The Land of the Mau Mau

After leaving cold South Africa last June I was welcomed by the friendly Kenyan sun. Kenyans have always been known as the friendliest people of Africa and when I felt that sun on my body I finally realised where the source of their warmth came from.


Nancy Munyi greeted me with the whitest of teeth. Without even asking she grabs my luggage and told me that we were going to take a matatu. She asked me if we had this mode of transport back home and I told her that we called them taxis. She laughed, because taxi's in her country where our cabs back home. Our journey to Kitengela was a long one. Kitengela is on the outskirts of Nairobi, in one of my travel guide books it said that it is an hour’s drive. However, this book clearly did not know that Africa had its own time and we arrived at Kitengela two hours later.


When we arrived at the boarding school I was greeted with curious eyes and eager hands. The boarding school was actually a five bedroom house and 10 children turned this little house into a home. "People always ask me why I and my twin sister Phyllis started this school and all I say to them is that it was that we understand the hardships of special need children in our country. Both of our last born are dyslexic. It was the most natural thing to do". “I guess a mother always knows, right”? Nancy agreed with a smile on her face.


Woken by the voices of children I knew that it was school. A choir of "good Morning Teacher Allison" greeted me as I dragged myself to the bathroom. It made me think if there was ever a time in my life when I was excited to go to school.

It was my first time working with children with dyslexia, autism and ADHDD and I would be lying if I said that I was not nervous. However, the more time I spent with them all that medical jargon striped away and all I saw were children. These were children who had a hunger for learning. At times the line between teacher and student was blurred. We all had something to learn. We all had something to share.

There were times when my patience was tested. An easy sum like 2+2 would take us an entire day to understand, but the eagerness in their eyes kept me determined. I could not fail them.

From Monday to Friday I was Teacher Allison, but the weekends were mine. I spent this time with the locals in the area. Kitengela has a big Maasai community. Most of the Maasai have been forcibly removed from their homes so that they can make way for tourists and their ever flashing cameras. However, they still stay true to their culture. One will find a Maasai walking in the bustling Nairobi city barefoot in his colourful dress. In a place where everyone has opted for a western style, this is special.

 

It was when I saw a statue of Deden Kimthati that I remembered that Kenyans have had a very violent past, but this had not hardened their hearts at all. Coming from South Africa, it seems like most of us are paying for the sins of our fathers and those of others too.

Deaden Kimthai was the leader of the Mau Mau Rebellion. They were revolting against British rule. They had a fighting spirit that took the British and the rest of the world aback. Hmm, who would think a group of people fighting in a jungle would actually give the Brits a run for their money.

 

When I arrived at the school I saw the children playing soccer. Nancy embraced me like her prodigal daughter. I told her I was only gone for the weekend, but she said that she had missed me. She made me some chai (chai is tea in Kenya, but it's not made the conventional way). As we sipped away with the echoes of children’s laughter making its way into the house I told Nancy about my busy weekend in town. Nancy stared at the blank wall and said to me: "People have asked me how I find the strength to teach these kids. Most of the time its church going people who prophesise every Sunday that they love God, But how can you say you love God when you can't love another human being. I mean, you haven't even seen God. But you see people everyday."


With the sweet taste of Chai lingering in my mouth that was when I realised that the fighting spirit of the Mau Mau never died. That spirit was in the lady who sold avocados up the road, it was in Maasai who have decided to stay true to their beliefs, it was in Nancy who only sees her family on weekend and give her all to these children, it was in these kids who learn in ‘shack make believe classroom’ and prove all the scientists and academics wrong for their will is stronger than any ‘proven fact’. Yes, the Kenyans do get their warmth from the sun, but the sun burns too.

 

"You have to be asleep to believe it"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acLW1vFO-2Q

Above, dare I say is one of the greatest speeches in history. No, it is not a “Yes You Can” speech by Obama or an “I am an African” speech by Thabo Mbeki. For our second last blog my lecture asked us to find rhetoric strategies in people’s speeches. I was tempted to choose a speech by a politician, but than I wondered if comedians too use rhetoric strategies in their speech. 

George Carlin was not only a comedian. He was also a social critic, satirist, actor writer. His jokes did not always make everybody laugh, but he knew how to make people listen to him and he also made his audience question everything around them and he did this by using rhetoric strategies.

 In this clip one sees that the first strategy he uses is the “Us vs. Them”. Carlin tells his audience that it is them against their government. He paints these images of politicians who don’t care about the citizens, but just want money and power.  One can see this clearly in his comment: “You don’t, you have no choice. You have owners they own you…” His use of the words “You and I” also help to draw in his audience. By using those words he tells them that he is also a victim in this system and that he shares the same troubles as them. However, one could see this as Righteous indignation. Carlin is very opinionated and one could even say biased. He focuses on the one side of the picture. He labels all politicians as bad and makes bold statements without any proof. Ah, and then comes the “Pacing” where Carlin uses words like “surely” in his speech. However, one must ask how sure he of his facts is, but he does this in such a clever way that the listener is so taken by what his saying and they reason the listener is, is because of his use of humor. Well Carlin was a comedian so his use of humor was inevitable. His straight forwardness and use of foul language always got his audience laughing. One sees it clearly in this video, every time he uses the “F” word the audience laughs.

