Saturday 30 March 2013

...

We grew up in a rather fairly democratic family. Democratic in that I had as much right as my other siblings to stand on my two feet and own the television set remote control; on a first come first served basis, for a reasonable time-frame. It wasn’t based on size, gender or skin colour, for I recall vividly how our youngest sister clutched on to it watching Powerpuff girls even when us boys all wanted to watch the AFC Leopards against Gor Mahia FC local derby that was showing concurrently. She knew very well that by letting it go, democracy will not come. By giving us the remote democracy will not come today, this year nor ever through compromise and fear.
Hence I tire so, of hearing people say let things take their course, tomorrow is another day; I don’t need my freedom when I’m dead, as I can’t live on tomorrows bread. With democracy comes freedom- a strong seed planted in a great need, and we learnt that growing up in our beautiful family of 42.

But what is freedom of expression? Without the freedom to offend, does it not cease to exist! In our family freedom is not worth having if it does not include the freedom to make mistakes. In our family we always disapprove of what each of us say all the time, but one thing for sure is that we will and have always defended to death ones right to say it anyway.  We have known very well that, if freedom of speech was taken away, then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.
Still, in our family we have nothing but our freedom. We have nothing to give you but your own freedom. We have no law but the single principle of mutual aid between individuals. We have no government but the single principle of free association. We have no states, no nations, no presidents, no premiers, no chiefs, no generals, no bosses, no bankers, no landlords, no wages, no charity, no police, no soldiers, and no wars. Nor do we have much else. We are sharers, not owners. We are not prosperous. None of us is rich. None of us is powerful. If it is the future you seek, then I tell you that you must come to it with empty hands. You must come to it alone, and naked, as the child comes into the world, into his future, without any past, without any property, wholly dependent on other people for his life. You cannot take what you have not given, and you must give yourself. You cannot buy the Revolution. You cannot make the Revolution. You can only be the Revolution. It is in your spirit, or it is nowhere.

“Can we imagine a togetherness that isn't founded on gross generalizations, conceptualizing ourselves as unique individuals who still stand to gain from looking out for one another? Can we identify with each other rather than with categories or masters?”! 

They say Sovereignty is not given, it is taken. So you can’t tell our solidarity family to shut up and be grateful, for the “rights” given to us. Nobody “gave” us our sovereignty; it is ours, inherently! To say that I should be grateful to possess more rights, than my sisters before me, is like to say I should be grateful to the thief who only steals 100 Kshs, when he used to steal 500 Kshs! Like I earlier remarked, democracy will never come through compromise and fear. -The other day our sister Migingo, was raped by the Ugandans. They claimed that she had caused it for herself as she appeared too overly enticingly approachable?? Really, as long as we live in a society that blames a rape victim for being too sexy; as long as we live in a society that creates an institutional gendered hierarchy; as long as we live in a society where people feel trapped by their sexual identity… we, in our family will and shall not shut up and be grateful. We will be loud and angry.

They also say that Peace is more than the absence of war. Peace is accord; Harmony. In our family we practice peaceful relations beyond our family walls. Though we open to all, our doors bear locks and one has to knock to be let in. Again our family is not for sale, we pride ourselves in our independence and ability to feed ourselves from our hard toiled sweat. It hurts me how; the Italians took over our coast and now River-Road becoming East Africa’s new small China Town. Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth. We must start protecting our family walls and resources despite our friendly outlook.  I mean what good is a smooth tongue without sharp teeth? 

Finally I can say that though, we have different ancestral names, we in our family share only one unifying family name. We swore never to use our names in vain as a dividing object as we knew this would only generate hate and take away our prosperous family’s fate. I believe that people who think with their epidermis or their genitalia or their clan are the problem to begin with. One does not banish this specter by invoking it. If we would not vote against someone on the grounds of 'race' or 'gender' alone, then by the exact same token we would not cast a vote in his or her favour for the identical reason. Yet see how this obvious question makes fairly intelligent people say the most alarmingly stupid things. It's a common mistake for vacationing people in our family to assume that everyone around us is Kikuyu or Luo and therefore speaks no Kiswahili whatsoever. An experienced traveller could have told by looking at my shoes that I am neither a farmer nor a fisherman. And even if I were from the Mara, it's not as if Kisawhili is some mysterious tribal dialect spoken only by anthropologists and a small population of cannibals.

