Thinking Inside the Box

Man as an individual is a genius. But men in the mass form the headless monster, a great, brutish idiot that goes where prodded. – Charlie Chaplin

Chama

In our country, there is an explosion of chamas (self-help groups). They are popular among Kenyans from all walks of life. People with the flimsiest of bonds, be it co-workers, business associates, or just neighbours, will be found struggling to form a chama as soon as they are faintly familiar with each other. While the basic concept of a chama is good, I don’t think it should replace individual dreams and ambitions. Most people join chamas to enable them save money; which is in itself a positive thing. What I have a problem with is the assumption that joining a group can replace hard work and actual wealth creation.

Tribe

We are headed towards an election year as a country. Alongside political campaigns, this is also the time many of us will retreat into our respective tribal cocoons. This will be at the expense of beneficial personal relationships with neighbours and friends from other communities. We will assume that there will be enough time after the elections to rebuild all the bridges we will burn during this volatile season.

Politics

Still in line with electioneering activities, leaders with previously impeccable stands on critical values, will be joining those who only hear about standards and ethics from international media. These leaders who we have often looked up to for guidance will lead us to support those things that they have always warned us against.

G8

I am reliably informed that there is a group of eight countries who are super powers. They control the entire world economy and decide who trades where and who fights with who. I am also informed that it is not their union that made them powerful. Each of them was powerful on their own before forming this formidable union. These eight did not become great as a result of hooking up. They hooked up because they were already great individually.

Self Development

I believe that for us to grow as communities and as a country, we must first grow individually. We need to acquire actual knowledge and skills that will help us to earn an honest living. Our education and examination system has had a tainted image which the current Education Cabinet Secretary is, thankfully, trying to fix. The need for knowledge has been replaced by the desire for useless titles and accolades.

Self Esteem

In the quest for fitting in, many people (especially the youth, but also older people), are swept away by the floods of peer pressure. They fall into the trap of alcoholism, drug addiction, and crime. Experts concur that the underlying cause of this collapse is a poorly developed individual self-esteem. This causes people to look for their worth in acceptance by others.

National Development

A friend who adores our President once told me, “You always complain that the government is not doing enough to improve our economy. Don’t you see how many foreign presidents are coming to visit? Would they come if we were not doing well?” I was at pains to explain to him that Presidents don’t visit to help the host countries. They visit to find help for their own countries in the form of markets for their goods, and as a source of cheap resources. After a long discussion, I could tell that he had no idea what I was talking about and I had probably just pushed him into adding me to his hate-file.

The Neglected Box

After myriad clarion calls to think outside the proverbial box, we have managed to leave the inside of the box unattended. It has grown dusty and musty. We have failed to develop our special gifts and talents and instead become cheerleaders to those who have. We have stopped believing in ourselves as individuals, as communities, and as societies. We have shifted our values to how others perceive us instead of how we view ourselves.

When we were growing up, our teachers often gave us the example of washing a dirty cup. They would tell us that it is more important to clean the inside of the cup rather than the outside. Inasmuch as people might view us badly for using an apparently dirty cup, we would be comfortable in the knowledge that the most important part of the cup was clean. I therefore say, think inside the box. The outside will take care of itself.

When you start to live outside yourself, it’s all dangerous – Ernest Hemingway.

A Land of Bright Darkness

Africa used to be referred to as the Dark Continent. However, probably owing to a growing sense of political correctness, this tag was dropped. I had heard that the darkness was apparent from satellite pictures taken at night. They displayed a shadowy patch where the Continent is supposed to be because electrification of the continent is rather sparse resulting in the darkness.

Hatred Galore

News from Africa is filled with stories about how people hate so much that they even kill each other on flimsy reasons. The hatred is not veiled. It is expressed in the strongest terms possible. Everybody from religious leaders to politicians take any opportunity to express their hatred for one or other individual or group. It is this free display of hatred that has made people liken the President elect of the US to an African. Comedian Trevor Noah, on his Daily Show during the campaigns, stated that if Donald Trump was elected President, he would be the first truly African President of America.

Unfettered Greed

It is probably only in Africa that public funds can be diverted to a few people’s pockets. It is a level of greed that sounds unreal by its sheer magnitude. It has led to the collapse of entire countries’ economies. It has forced those countries that send aid to Africa to implement projects directly due to painful past experiences with diverted funds.

Corruption

Every time I type the word corruption, I always hope I won’t have to do it ever again. I have however come to accept that I will be writing about it for a long time to come. Nepotism, cronyism, sycophancy and other such vices have found a comfortable home in Africa. Policies on paper fill volumes in various archives. Off the cuff policies rule and are determined by immediate potential benefit to the one calling the shots.

Tribalism

It is surprising to know that there are only a few distinct language groups in Africa. It is more surprising that most people can pick some familiar words from those who are of different communities from them. It is most surprising that these people, who understand each other’s languages and customs, are willing to kill just because of some subtle differences between them. They are also willing to shout from the highest places about why theirs is the superior community in various aspects.

Intolerance

I recently heard a street preacher talking on a loud public address system on Tom Mboya Street in Nairobi. He was saying how he has been with people from other East African countries and how he could safely conclude that Kenyans are the most intelligent of all the people in the region. Judging by the way the congregation was cheering, it was possible to tell that he was speaking for a lot of them. He was preaching intolerance in the name of God.

Lost Heritage

Colonisation was intended to make us do away with our values and adopt those of the Europeans. It was designed in a clever way to portray the new way as better than ours. This conditioning worked extremely well, maybe even better than the colonisers envisioned. All the vices mentioned above did not exist in Africa before the white man showed up. Africans however took them up with gusto and perfected them. This left us without a heritage to call our own, and an alien culture which we copied shoddily.

