If there's one thing that's unique about us Kenyans, it is that we're
copycats.
We will embrace and promote everything foreign before we appreciate what is
authentically ours. We only seem to claim people and things that do not
belong to us, or have first been celebrated in international circles. Barack
Obama and Micere Mugo are examples. It is quite impressive that we fought
for that rock, Migingo, like we did.
As a country, we go through different seasons when different countries
capture our fancy. There was a brief period, about two years ago, when
Uganda was very cool. We planned holidays in Kampala, which, to this day, we
mistakenly call Champara, thinking that we have mastered the Luganda accent,
when, in fact, there is no accent in the entire country that pronounces the
name of their capital city in this way.
Currently, we are all about Nigeria. The average Kenyan will sooner
recognize Desmond Elliot or Genevieve Nnaji than they will Oliver Litondo or
Lizz Njagah.Kenyan women strut proudly wearing gele (a Nigerian head wrap)
to weddings, and are easily mistaken for Nigerians in international
functions. Statements like Body no be wood and Everything na double-double
are common nowadays. Because I have had the opportunity to make tons of
Nigerian friends, I am fluent in Nigerian pidgin. This is already a form of
butchered English, so to speak, so I cringe when I hear people butcher it
further in an attempt to appear trendy.
Far be it from our musicians to be left behind. I have heard phrases such as
"the Nigerianization of Kenyan gospel music." People talk about this like it
is a good thing. I wonder if it has crossed anybody's mind that while we are
busy Naijanizing, nobody seems to be Kenyanizing anything because -
especially in the arts - nothing Kenyan enough has been made fashionable
enough to copy.
Along with this trend is the annoying "in America" mentality. As soon as
Obama became president, a women's talk show aired an episode titled "Raising
the Next Obama." Was Obama the next anybody?
It seems that the myriad things going wrong in our country are alright as
long as someone can give a similar example that begins with "But this has
worked in America!" Nobody seems to realize that as a developing nation, we
require slightly different models in several areas as we work to catch up
our developed counterparts. Nobody seems to notice that America has serious
problems of her own.
Even when it comes to our morality, we view other nations as benchmarks, and
not examples. I once spoke out about Kenyan pastors plagiarizing content and
marketing it to their gullible followers in books and sermon series. It
surprised me that I was met with responses such as "I'm sure even American
pastors plagiarize." So what if they do? Does that make plagiarism
acceptable? Some of the things that Kenyans copy, in the name of being like
countries in the west, are wild even for the people they think they are
imitating.
Perhaps we just have a strange need for company. When our political leaders
are pinned - even if with overwhelming evidence - to corrupt deals and
volatile statements, they know they will be alright as long as they can
point to someone else who stole an extra shilling or made a similar comment
and is walking free. We ourselves say, "Afadhali this regime. In the
previous one..." If our leaders can brand themselves liberators and give
credible evidence of unwarranted public humiliation or a jail sentence, then
we have no problem if they are corrupt. They should be excused, because in
them we see our own Mandela.
The constant aping and comparisons could be because as Kenyans, we oscillate
between characteristic amnesia and exceptional lenience. We overlook things,
and then forget them. We fail to understand that we cannot leave a legacy if
we do not lay our foundations right. Trailblazers must be willing to tread
lonely paths. This does not mean they become social islands. It just means
they are unashamed of their individual identities.
Making other countries our benchmarks has not helped us. Perhaps we should
try viewing them as examples and not yardsticks. Instead of aping everything
we see in Nollywood and Hollywood, we can pick up the positive factors from
nations we look up to, and use them to enhance, not overtake or replace, our
own Kenyan identity.
In this way, we will be able to focus on steady growth, determining our
progress by looking back at our own history, correcting our own mistakes,
embracing our own culture, and charting our own path. We must be determined
as a nation to be pioneers, not blind followers.
If we renew our minds, Kenya can become the template. But if we are content
to copy every aspect of cultures that have little in common with us, and if
we continue to blindly support those who are determined to run this country
aground politically, spiritually, and academically, simply because somebody
saw something similar "in America," then perhaps we do not deserve good
leaders or progress as a nation. By virtue of our choices, we will get our
just desserts.
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Received on Fri Jul 27 2012 - 08:29:31 EDT
