You know how I sometimes get a bug up my ass about serikali, ranting endlessly, foaming at the mouth and ef'thing? And you know how you then ignore me? Right. So what I did was go out and rope in a fellow ranter, figuring, safety in numbers. Woi... This bugger takes it to a whole other level, and he does it with a bit of Latin thrown in, just because. The Wolf needs no introduction around here, he's the lurking presence in my comments section, always ready to pounce on the unsuspecting half wit who has the gall to say something foolish in his presence. He only ever snarls at me, for the record, and yes, I know what that says about my wits, but there you have it. Ladies and gentlemen, may I present Howling Wolf, author of the brilliant blog, The Reluctant Kenyan. With a name like that, it should come as no surprise that the content is somewhat unflinching, but don't let that scare you off, the man has poetry, and kickass music. Assuming jazz and classic rock can be considered kickass. Don't look at me like that, I'm not uncultured, I just don't think of kicking ass whilst listening to a trombone solo. Do you? Didn't think so. In keeping with his love of random music, his pick for the soundtrack today, Fela Kuti's 'Shuffering and Shmiling' [see soundtrack], 22 minutes (almost as long as this post) of afro jazz funk soul. You shall see the reason for this particular track in due course...
ALEX: So I was at your blog earlier,
trawling through your archive, and my first question has to be, what
the hell, man?
HOWLING WOLF: Is that a question or an exclamation?
Why have you stopped blogging?
Now the question! Why have I
stopped blogging? Well technically, I haven't stopped, just taken a
sabbatical. Indefinite.
Why?
Writer's block, among other things, if
I may elevate myself to that status. And a number of other reasons
mostly to do with the nature of blogging...
Did you not enjoy it?
No, I thoroughly enjoy blogging.
Except it is a bit like one having fun with oneself, if you catch my
drift. Especially where nobody but one or two fanatical followers
are the only ones interested in what you're saying. It gets to that
point you're never sure whether even those ardent followers are not
just continuing out of a sense of obligation. Does that sound
pitiful?
Not pitiful, but then again I may be
the wrong person to ask, no? Hahahaha...
Insert wry smile.
Did it bother you that the followers
weren't flocking to your blog? It sounds like you were disappointed
with the reception you got, or lack thereof.
To be honest I don't know what I
expected. I suppose I'd been pacing my mental room with all these
issues/ideas/perspectives, which I needed to share with
someone/anyone who would care to listen/read and engage me in an
interesting way (or not at all). Then I started writing and I am not
sure whether it is my style or the content or the timing or what, but
I just didn't seem to resonate with many people, so my mojo kinda
flagged. I'd always kidded myself that fame means two-bob, but fame
and followership is kinda nice in a cheap sort of way. We all want
cheap and nice, don't we?
Cheap and nice does sound quite
appealing, but we know it's never that easy. So you were looking to
engage, and you think you failed to resonate. I'm wondering, did you
have an ideal in your head? A site, or blog, that you looked at and
thought, 'That's my kinda shit, I wanna do that...' I suspect that
offends every hair in your wolf fur, the idea of copying, but it's
not meant in that sense.
No,
no, no! I'm not offended in the least. I fancy myself as being open
minded so I don't mind learning a thing or two from my betters and my
peers. Here are two examples of brilliant blogs in my estimation, Deconstructing Myths and Naked Chiefs.
Oh and how could I forget Gathara's World, the man is pure genius!
What is it about these that you
like? The writing, content? Or the communities they have...
These guys ain't just mouthing smut.
They think, then they write and then the writing is deceptively
simple yet complex. Does that even begin to make sense?
It does. I follow two of those
sites. Incidentally, I always notice the lack of visible interaction
in the comments section, which is not to say they don't have traffic.
How sure are you about that? You have
their stats?
No stats, it's an assumption I make
based on how often their sites are quoted...
Ah. You see, one of them happens to be
Charles Onyango Obbo, one of the most quotable writers on Planet
Africa, and beyond. And he has a massive following from his regular
journalism work. The other is Gathara. I think he has been doing
this thing and doing it well for quite a while now. And he has
maintained a sober and objective stance on issues regardless of
prevailing fads. Perhaps one can still get the attention/traffic
eventually. Even me. :)
You've just made my point for me.