Believe it or not, but Carlin also uses emotional language, One sees this when he talks about “good honest hardworking people”. His tone changes and he narrows his eyes slightly to add on to this use of rhetoric strategy. He assimilates the use of emotional words with another rhetoric strategy called “Absolute Certainty”. He asserts that he knows something with absolute certainty when he says: “They don’t give a [damn] about you!” This is really only based on self-evidence.

However, there is some truth in Carlin’s speech. He speaks the language of the audience. He has a way of injecting many emotions into his audience just by his clever use of language and body language. Well may I went a bit over board by calling this the greatest speech of all time, but Carlin’s words may not be as famous as the politicians I’ve just mentioned but they are as dangerous. Who knows Carlin might have started a revolution, maybe Americans have woken up from this American dream.

To be or not to be (Now that is the Question)

My lecturer gave us another interesting topic to blog about. No the topic wasn’t about the secret love affair between Helen Zille and Jacob Zuma ( I didn’t say anything) nor did she ask us to comment on Juju’s outlandish comments of’ I’d rather kill myself than commit suicide.’ Instead she asked us to write about the ‘emerging adulthood’ zeitgeist.



YES YOU!



Are you between the ages of 18 and late 20s? , Do you still rely a lot on your parents? , Have you gone through a series of several jobs in your twenties? , Are you travelling more to find ‘thyself’? , are you more self focused and less certain about your future, but still remain optimistic? Do you feel like both grown-up and not quite-grown-up? Then you, yes YOU form

part of Jeffery Jensen Arnett’s theory of ‘Emerging adulthood’. 

Through his research Arnett has made other academics and the average American ask the question of why it is taking long for 20 something’s to grow up. What are the external and internal factors contributing to this?

 We live in a fast world where technology is the order of the day. A world where without education you are 'nothing’ or even with education and your degrees you can still find yourself leaving on the streets(okay maybe that was a bit melodramatic). However, in this tough economy young people are finding it more difficult to get a job. With no financial security or guarantee, we find that more young people are not rushing into marriage.The traditional transition to adulthood was marked by five milestones: completing school, leaving home, becoming financialy independent, marrying and having children. Most of our 20-somethings do not reach these milestones in a linear order. Some have children young and marry later. While others work first and then go to school. However, are these reasons enough to declare the 20s as a distinct life stage?

Neuroscientists have proved that the human brain is constantly growing and it keeps maturing well into the 20s. If this is the case than it will explain the confused state that these young people are in. Well, the state that most of us are in.

One of the main reasons slowing the process of young people’s journey into adulthood will have to be the influence of the parents. Some parents of today’s 20-somethings have become ‘Helicopter Parents’. These parents smother their children. These parents have produced a generation that can practically do nothing for themselves. They hover over everything that their children do. Not giving them a chance to make and learn from their mistakes. Or a chance to learn financial independence.

I do agree with Arnett’s theory of ‘emerging adulthood’ to an extent. However I do not think that it can qualify as a new development stage. For it to do that, ‘emerging adulthood’ must be both universal and essential. His research has been limited to a certain culture(The American culture). If this is declared as a new development stage than the American government will have to put new structures in place to cater for the 20-somethings unique needs. This will mean a change in health care, education, social grants and job markets. All these changes may be beneficial, but it is costly even for a 'First world country'. So if this had to be implemented in developing countries they would have a problem due to their limited resources, skills and capital. The other thing is that the 20-somethings in developing countries are forced to grow-up much faster. This is due to the hardships, circumstances and the limited resources and opportunities offered to them by their countries.

What is happening in America is that the 20-somethings have many opportunities that they can easily access. They can spend more time exploring the world and finding themselves.

There is no pressure of finding the right job, the right partner or the right place to live. Steve jobs, the founder of Apple Mac said that nobody knows what they want until you show them. So if that has some truth to it.  The question our 20-somethings should be asking is ‘To be an adult’ or ‘Not to be an adult’(Now that is the question).

My lecture asked us to write a blog on the topic 'Does preception influence reality'. Like Oprah I had an Ah ha moment and my mind played back to the 15th of February, 2012. I was at a braai (yes local is indeeed lekker) and I met an African American who had such a colourful personality. At first this individual totally fitted in the American stereotype and I would have labelled her in that box for the entire evening if it was not for some of the profound statements she made about our country and especially our university.

She said and I qoute, 'America got nothin' on South Africa, You make America look like a Utopia of colours' She went on telling us about her rascist experience in one of our well known hang out spots for students. She said that when she went to this place with her white friends she did not encounter any problems, but when she went with her black friend she and her friend were asked to present the identity documents. I will not mention the name of this place, but I will give you a clue. It was founded in February 2001 by an English tourist who got waylaid in South Africa. It was previously  used as a hair salon. Do some of you have an idea? yes, no, maybe?

So going back to the topic of preception and reality. I realised that if one had to walk through Stellenbosch university and see the diversity one would have the precetion that the university has come along way and it is that very same preception that has influenced our reality in this campus. However, this reality is artificial. The reality is that our university does not represent the demographics of our country. for one I am the only black girl in my first years group at my res. Most of our residences only have debating in afrikaans, yeah so much for integration. There was also an incident of racial attacks on our campus not so long ago. this took a knock on the universities efforts of promoting our rainbow nation on campus, but the last time I checked the colour black was not even in the rainbow. Most students have a preception that racism does not exist on our campus or they choose to be blind to this, but I say tell that to the trees that still soar from hanging lynches. So to answer the qeustion. Prection does inluence our reality.