We as a family, despite of our previous flaws and mistakes amongst each other, will move on and restore our inner song. We will i believe rekindle the single sound of music that flames our common souls with love. Not to forgive is to be imprisoned by the past, by old grievances that do not permit life to proceed with new business. Not to forgive is to yield oneself to another's control... to be locked into a sequence of act and response, of outrage and revenge, tit for tat, escalating always. The present is endlessly overwhelmed and devoured by the past. Forgiveness frees the forgiver. It extracts the forgiver from someone else's nightmare. Beneath the armor of skin/bone/mind most of our colors are amazingly the same. My family I know bears that common colour, that common inner song...



Thursday 28 March 2013

IM NOT A CHRISTIAN, IM JUST HUMAN

I am a catholic in any possible way
ive been with every colors of the spectrum in faith
Living like anyone else in an earthly state
I see no difference in my eyes all is the same

What makes me different than anyone else?
Am I to be saved while other grow stale?
I grief for those in pain for their religion
Why do they have to suffer in vain

Browsing in the net I found a picture
a picture of beauty and symmetry I must say
monk down on their knees like stones on a beach
I looked further into the picture and my heart just fell

In  the land of the dancing peacocks they killed Muslims for faith
what sins did they commit? Is it too grave to forgive?
Lets slaughter everybody for its god’s will, we be stiff
Orphan a child, alone, for us to be redeemed

I am a human too, when was it holy to kill another?
religion is a choice made by sovereignty over ourselves
so what made them do wrong for their death to face?
all of them is in so much debt for their lives to be seized?

My soul shatters like glass thrown a million miles
stomach twisted stuck in turbines of fate
prayers for their souls all I can make
cry futile tears for my voice they cannot hear

Don’t respect people for their faith
Provide them with sanctity as humans yourselves
Just protect life for they deserve to live
Live like their shoes are covering your own heel

Saturday 12 January 2013

The Road Not Taken


By Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Friday 26 October 2012

T'HERTEEN

Yesterday I caught my lil sister twitting to some boy her age,
First I regretted it then became caught with rage,
Like how could I not protect her from this awful phase,
A princess she was surely born and raised.
The eldest brother of two girls, I was supposed to set the pace,
Never tried to hide anything so became hard to reinvent my face,
Plus she's seen me switching girls from different states to state
Paps a mess, with his 3 different families, what's this maze!

Now this morning I got a call that nearly split my heart,
The social network saying Ryan go and get your girl,
She on twitter,
Though I know she can't post no silly picture,
Thank God...
But now i feel like am too chilled out with her,
I'm too free, am too cool with her,
Should have been spending more time with her,
We should have spent frequent dinners together

Anyway I'm not trying to mess your thing,
I just wanna see you dream,
I finally understand its not easy raising a girl,
The way mothers feel for their sons,
 fathers feel for their lil girls,
When he dates, his straight, chip off his old man,
When she dates, we wait behind the door with a hammer,

Cause all in all we will always think no one is good enough for our girls
Love you











Thursday 25 October 2012

Daughter

Now picture a girl, prolly five maybe four
Rolling round with her mumz, listening to the radio
"bitch" songs come on and not far off from being born,
she clearly wouldn't know the difference between right and wrong.
Now I ain't trying to make it too complex
But the girl starts gathering an undeveloped context
About the perception of women these days

Now imagine a group of little girls nine through twelve
On the internet watching videos listening to songs by themselves
It doesn't really matter if they have parental clearance
They understand the internet better than their parents
and being the internet, the content's probably uncensored
They're young, so they're malleable, gullible and probably unmentored

Now  finally envision a little boy meeting one of those little girls
And he thinks she a bad bitch and she thinks she a bad bitch
He thinks disrespectfully, she thinks of that sexually..