Ha! Both of them have profiles as writers, yours will take time to
build.
That is the point exactly: I have no
time. I am of the Microwave generation. Instant everything!
Are you willing to give us, raia,
some time to find you? Well, them raia, I was one of the two
fanatics you referred to earlier. :-D Hang on...so you packed it in
because you couldn't be bothered to wait? Hahahaha...
Well maybe, I am stranger than fiction
sometimes. Why you laugh Gawd only knows!
What's your take on our security
situation?
There are many kinds of security:
physical, social, economic, macro, micro...which one?
Pick one...
Physical! Mostly I'm scared shitless
that some idiot is about to plant a bomb in my shopping basket in the
name of an extremely intolerant God. Or shoot my little boy in the
head... Or abduct my little girl and take her to some strange place
in Cameroon where no satellite picture can pierce the canopy of the
tropical forest... But worse, I fear that some cop, in the guise of
smoking out a terrorist, will smoke me instead and claim that I have
links with you-know-whom... Especially when I can't pay enough to
leave me and mine well alone. Enough?
Continue...
Now let me tell you something about
Social Security. It is in the hands of NSSF, right. That is just
money I will never access. Money to build someone else's mansion
with. So should I invest in my children so that they will wipe my
arse when I'm ninety? Now that is expecting too much already, no?
So should I buy plots of land which I will develop for income when I
am old? Well, that's how to get killed by your own children sooner.
Or Mungiki. Social security my foot and my five toes!
So no social security whatsoever
then? And no physical security, and no economic security...
No SECURITY!
I'm going to go out on a limb and
say you're not feeling too optimistic. But you have kids, my friend,
a wife, family, all that good stuff, what happens to them?
When there is no security, you hanker
down and let the bloody storm blow over. If it takes an eternity, so
be it! See, I am not the one who wrought this madness called life
and sat back to admire my handiwork. My role is just to live it. I
try.
Can we talk about your family?
Thin ice that one, but okay. When I
snarl, you back off, deal?
Deal, nothing too personal.
Everything is too personal with me.
That's always part of the problem....
Everything? Woi... I shall tread
most lightly. Let's start with your mother
then, the post you did regarding Al Shabaab (Al-Shabaab – My mother was right). It takes skill to link your tough-as-nails mother with those
idiots, but I guess yours was a comment on how badly the government
handled things?
About the skill, thank you. Coming
from the formidable Alex, that is high praise.
Hahahaha. Shut up...
Surprisingly, I have never blamed the
government for bungling the handling of the terror attacks. Truth
is, I don't know enough to judge and I come from the standpoint that
the business of government is tough shit. We sometimes expect too
much from government, when in reality the resources to be all that is
non-existent. So I think I was ranting about Al-Shabaab mostly. And
my mother. But I'll have to re-read to post to remember everything I
said.
That's a surprisingly tempered view
of government and its (perceived) inadequacies, do you think we've
been too hard on them?
On Al Shabaab?
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
No, not al s., on government.
They've gotten a lot of stick on this one issue, not least from me.
This particular government has been
bedevilled by so many issues/ills I can't even begin to recount. But
this particular government has brought a lot of this shit on itself.
It is not governing. It is playing at governing as if this is some
kinda video game. The buggers think that they are in power to spin
yarn, which they also do badly. Honestly, a more savvy government
with oodles of statecraft could not have mismanaged every living
thing and day like this one.
Now that sounds more like the Wolf I
know. Thing is, you just said you don't blame them for bungling
stuff, but you think they brought it on themselves, or is this too
complex a problem to blame on one entity?
Yeah, I know that I sound like I'm
talking from both corners of my mouth but I have a point. The thing
is that, on a good day, governing is tough so if you want to govern a
country, don't make it about proving silly little points about how
macho you are. Firstly, these guys took the country hostage, knowing
all too well what the ramifications were going to be. I will not
even begin to discuss the legitimacy of their ascent to power. Then
they start sticking their grubby middle fingers at everyone else both
internally and externally. That is how you end up with pie on your
face when a real crisis hits. You have effectively isolated yourself
in your cesspool. So nobody supports you even when they'd want to or
when it would ordinarily make sense. And even I can't support you
because you're basically shit.
