A Cultureless Society

Sometime back, I came across a rather ordinary-looking title to an article; “What makes us Kenyan?” The writer went ahead to show how Ugandans take pride in their rich culture that modernity has done little to alter, the Ethiopians and their coffee and unique cuisine among an array of other such examples.

And this made me ask myself; have we always been cultureless?

A popular Jamaican Musician 'dances' with a kenyan lady

Most first-time visitors are shocked, for lack of a stronger word, on setting foot in this country. The dressing, speaking, the food we eat, how we live. In fact, some parts of our great cities are more western than western countries! Take the ordinary Nairobian youngster for instance; He’s working probably, or in college most certainly. He lives in a flat, decorated with nice sound and visual systems. iPhones, Blackberries  and other such gadgets are the order of the day. He’s very tech-savvy, knows twitter language better than its founders and is generally arrogantly ‘knowledgeable’. His mode of dressing follows the urban trend; sagging jeans now, rainbow-colored pants next, an over-sized pair of T-shirt now and then. Studs are the in-thing, sneakers like Jay Zs and an American accent that leaves  even the residents of the harsh neighborhoods of Seattle staring in awe. To him, listening to Kenyan music, especially that which has a traditional feel to it is ‘down’ and unprogressive. In fact, such music should not be listened to by any member of this generation.  They ‘can’t speak’ proper Swahili, leave alone their own mother tongues. Who talks in such primitive tongues?

The ladies are not to be left behind. In fact, they are the weirder; walking in the cold rain with a little more than a swimsuit because they saw Rihanna in it in her latest video. They have even funnier accents, and you’ll be left wondering whether half of Kenyan ladies have simultaneously visited an array of Asian, European and American states for extended periods of time.

Ours is a conglomeration of virtually all ways of life; with some living like Jamaicans as others believe they are the ballers of New York City.

Then there’s the eating habits; You’ll find long queues in famous American fast food outlets like McFry’s, KFC, Chicken Inn among others. Eating Fries is cool. Mukimo? Ugali? Kunde? What’s that?

Now, there’s nothing wrong with copying practices from other cultures. In fact, no society can claim to progressively reform from their own initiatives alone. We’ll always need this here, and that from there. But to what extent should we imitate?

Sometime back, in fact not too long ago, TV programs that had the slightest hint of a kiss were tucked away late in the night, after the nine o-clock news. It was a taboo for anyone below eighteen to watch such films. Nowadays, the degree to which nudity is exposed is appalling. Adverts, music videos and virtually all visual medium have a heavy use of sex appeal. In fact, you’ll even see News Anchors deliberately dressed in low-cut tops and tight, short skirts to show off  their bosoms and flaunt their hips and derrieres.

The degree of tolerance for obscene content is unbelievably high. Kids grow up and adapt to the norms that they are acclimated to. How will a parent tell his seven-year old not to play around with girls yet that’s what everything that surrounds him/her shows them that that’s cool? The effect of this is that we can no longer control what they do. Ten-year old mothers and fathers will be what will define our society, and a teenage population that’s so engrossed in drugs and sexual activity they cannot think about tomorrow. When our girls start using emergency contraceptives before they’re twelve, we should not rally on twitter to condemn such. It’s what we’re cultivating as our culture.

And when a society burns the social fabric with acid, it ceases being a progressive society. It graduates to a rotten society.

Nairobians Are Good People, Actually

It’s your typical weekday evening in Nairobi. People are, as usual, walking fast towards their respective bus stops; With the exception of the ten percent who drive and the other thirty percent who simply can’t afford the inflated fares and opt to walk the sometimes treacherously long way home. The hustle and bustle is at its peak; the queues at the matatu termini at their longest.  You can see it in the people’s faces. They are tired! They just want to get home.

A bus park in Nairobi

Yours truly is among those walking towards the matatu termini. I walk down Kimathi Street past Nation Centre then left to Odeon.  Why is it that Nairobi folk rarely smile? I can’t help wondering as I make my way and I find myself smiling to myself as I watch faces in half and full frowns walk past. Seems like almost everyone has a bad day, every day!

Anyway, like everyone else I choose to mind my own business until I finally get to my stage. The place is noisy of course. Touts shouting their voices hoarse trying to lure the stranded commuters into their over-priced music-blaring contraptions, heavy music systems, hawkers, idle chatter… couldn’t help wondering how I don’t suffer a headache every day.

I reluctantly get into a matatu after waiting  twenty minutes for the fare to drop to no avail Frankly; I have never understood why I have to pay 60 Shillings every morning and evening for a ten-minute journey. Does anyone in government know what we have to go through?? We need some regulation here!

The matatu fills up pretty fast. I sit next to a talksome old man in a dark suit and a tie with a big smile who asks me why we are switching to digital TV. “Who wants to watch seventy channels? I find one channel to be too much already. Can you watch seventy channels?” he asks, rhetorically of course. I had to agree with that. We don’t need seventy channels!! I couldn’t help admiring the old man’s cheerfulness at that age. He should teach Nairobians a few lessons on the need to be cheerful!

We are somewhere in Ngara when one passenger in the fourteen-sitter notices that the conductor had been left behind and notifies the driver. Why do they get out of the matatu whenever the driver wants to take a U-Turn? The vehicle has side mirrors I mean, or is it to reduce the weight? So the driver decides to stop and wait. Five long minutes pass and there is no sign of the conductor. Passengers start getting restless.

Then old man comes up with a suggestion. He offers to collect the fare on behalf of the conductor and hand it to the driver. How could the rest of our younger brains fail to think about that? Maybe we think about ourselves too much at times. We all agree with old man’s proposal. The driver too. We are soon moving again. The collection goes on without incident and the money is handed to the driver.

So these are tired people crammed into a noisy van, whose crew’s only intention is to extort them of as much of their hard-earned cash as possible, every morning and evening. And instead of grabbing the once-in-a-longtime opportunity of a free ride home, we diligently give the crew what belongs to them; To the last cent.

So many scenarios would have happened here. The most natural would have been not to raise the red flag at all for the ride home. The other would have been to give out less money since we would easily have overpowered the driver. But no, old man collects all the money and hands it all over!

Nairobians are said to be bad people. Not friendly, not helpful, you know the type that stands at an accident scene to watch instead of help the victims? But every single day, simple acts done by these same people make me believe that there’s a lot of good deep down them. Simple acts of care that are often overlooked, but they are there.

Now if that isn’t good, I don’t know what is!