for this is that for us here, we are living that life. Almost every Kenyan lives in a polygamous home, grabbling with its realities – sometimes amusing, sometimes disappointing, and sometimes even grim. So we rarely have time left to think about it!
Let me tell you about our situation – the Kenyan situation. Because in Kenya we have many communities – call them tribes, if you like – Kenyans are always on the look out for a “neutral community” to produce a President. Many are convinced that a community called the Akamba – the fourth largest – would produce a good President. So gentle and “nice” are their men!
In Kenya’s disputed General Elections of December last year, a Mukamba – it means a person belonging to the Akamba community – was, among the Presidential candidates. In my view, he was the least credible. But Kenyans were willing to vote for him. And he would have been the President today if he hadn’t hopelessly bungled up his campaign. Why are the men so hopeless? Because of their women – at least, that it what research facts indicate.
Women propaganda, sticks and carrots
The Akamba men were socialized to worship physical power – fighting, cattle raiding, and so on. The women maintained a closely guarded culture of oppression in which men were excluded from all intellectual activities. The men’s only tasks were to raid cattle and guard the community. When they were not doing that, they were allowed to spend their time drinking beer or socializing. They were excluded from all creative activities where thought and tact would have been necessary. In deed, even in worshipping Mulungu, the Akamba God, the men were excluded. The women had, and still have, their own well organized religion called Kathambi. Their goddess, Kathambi, is the goddess of rain and fertility. The women associated rain and fertility with womanhood. And since men don’t give birth or menstruate, they were deemed incapable of communicating with Mulungu.
Kathambi women congregations
Kathambi is worshipped with Kilumi, a highly rhythmical dance with heavy drumming and which is today regarded the epitome of Akamba dances. It is danced for Presidents and eminent guests at almost all national days in Kenya. When danced during the women worships, the dance sends participants “into other worlds”. And only the women know how to bring those affected back to earth. The result is that many men are awed and fearful of the dance.
The congregation of Kathambi worshipping women is called Ngolano in Kikamba – that is their language – and the congregation is led by woman priestesses (those who have stopped menstruating and giving birth) in shrines called mathembo, composed of thick forests or huge trees.
The women’s system of prayer was – and still is – so elaborate it scared the White missionaries when they arrived in the country.
The Woman of Nzaui
The missionaries immediately “black listed” this women religion. It was their biggest challenge in their recruitment of the Akamba into Christianity. And the women recognized the Whiteman as their new and big enemy. The men were caught in between hate for the Whiteman and hate for the women, even as the fierce battle spread.
The first missionary had been so anxious to set up church in Ukambani – the area where the Akamba live – that he returned to America, put together an organisation he called African Inland Mission (today it’s called the African Inland Church) and return to Kenya armed with cash for the construction of a church. But the women wouldn’t let him construct a church; allowing him eventually to put a church only on a rock (the Church stands at a place called Nzaui even today).
The women, through their great intellectual power – influential poetry and song and sometimes direct confrontation (many of the priestesses were deported to island of Mombasa by the settler Government), continued their anti-colonial campaign, forcing the Whiteman to quit the mainland Ukambani, including Machakos, the town he had planned for the capital city of Kenya, and to move to Nairobi on the periphery.
The earliest Kenyan human rights campaigner
Just to give you a feel for the battle – there was a woman priestess named Syotuna. One day, she came upon a group of young Akamba men carrying a White District Commissioner on a stretcher. There were no roads in most parts of the country yet and stretchers with four hefty young men for bearers were the common mode of travel for European settlers, colonial government officials and White missionaries. Syotuna was so exasperated that she shouted at the young men, “Aren’t you ashamed to carry a man like yourselves!” And to the DC she shouted, “Why can’t you walk? Have you no legs?” The ashamed young men quickly dropped the stretcher and fled into the bushes, leaving the DC stranded.
These words are recorded by the DC who proceeded to deport Syotuna to Mombasa.
Did Women Invent Polygamy?