Nicely put sir. What was your
mother like? You called her a hard woman...
Hard. And soft. Conflicted
mostly. Which manifested itself as almost cruel. Give me consistency
any day. Hard or soft. Not both.
But where's the fun in that? Are
you much like her, cruel almost? You have (had...ahem) a blog that
was not easy reading, unflinching I should say. Your description of
her was almost a self portrait.
I don't know. Unhinged definitely.
Cruel? My daughter is the one to say. But I don't crunch little
insects underfoot just for the fun of it so I guess I'm not too bad.
But you can be quite scathing when
you put your mind to it, I've been the recipient right here in my own
house, because I had the audacity to celebrate (ha!). I guess I'm
asking if you see some of her in yourself.
Scathing? Yes. My middle name is
Scythe. So it follows. I see myself in my Mother. She loved nice
clothes and flowers. And she had a wonderful sense of humour.
Satirical, mostly. I think she was extremely intelligent as well.
Do you like nice clothes and
flowers? I believe you once described your fancy suits...
Clothes, I like understated elegance.
Flowers, I want to live in a garden. That is the dream. A lovely
cottage in a colourful garden far far away from the madding crowd.
Did you grow up in the city?
Nope. I am a farm boy. Wolves don't
belong in cities.
Where did you grow up? And might I
point out the wolves of Wall Street...
Oh those, those are mutants. I grew up
on a farm in a place called Londiani, which is in Kericho or
Kipekllion County (not too certain which).
And the plan is go back there one
day?
Highly unlikely. This is a tribalised
nation now. Someone might be tempted to lobe off my head just for
not being kosher. So I'd love to, but I'm wary. I happen to be the
wrong tribe.
How long have you been a resident of
this great city?
Donkey years really. Too long it seems
to me sometimes. Most of my grown up years. And I am NOT a young
man!
How old are you?
Let's just say I am about to start my
second adolescence.
I have no idea what that means.
Hahaha... This is the problem with you poet types, never speak
plainly.
In a couple of years, I may find myself
driving around in a red BMW convertible with the wind blowing my
non-existent hair, as I ogle girls my daughter's age. Is that plain
enough or must I write a number?
I'm contemplating the mental image
of you in a red car. Hahaha... Ghastly. There's something you just
said about not being able to go back. You don't think you could live
in Kericho county, as a Luo?
I can live there. On the edge.
Why on the edge?
Because that is the only space
available for anomalies like us.
Now that you need to explain
further.
It's quite plain really. We live in a
tribal nation. If you must live on a farm, best it be where all your
neighbours speak your language or else you'll be blamed for crop
failure and who knows what else, and who wants to know what they'll
do to you with their machetes and poisoned arrows.
Is this something that happened to
you, growing up?
No. It happened mostly when I'd
already grown. When I was growing up, what you encountered was good
natured ribbing which mostly went towards greasing camaraderie. Now
things are more poisonous. What you hear/see/feel is hate. Which
can quickly turn to your death.
You don't think things will ever go
back to how things were, two, three decades ago?
Frankly, no. There is no incentive.
Isn't there? We're too widely
dispersed to return to our 'proper' areas, we have to learn to get
along again, not because it's a nice sounding kumbaya moment, by the
way, but because there's limited space and even more limited
resources.
In rural Kenya, I suspect it will only
get worse with pressures on resources occasioned by too many hungry,
illiterate people. Perhaps in urban areas. But they too are getting
zoned along tribal lines, especially among the lower classes. So no,
return to innocence, if ever there was any.
That's a bleak prognosis...
Cancer is cancer, right?
Lakini...your cancer is painful,
man.
Tell me which isn't.
I don't agree, by the way. I choose
to believe that in a generation or two things will be better, less
vicious at any rate. The divisions will probably remain till the end
of days...
On the basis of what? Your say so?
On the basis of everything I've
learnt to date.
Educate me.
