In the Arts
business emotions rule; you have to elicit a reaction from your audience whether
positive or negative- either way you will have succeeded as an artist. This
week I received a surprise email from a reader in Netherlands! Never mind that
the much I know about that country is the goddamned ICC, Van Persie and the
stories I read about the red- light streets of Amsterdam. A quick check on my
Google audience statistics reveals that my second biggest audience after Kenya
is Netherlands followed by South Africa, Germany, USA and a host of other
countries. As a Writer it’s very easy for one to remained wrapped in their own
little world in the name of ‘writing for oneself’
forgetting that that your audience could be so diverse. I have no idea how
people from outside Kenya are able to follow my blog as I always find myself
writing in ways only local audiences are used to. The beauty of Literature
however is that the audience still has the freedom to have their own interpretations.
Hallo
Netherlands! Hoe gaat het met jouw? I
received an email from a kind Dutch lady responding to an earlier post I did
about enduring cramping and the African connection. She has never been to
Africa but says she knows much about Kenya from the ICC and the famous ‘Safaris’ in the Maasai Mara and other
game reserves in the country. She even wrote a few Swahili sentences albeit
with broken grammar but it was all very refreshing! She wants me to write more
about African women and our ‘daily struggles’, whatever that means. If you come
down to Africa, the average young female leads a life more less the same as
ladies in Amsterdam or any other European city. We are all going through stuff
like education, careers, dating, family, motherhood etc. Our men are more
adventurous though, if you know what I am talking about! Kenya is a beautiful
country with warm and kind people. Visit us more and eat some delicious nyama choma and drink the totally smooth
Kenyan beer, Tusker! The sandy
beaches in Mombasa should sound like a plan too once winter sets in back there.
Heel hartelijk bedankt! You take the
honors in the premiere ‘Alternative
Readers Awards’!
At second
place is the rainbow nation, South Africa. Forget the abrasiveness Kenyans on
Twitter displayed when there was tweefing
between the two countries the other day, here you are loved wholeheartedly.
Guys, I know my surname is popular among the Xhosa people of S. Africa; it is also found among the Luhya people of Kenya! I love the
beautiful connection my own name creates between the two nations. Save for the
clicking sounds, some Xhosa words
sound similar to Luhya words; I will
leave for Anthropologists to establish the source of these similarities. We all
loved and adored the late Nelson Mandela and yeah, Dstv is a big deal here. Our capital city is Nairobi not Kigali and
the current president is Uhuru not Museveni! There is Africa beyond South
Africa guys, enough with the ignorance, visit the rest of us! Uh oh, before I
forget, S. African comedian Trevor Noah is totally cute and funny! Shout
outs to him!
Up next is Berlin,
wie geht es ihnen? Thank you for
gracing my humble blog with your readership too. Borusia Dortmund is my favorite
team in the German Bundesliga and the Volkswagen my all
time favorite vintage car. If I were to name the features on DW Tv
that have left me in awe about German technology it would require a whole blog
post! Mesut Ozil, apart from his football prowess has cute eyes too! I might
just support Germany in the upcoming world cup courtesy of him. Visit Kenya and
enjoy great holidays down here, tell friends to tell friends- Karibu Kenya!
We hate to love
you guys- Kenya is a USA prototype of sorts. A good number of things back here,
including our music and even the constitution are modeled on the lines of USA. We
hate the Obama connection- it reminds us everyday how our own leaders make us
look bad even in the eyes of our son, Obama. Tech giants like Google, MS etc dominate here and so is the whole Coca cola- Pepsi drama. Heck, there’s even Kentucky chicken being served all over Nairobi. Our athletes dominate all your major city races and you know
what, those are chosen from the amateur team squads! Kenyans are as critical as
you people and ummm… could you kindly remind Kenyans living there to drop the American twang once they land at JKIA? We totally hate it. We speak Swahili,
native languages and Standard English thanks to British colonization; questions
about whether we speak ‘African’ will
not be entertained. Africa too is a continent, not a country; helooo? There is
life beyond the USA, travel and see the beauty that is Africa. Talking of travelling,
a certain American Facebook friend of mine once asked me if we play with Lions
and Leopards in our backyards like you play with dogs. I forgive her. Thank you
for reading my blog USA, objective criticism will be very much welcome to help
me grow as a Writer!
Jambo Kenya! I refuse to rank you guys- you are this blog
and this blog is you! Special shout outs to my campus, Maseno University. I
totally appreciate the curious stares I get from people on the streets and to
those who walk up to me to express their views about what I write about, thank
you a lot! To my friends like Abdi
who reads almost each of my pieces and offers me invaluable counsels towards my
writing, thank you! To people who I have never met but religiously read every
single piece and encourage me on, I am lost for words. Thank you my loyal
readers like Faith, Flo, Ambrose, Joe, Crispin, Karen, Chema and each every one
of you who read in anonymity. Thank you. You are the spirit that keeps this
small community alive!
To my best
friends Njeri and Barbs who think I am a total Writing
genius, thank you sweethearts. To my mom who is always in awe anytime she
‘accidentally’ reads my blogs when she borrows my laptop, thank you so much!
All these brains and mastery of the Queen’s language is courtesy of the good
genes you bestowed upon me! To my two brothers Nelson and Menelik who
secretly say that their sister is a genius, asanteni
sana. I love you big boys; to Menelik, how you manage to retrieve my
hidden documents and mess them up is totally appreciated too!
I hope to
keep writing and tell stories that will not only be entertaining but inspiring
too. I would appreciate getting feedback from you guys especially when I do
those totally ‘sh*t’ posts that are a pain to readers, I want to write not only
for me but for you too! One world, one love, one blog! Thank you ‘Alternative Readers’ from whichever part
of the world you may be in.