Inexplicable Bliss

Africa is a place where one finds happy people whose infectious joy appears inexplicable. There is contentment with the measly little available. There is a strange love for political leaders who seem to get worse in the kind of evil scheme they can dream up. Families keep together and support each other with needs such as accommodation, food, and education. Black sheep are kept in the fold and no matter what they get themselves into, they always have a home to return to.

Smiles in the Most Unlikely Places

Driving through the perpetually muddy tracks of Kibera slums in Nairobi, you are met with beaming faces and sweet smiles. The wobbly grocery-laden tables are patiently dragged off the road to let you pass and seamlessly placed back as you move on. Beholding the smiles amid the glaring poverty leaves me wondering, “What are they so happy about?” Then I tell myself, “This is Africa, a land where the darkness is so bright you don’t need light.”

Of Meat Eaters and Saliva Swallowers

A former hairdresser moved swiftly from swallowing saliva to eating real meat. In a remarkably short time, she moved from scrapping dandruff off people’s scalps, to withdrawing a hundred million shillings in a single day. Her account grew from a balance of less than a thousand shillings to more than a billion in a shorter time than it takes to say “Kabura!” I can’t imagine how she moved from being a modest ‘hustler’ with gentle calls of “Auntie kuja nikushuke” from her humble shack, to possessing the poise of a monarch as she takes agitated MPs round in circles with largely unanswered questions.

Story of King of the Jungle

The Lion is the undisputed King of the Jungle. When a male lion comes of age, he approaches a pride whose patriarch is getting old and weak. He challenges him to a fight and if the older lion loses, he leaves the pride to the younger one. The new king can now sit in the shade as the lionesses hunt for him. He eats first which means he gets the juiciest and tastiest parts of the kill even before the kids can eat. He also mates with all the females in the pride without competition from anyone, yet.

As the King Lion grows older, the same fate awaits him as that which befell his predecessor. He therefore has to enjoy his dominion (while it lasts). Once he is out, he will not survive for long. He will either die of hunger (because he never learnt how to hunt), or be killed by scavengers such as hyenas and jackals, or even some of his former prey such as a sharp-horned buffalo. This is the pitiful fate that awaits most of the feared predatory carnivores.

A Government of Carnivores

None other than our own president likened holding the government to partaking of a meat-eating feast while the opposition (and the rest of Kenyans) drooled saliva from the peripheries. The president is the King and he has his lionesses hunting and bringing him the kill. He is then able to put his maned head into the fresh carcass and extract the invaluable fillet. He proceeds to munch contentedly as his blood-smeared whiskers glisten in the hot sahara sun. He will be sounding deep-based warning rumbles lest any of the onlookers forget who is King. These onlookers (us) will swallow the saliva flooding their mouths as they envision the bliss they will enjoy the day their turn to eat arrives.

Belling the Cat

The story is told of how a long time ago, a colony of rats roamed free and enjoyed their lives to the fullest. It is said that the owner of that particular territory decided that enough is enough. He entailed the services of a cat who would go out every day and catch a rat or two and eat to his fullest. The rats were devastated. Their numbers were dwindling and they realised that theirs was an endangered species judging by the rate the cat was eating them up.

The rats convened a meeting during which they discussed ways of overcoming the cat. They observed that the cat had one advantage over them; stealth. They had discovered that however much they tried to be prepared by the time the cat came, he always caught them off-guard. After a lot of excited discussion, the rats came up with what they concluded was a fool-proof plan to evade all future feline attacks. They would fit a loud bell on the cat’s neck which would gong loudly and warn them of his approach. One small rat interrupted the celebratory ululations by reminding them, amid severe resistance, that it was practically impossible for a rat to approach a breathing cat and hang a bell on its neck. That, as they say, was that and the cat continued enjoying rat dinner for the rest of its nine short lives.

Vegetarians (not) By Choice

A lot of Kenyans have become vegetarians in recent years. They did not willingly adopt the vegetarian lifestyle. Rather, it is the vegetarian life that chose them without giving them too much of a choice. These Kenyans have come to discover, appreciate, and even love, various green vegetables that have always grown undisturbed all around them. They are vegetarian for the simple reason that they can’t afford meat – at least not daily or even weekly.

Even Matumbo is Meat

There is a saying from my community which states that even matumbo (tripes) is meat. A former colleague used to tell us that this was not true. He used to say that this is a cheap justification by poor people to try and prove that they are doing well in life. He explained using an observation of vehicles used to transport meat in the country. These vehicles usually have a large container in which the meat is carried. A smaller container is attached to its side in which the matumbo is placed. He would ask a simple question. “If matumbo was meat, why was it not placed in the big box with the rest of the meat?” I have to say he had a point.

Moral of the Stories

It has always been said that there are two main tribes in Kenya. The haves and the have nots. Our President put it in perspective when he said that there are those eating meat and those swallowing saliva (ostensibly because they have no meat to eat). In the words of one John Githongo (title of his book), the ruling class is saying, “It’s Our Turn to Eat”. It is therefore obvious that there is a lot of eating going on in the country. On the flipside, there is also a lot of saliva swallowing. Just a reminder to the current carnivores among us; The King Lion will soon lose his pride to a younger Lion with more libido. His cubs will also get killed to ensure his lineage is curtailed. Vegetarians and Matumbo eaters will soon graduate to eating real meat. The cat will die in his own time.