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