You need to understand, to a point
I'm a city girl, brought up right outside Nairobi, for all intents
inside Nairobi. I live with all manner of people, work with another
all manner of people, but more importantly, I'm of what I'm told is a
tribal majority. My perspective is very skewed on this, is all I'm
saying...
Do you know where hope comes from?
...I've seen my shags go from 99.99%
Kikuyu to...maybe 70% Kikuyu, and dropping. This is in my life time.
Like I said, mine is a very urban experience.
That is NOT integration. That is
commerce!
What is integration? Living
together, working together, fucking each other...praying together?
So you think a guy who lives all his
life next to an Asian family will be allowed to marry the girl in the
Asian home?
Hold that thought one
minute, and thank you for going there. Read this (Not Yet Kenyan).
So integration is about intermarriage, mixing of bloodlines?
No, it is about mindset. Forget the
fucking hardware, man. You can fuck a woman who is a cow for all you
care. But until you begin to think of her as a unique and special
human being who deserves everything you deserve then there is a
problem. You're still pushing your angle and you're still hang up on
your selfish superiority complex shit!
Equality, then...
Equality? Equality? That is too vague
a word. What does it even mean? Even Marxists, who fought over it
and killed themselves and other people over it, ended up just more
confused by the concept. I am talking more about human dignity and
respect. More woolly concepts perhaps but if I had a day I could
explain myself quite clearly.
Equality in the most simplest sense,
being able to see another as a person, like you said, and not a
lesser being. We'll ignore all the rest for now.
Yeah, I see. I agree.
Can we get there, in a few
generations, or is it a hopeless dream? You asked me what is hope,
what is it?
I asked where does hope comes from?
A stubborn refusal to accept
reality. Hahahaha...
Hehehehe!
And the grand delusion that we can
change the future.
Well I think it is a combination of the
two, no doubt, together with experiences that illustrate that what is
hoped for is achievable. For me, mostly, I have not had those
experiences. So I have stopped hoping.
Fair enough, but what about your
kids? You family types are always telling us how it's all about
their future, so what happens when you stop hoping?
What about my kids? Indeed, what about
them? I'll strive to feed them, protect them, house them, give them
my two cents worth about this and that and hope to God they fare
better than me, but I will not go as far as imagining that just
because they will be adults at a future date they're guaranteed a
better life. There is nothing in the works today to even remotely
suggest that.
You are intent on killing all my
hope, but it's okay, that's why it's delusional. :-D Now tell me,
have you read the 'Not Yet Kenyan' post?
Oh yeah, I read the beautiful post.
Very touching in a jarring sort of way. Makes you understand the
Asian Kenyan psyche a little better. And other things as well. Like
how we'll never really integrate.
The reason I brought it up is, in
many ways it reminded me of your blog, your first post, Being Luo.
That 'not yet Kenyan' theme runs through your writing as well. Have
I read you wrong?
You have read me right. Not yet Uhuru!
Not yet Kenyan! NOT BLOODY YET! Maybe NOT EVER!
Thing is, and this is why I have
been pestering you to have this convo with me, to the rest of us
(read Kikuyu's), we have no clue how that feels, not really. The
idea that some people in this country feel less than is as alien to
us as...anti corruption.
Well, there is a way a suburban white
man views racism. It is the stuff that pops up in his head when he
sees an old black lady being molested by neo-nazis on TV. Then he
asks himself a few academic questions and even manages a passing
comment to his children about treating fellow humans right. Then he
goes back to his insular smug life and forgets that there is a black
hell called the inner city, where everything you do including how
long you live is predicated upon the colour of your skin. This white
man's perception of reality is the privilege of privilege. You need
to live in the black inner city to care enough about racism, because
it touches you and yours viscerally. The same applies, mutatis
mutandis, to this being Luo thing. You need to be Luo to begin
to understand what the fear of GSU is like.
Mutatis mutandis?
With the necessary changes.
Aha. Stop getting legal on my ass.
I'll try to be kind to you, my dear
unschooled one.
Thank you, sir. Being Luo, describe
it to me, if you would. "Somehow, I got the impression that
to be Luo was considered intelligent and stupid at the same time."
That's off your post.