The Akamba men derided the women with derogatory remarks. The women tried to appease them by making them feel like great kings in their families. The women got men other women to marry for second, third, fourth or just many wives as the first wife wanted. But all these wives had loyalty to first wife, the woman who brought them into the family. Polygamy was therefore a way of women enhancing their power and control over men. (Compare that with the so-called patriarchs of the Old Testament. Women brought their husbands other women for wives and the men accepted without complaint or appreciation).
The result of this arrangement is that the community produces “nice” men, but who are totally unequipped for modern leadership. Generally they lack depth in thought and they are devoid of strategy and tactics, necessary for modern competitive world. My play, The Woman of Nzaui, discusses this issue.
Syokimau Cultural Centre
By the way, we have a not-for-profit membership cultural centre, the Syokimau Cultural Centre, where we are encouraged in promoting research and use of African culture in writing and in government development programmes. It’s named after the most ancient and the greatest of these priestesses (talk of oppression!). It is recognized by UNESCO and the Kenya Government. It will soon launch an e-newsletter to promote its work and to reach our members abroad.
Please let us know whether this has been of any use to you and your group. And let’s increase the debate even we encourage the preservation of the African culture.
Once upon a time, I wrote a column called ChitChat, for the “Daily Nation”, Kenya’s largest selling newspaper. We had a feature magazine supplement on Wednesday and Friday. Consequently these issues far outsold those on days that didn’t have a magazine supplement. One day, Editor–in-Chief, Peter Mwaura, called me and said, “Muli, can you write a gossip column for Tuesday and Thursday to try to improve circulation?”
Gossip to Kenyans
“Yes, I can”, I told him with youthful excitement. But soon it occurred to us that we didn’t know what kind of gossip we would write. What was gossip to the Kenyan? During those days, and even today, you could not write about a politician’s wayward behavior without being thrown into jail. The authoritarian regime of Daniel arap Moi “smelt rats” in everything that a journalist wrote. Who else could we write about? The musician? The actor and actress? These were people of no consequence and of no interest to the Kenyan. Besides, there wasn’t really any entertainment industry to talk about. So what could we write about?
“Just think of something, and let me know”, Peter said, pushing the whole problem to me.
Chitchat
As I was driving home, the word “Chitchat” kept playing on my head. At home, I wrote down the word and considered it for a while. Then an idea came to me, like a thunder bolt. I was going to wrote about the ordinary man and his contradictions – the strange things that happen to the ordinary people.
The next day, I went to Peter and presented my column concept and title to him. Whether he understood it or not, I don’t know, but he looked animated as he told me, “Well, go ahead!” The column editor was Rashid Mughal, one of the few truly gifted journalists and newspaper designers I have ever worked with.
The column became a big hit within a short time and Peter wanted us to spread it into many more issues of the “Daily Nation”. The paradox is that the column’s success became the cause for my quitting the Newspapers. But as they say, that is another story.
What Gives Our MPs the Creeps?
In one of the earliest columns, the lead story was titled, “What Gives Our MPs the Creeps?” The story narrated the efforts of a journalist, Magina Magina, (a man with a big heart, who taught me a lot about publishing) to compile a “Who is Who in Parliament” in Kenya. Magina gave the members of parliament, a 25-question form to fill in which he also wanted to know how many wives they had. By the time I talked to him, the book was a year late. MPs disliked being asked how many wives they had.
‘Our Kind of Polygamy’
I am remembering this because last Sunday, the “Sunday Nation”, a sister paper to the “Daily Nation”, in a survey, found that most Kenyan men are polygamous but they don’t say it officially. The result is that we have endless family feuds over inheritance when a rich or “big” man dies. Many wives – some genuine, and others not so genuine – pop up, a weeping child exhibit strapped on the back. And amazingly, even pastors and priests have many wives.
One Man,Two Cultures
It is the Africa we live in – with one leg in our culture and another leg in a foreign culture. Isn’t it time we defined ourselves? Surely a man will not go to hell for doing what his father, his grandfather, great grandfather and many more grandfathers before him did. Nor will he disown them without disowning himself.
Posted by Muli wa Kyendo on May 11, 2008 at 4.45pm
Publishing in Kenya
Posted on: April 6, 2008
By Muli wa Kyendo
If you are an publisher in Kenya – in deed in Africa generally – you must have a load of money. That’s one thing outside investors must understand. No matter what you publish, no government in Africa will be happy about it.
