Mo Faya!

At the end of last year I went to see a musical called Mo Faya written by Eric Wainaina, the synopsneeze is as follows:

DJ Lwanda’s voice rings out daily on local radio, leading and inspiring the Nairobi community of Kwa Maji. But Anna Mali, an avaricious real estate diva, craves the land beneath their slum. She seduces the fiery young DJ away with a job at a top nationwide station, and organizes a violent campaign to terrorize the people of Kwa Maji. When the government and media turn a blind eye to the decapitated bodies in the streets, DJ Lwanda must return home to expose the truth. But at what cost?
The tag line is 'they call it a slum, we call it home'. It was awesome! The music was so good, lots of Kenyan styles cleverly done. My favourite musical bit was when they used the singers voices as matatu horns while the others sang over the top. Tidy. There are loads of fun characters and heroes and villains that are scarily true to life if a little simplified.

The dialogue is full of cutting remarks, mocking and exposing various different groups of people and I guess the system at large. Like this woman Anna Mali, the main villain, runs an NGO which they say stands for New Growth Opportunity. In fact there is a whole song where they talk about development lingo and give every phrase a new meaning – UEA lecturers would love it. There was the usual blaming the government and rubbishing politicians but I enjoyed the few rude comments about Christians and do-gooders too.

Basically, in Kenya there is hectic poverty and there are lots of people working to change that but the systems and organisations working to do that are infested with people with bad motives, in the business of trying to empower and provide for the marginalised and impoverished there are opportunities to sneak a little bit of that power and that money for yourself and there are plenty of people doing that including 'Christians'. I think some people like to suck up to do-gooders because they want something, so it was nice to hear this play reflecting the true feelings of some people.

Christmas thinking

Its a little late but apparently some celebrate Christmas at the end of the 12 days so here are some Christmas related thoughts (quickly before we get to the 12 drummers drumming) from Viv Grigg whose book I have been enjoying...

'Two thousand years ago a seed fell from the sower's hand from heaven to earth. The God of eternity now inhabited humanity in the cry of a child, in the frame of a manger, in the tramp of sandaled feet.

But the symphony the angels sang at Jesus' birth was tinged by the melancholy of poverty. In coming from heaven to earth, the seed did not remain at the surface among the unrealities of the rich and haughty. He buried himself in the depths of humanity. And those depths have weighed down the labouring poor for thousands of years.

The prophet Isaiah declared that God has two homes: “For thus says the high and lofty One who inhabits eternity, whose name is holy: I dwell in the high and lofty place, and also with him who is of a contrite and humble-spirit” (Isaiah 57:15)

Two homes, two addresses: eternity and poverty.'