Can I describe what it means to be Luo?
Mostly you want to apologise for being who you are. Then you
realise that the people you want to apologise to are not even worthy
of the dirt you walk on. But still they think the world would be a
better place without you. And they make it so hard for you to be
anything useful just so they can prove to themselves that their
hypotheses were right. In other words, you feel fucked most of the
time...
Is this how it feels right now, in
this day and age of enlightenment? I'm being a bit sarcastic, of
course, but we'll come to that in a bit.
I was about to ask you what
enlightenment? We are all barbarians driving second-hand Prados in
silk suit's….
What I should have asked is, do you
feel this way today or was this something you felt growing up?
In a nutshell, now more than ever
before!
So even as you live in our allegedly
cosmopolitan capital, still fucked?
Let me tell you what would happen if I
was to try and run for the Chairmanship of our Estate's Association,
I'd lose. You know why? Because it will turn on which tribe I
belong to. Oh which reminds me. I had a worker in my employ who was
at one time overheard cussing at Luos and suggesting that they all go
back to Kisumu to fish. Do you catch the irony?
Your employee was cussing you and
yours out? Hahaha! Clearly not a genius, that one.
But still didn't stop him from thinking
himself superior to me, no?
I must play devil's advocate. Could
it be that an inferiority complex colours your interactions?
So a girl is raped and then we ask:
Could it be the size of your bottom got you raped?
I'm not blaming the victim here...
Well, I am, but I'm trying to prod you a little. Same way you have a
bunch of idiots walking around with a misguided sense of superiority,
could it be that we have another bunch with misguided inferiority?
It is easy to misguide yourself into a
sense of superiority, but what is there to be gained from beating
yourself into an inferiority complex? Just pain! Barring
sadomasochists, pain is not something a rational human being seeks.
This is something that someone else has to do to you.
We see these arguments being floated
all the time, in relation to racism, why can't these blacks stop
being so...black? What you're saying is Kikuyus, and the rest of the
majority (is there anyone else?) are just as ignorant in their
privilege?
They have starved everyone else of
everything and then they accuse everyone else of not having enough of
anything.
Is it purely about tribe, or does
class have anything to do with it?
Is it not? The class argument in our
country at this point in time is sophistry. Let us deal with the
tribe monster first. It is the elephant in the room. We don't need
to look at the mouse hiding behind it...
But the tribe argument puts you and
me on opposite sides by default, and I'm not sure I want to be put on
the side of the great oppressor, not when I'm feeling quite oppressed
myself.
Yes, we are on opposite sides. You may
not be interested in war but war is interested in you. That is the
nature of war. You have to define the enemy in simple terms. Oh,
that was partly Leon Trotsky.
That's a relief, talk of war right
now will have the internet police on our asses shortly. :-)
Hehehehe! I suspect you are right. Do
you know why in military parlance they say things like, "The
target has been eliminated?"
Leaving the human element out of the
conversation?
Precisely. If you want to hurt anyone
or dehumanise them, first depersonalize them. So call someone a kehe
and he is fair game...
Kihii. Look at me correcting you
like I'm an expert, I barely speak the language. Ha! So you reduce
me, (not) Alex, to a member of the evil tribe and that makes it
easier to write me off? Same applies to me, reducing Wolf to just
another Jaluo...
Welcome to Kenya.
This brings me back to hope. Is
there any?
No. There never was. And now there
never will be especially after Mpeketoni. We have crossed the
Rubicon...
Have we?
Is that a question?
It is. That's a hell of a thing to
say, 'crossed the rubicon'. Meaning we can't go back, the end is
nigh...
Or not. Things just won't be the same.
Whatever tenuous web held us together in the form of a nation is
broken. We're now officially a bunch of tribes trapped in a fish
bowl. The bigger fish just eat the small ones as the cat watches
from the outside bidding it's time. Enough said?
Not really. Hahaha. What do you
think of this terrorism saga? The attacks, the responses from
serikali...
Which one? There was NO terrorism and
I repeat NO terrorism. It was just local politics...
Woi. I need to cut that part of the
speech into a GIF, play it every time they scream terror from now on.