My Experience
When I started publishing in Kenya during the reign of President Daniel arap Moi, the most important decision was whether I was willing to take the risks involved. Friends and foes rang me up with one question: Are you really sure you want to be a publisher? My answer was naturally, yes. The next question was: Are you sure it is going to be safe for you? The answer to that one, frankly I didn’t know.
Journalistsand writers were harrassed
Every day journalists and writers were harrassed, beaten up or jailed. Those who could, like Kenya’s formorest writer, Ngugi wa Thiong’o, had fled the torturous rule of Moi. And most journalists were naturally protected by their big-money publishing organisations who fought, negotiated or bribed for them to be released when they rubbed the Moi administration the wrong way.
God-fathers
So do you have a Godfather? was the next question I was asked. I didn’t. So the concern was worrying me. Those concerned didn’t know what i knew – I had to publish for reasons I keep silent here.
Faced with the situation, I dedcided to keep out of politics in my publishing activities. That however didn’t help. One day, I found my offices flattened out.
Big Brothers Suffer, too
I thought it happened because I was a “small” though reasonably successful publisher, until when I saw hooded policemen disable broadcasting equipment at Kenya’s leading TV station, KTN and burn newspapers at the the second largest publishing company, the Standard Newspapers. If the Standard Newspapers, who also own the KTN, didn’t have a large reserve of funds, they would be out of publishing. And President Mwai Kibaki, Kenya’s current president, would rule this country as he pleases.
The Surprise is ….
The surprise to me is that we have a well-educated president, but who is just as dictatorial as those who were not. What is the value of education? We used to be told it made you more sensitive about your surroundings, more empathetic with you fellow humans, more democratic. Not in Kenya. Not in Africa.
Yet, it seems to me, only the African publisher, journalit and writer can bright light to the “dark continent”. We must continue to publish, continue to bring light where there is darkness.
The joy of living in Africa
Posted on: March 29, 2008
By Muli wa Kyendo
If you have ever lived in Africa, you know the joy of living in the continent. If you live in the rural areas, herding your cattle, everyday is the same as the other, but nevertheless still ver colorful – rolling on the grass in the plains and being chased up by lions, snakes and the elephants that destroyed your neighbors crops last night. If you are lucky to live in the urban areas, you hold your breathe for new adventures every day. We, in Kenya, for example, have been at the edge of excitement – if you call what we are going through that. In December last year, we tried to put a new government in place through the ballot box. With excitement, we voted and with excitement we followed the vote counting on the telly and the radio. Then drama came creating more excitement of the African variety. Those that we removed stayed put in their seats (excitement). Then those that we elected (naturally with the support of the entire mob that voted for them) started fighting for the seats (more excitement). Then we, the ordinary people, started killing ourselves (still more excitement). Eventually, in stepped Kofi Anan, former UN secretary general (may I say I have great respect for this great son of Africa).
Well, he somehow gets the two warring parties to talk. They will share political power (now you are breathless with excitement). But you are in for even more excitement when those you removed, and who had hitherto appeared enthusiatic for power sharing, refuse to share power, even though you have amended the Constitution to allow for this. It actually turns out, that the two groups – fighting and the sitting are the same (they are only fighting for advantage to loot the country for themselves)…
My neighbor ran out of excitement and switched off the TV. “I won’t hear of it any more, even if Kofi Anan comes back!” he told me. Today he’s been lining up all day long (having woken up at the ungodly hour of 4 am) to buy shares of the most profitable (and most controversial) company in Africa, Safaricom (I don’t know whether that’s truly profitable, but it’s what the expatriate boss of the company, Mr. Michael Joseph and the seating government say. Often the government and the company bosses have said the same about other companies, only for you to see them (the companies) closing shop immediately after!). At 5pm, the lines are still miles long with my neighbor at the tail. But he doesn’t mind. At least he isn’t watching and cheering others fighting for money. He is on line for his own.
And that’s my Africa -where the dramatic occurs every time – naturally.
P/s next time, we’ll talk about the joys of being a writer in Africa. I’ll appreciate your comments.
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