So, not a fan of the government line then?
So there is an attack today. It lasts
all of several hours. Tens are killed in a wanton orgy of violence.
You show up late - like back-up cops in B movies - well after the
hero (read villain in our case) has done the job. Then you tell us
you know who did it and why but you are also still investigating.
Rather confusing, no? Then you order a couple of guys suspended for
dereliction of duty whereas you are the chief of security. Then you
send in the army with body bags and the Nation Newspaper with banner
headlines. Like I said what the fuck? Oh, and now Luos are being
asked to leave Rift Valley...
I read something about that, is that
the media being silly as usual or is this really happening? It
bothers me that I second guess the papers these days. Sorry, that
was a detour.
The leaflets are real enough. How come
we have not sent a contingent of the army to guard Luo interests in
the Rift?
Luo interests? Surely you jest...
:-)
See, even you can't believe we have
interests. :)
Hahaha... Just toeing the party
line, sir.
Hehehehe!
Government doesn’t seem to care
about protecting Luo interests, but I haven’t seen Luo politicians
shouting about it, have they?
About what? Should they have to say
something for the rights of the Luos to be protected or do we deserve
our rights as a matter of course?
Assuming that the government feels
nothing, and it looks like it does in fact feel nothing, do you think
Luo politicians should be pushing a Luo agenda? In this case
demanding the rights not being given to you?
Luo politicians may not even get the
point I am making... I don't entirely trust politicians, whatever
their tribe. That is why I've always craved for something higher to
believe in, like a Constitution that is respected.
But Mr Wolf, the government is run
by politicians, politicians who suffer the same complexes as the rest
of us. Do you think the government as we know it respects the
constitution?
Now you get why I have officially given
up, don't you?
That's it? Really?
Really as in, you don't get? Like I'm
chicken or something?
You make a particularly inflammatory
comment earlier, 'we've crossed the rubicon...' and then you've given
up?
Inflammatory? Who you working for?
I'm trying to get you to retract it.
Hahaha. I might get shut down, my friend. Seriously though, you've
put me, and people like me, to task for our privilege. Fair enough.
But what about you and yours?
I'll say this. I have always longed
for a just society where more than anything, the content of my
character would be what seals my fate. That is verily what I desire
for my two little children. But I have lived most of my life with
the mirage of this utopia beckoning from a distance like a shameless
temptress, only to have the unattainability of it grind my hope to
ashes. Now I've come to terms with the fact that within this one
lifetime, many things will not be possible, including that very
society. So do I curl up and die? No. I wait for my rightful time
to die, whenever and however that will be. Meanwhile, I do my best
in the circumstances without working myself into dementia with false
hope purveyed by all and sundry at every turn. And I hope my
children don't make the same mistake of hoping as I did. I hope they
just learn to live with this shit and smile through their suffering.
I'm not sure there's anything I can,
or should, say to that.
Last bit. I'm looking for a clip I
want your comment on, one I suspect you know well,
it's the speech from 'Network'. In the words of whatever his name is, about 2
minutes in, “I'm not gonna leave you alone, I want you to get mad!”
I'm mad as hell, I'm not gonna take
this anymore! Question is, nitado?
That's what we need to figure out.
What are we gonna do? 'Nothing' hasn't worked too well for us, has
it?
You are an incorrigible romantic aren't
you? You refuse to believe that it is all lost yet it is. Because in
the grand scheme of things, you and I are really nothing. Really.
The best you can do is avoid as much pain as possible, but do not
expect joy or edification or any of that nonsense. The system wins.
I am incorrigible, romantic is yet
to be seen. :-) I can't accept that all is lost, sir, if I do then
it means there's no point to any of this.
So your credo:
Do not go gentle
into that good night,
Old age should
burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against
the dying of the light.
Though wise men at
their end know dark is right,
Because their
words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle
into that good night.
Good men, the last
wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds
might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against
the dying of the light.
Wild men who
caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too
late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle
into that good night.
Grave men, near
death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could
blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against
the dying of the light.
And you, my
father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me
now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle
into that good night.
Rage, rage against
the dying of the light.
Is all I'm saying. :-)
