Stephanie Okereke Twangs.Phenomenal!

By Charles Aketch(charl.chotto@gmail.com)

Africa is just a phenomenon.Today we have made miles away from our “primitive” way of luring the world onto our shores,jungles and deserts by our amazing wildlife and beautiful sceneries and begging the rest out there to come and see these.We don’t have to live in caves anymore in the 21^st century in the name of preserving our noble savagery for the west to come and case study us.No.Africa has come of age and the world has to pay attention.What with our sporting talents that have dominated the world’s sports arena?What about our  amazing musicians,fashion designers,academic dons,name them?

However,bigger but not better than the fore-mentioned,the African movie industry has budded and it has bloomed.It is bigger.It is sumptuous.South Africa is a little older in the game but  Nollywood has done me proud.Since I first watched a Nigerian movie in 2000 till today,I have witnessed tremendous growth.The talent will always surprise you,the script writers are rising to the sky and directors and producers like Tchidi Chikere,Andy Chuks amongst others leaves more to be desired.I had a few glances at Jacob’s Cross and the first thing that came into my mind was that there must have been some American or British hand in the -casting,directing and producing the series-don’t blame me-that gave us such a supberly matured watching piece.But is a purely continental thing!Amazing!Other countries' movie industries are coming up and let’s applaud them for their shortcomings and the strides they have made.

Read this.If you want to know that Africa is a land of plenty including geniuses then don’t go far.Africa magic in conjunction  with MultiChoice that revolutioned your boring sitting room by bringing you Dstv  have brought in 2013 for the first time:Africa Magic Viewers Choice Awards meant to award and recognize our movie stars,directors,producers-every who meddle in telling the African story through our buzzing and growing movie industry.Isn't such a brilliant idea?Round of applause everyone!

But wait even bigger.Than these is the phenomenon of the enigmatic African woman.They are smart,assertive,enterprising,creative and intelligent.And they are also very.Very.Very beautiful-dont disagree.Ahem.However,of all the complicated poetry I have attempted to crack up is the African woman.Does any one understand the woman seated next to him?

Our women are complicated in a variety of ways.Like  most don’t like their hair and would rather die with these long European or Chinese made synthetic  hair.Others don’t prefer there African names and those with one  Christian name add another from probably their favourite character in a foreign novel or movie  or from a music superstar from the famous USA.So you are called Anne Oke?Too bad.Drop Oke and add Alicia after the famous Alicia Keys,dismantle the arrangement and come up with Alicia Annes- "s" is just a bonus.Doesn't it sound better and exotic?

A doubting Thomas still doesn’t believe me.You have probably watched the enchanting,glamorous,beautiful and talented  Stephanie Okereke’s movies.She’s just good.She fits into her characters but something is sometimes a little odd with her persona.She struggles with the American accent which frequently in her movies like  in her movie the Pretender 1&2 wears off into her pidgin influenced accent.The clash is corrosive but she doesn’t wear down.A number of times in other movies Steph seems to be forcing or really grappling with the American accent which is always slipping from her mouth.Why should that be the case when she is really doing fine in the movies in terms of acting?

The big question:what is it with our women and the American English accent?Some try.They really do try and they don’t get it and I end up feeling guilty or ashamed on their behalf.I don’t know why I do feel that way.Back in the days,the 98.4 Capital fm female presenters used to make me think they were all American.But their names were so African like Laura Walubengo and Yunia Amunga amongst those my stars and till today I wonder where they acquired the American accent from?I spent two hours in a language lab in my four year course in English at college but my accent and my uncle's who left school in class 8 have no regrettable differences!

And still thinking:Why is I don’t hear ladies struggling with the British accent?And why are men always so dumb to try and catch up with our ladies?If Stephanie Okereke is hot and talented a million times more that we beast-like men are and she twangs,why cant we men try?That is why to me,an African woman is still enigmatically phenomenal!

The Enemy-Kikuyus in the Kenyans Poltical Thinking

By Charles Aketch(charl.chotto@gmail.com)

"It baffles me a lot, and leaves me wondering why kikuyus can never vote for any other tribe in this country! One school of thought say the house of mumbi took an oath while facing mount Kenya, well I don't know how far is that true, but even if, don't we have those born again people? This is not democracy, and it only harms the efforts to contain tribalism in this country. When Raila declared Kibaki tosha, for a while we lived like brothers and sisters, but not until he some clique of guys from mount Kenya started surrounding our beloved president in the name of pumping sense into his head. We all came from Adam and Eve and we all have a common destiny...."from a Facebook's user's wall

From the above opinionated expression,like many others doing rounds in the social media and in groups of individuals' conversation,it appears that the KIKUYU tribe is one big anti-change,anti-good force in Kenya that must be slain.The Kikuyus seem like the enemy of the Kenyan public.But is this true?The accusation leveled against them of not voting for anyone outside central Kenya could be true.However,this has been in the past,and it doesn't mean that the same needs to happen in the upcoming elections.Circumstances in nations and waves of opinions that shape peoples' behaviour are never constant.Things change,and perhaps they have changed too.

Even so,what we are getting from such like above discourse is a pervasive and forcefully maligning statements directed towards one group which has the lethal effect of marginalizing and endangering these group in the public eye.It threatens their mutual interest whose very effect is the protective instinct of making sure by all means that the next president is from amongst them hence fulfilling the adage that they don't vote for any one from outside their tribe.

The assertion that the Kikuyus never vote for anyone outside their  tribe,might be true but to some extent it is a generalized stereotypical statement that is prejudicial in nature and they do us no good rather than destroy the unity and trust we so dearly need to develop amongst the Kenyan masses.

Those peddling these romours need to stop and maybe think of the psycho-social factors that might have prompted the Gikuyus to be the way people allege them to be.When almost in every general elections in kenya,the Kikuyus are the subjected of political discourse and mammoth disposal outcry with all the arsenal gathered and aimed towards their downfall,dont they have a right to be scared?It is a simple fact that the Kikuyus could be a threatened lot.With this fear they might be predisposed to act in a manner to put away all their perceived enemies,for example Raila Odinga.

Some of the Kikuyus might have fear of Raila Odinga,but that does not make them enemies of those who believe Odinga is fit is to become Kenya's fourth president.In the world history,people have rejected many things that have been potentially good due to the fear of the unknown in it since it is new.People fear change,and most of the time people react with fear and violence to change and things they less understand(Parish-The villain in the TV series"Alphas").

What we need to do with Kikuyus is not to corner them with ridicule and tongue lashing but to embrace them and offer them an assurance that all is well and is going to be well whether a Kikuyu or a non-Kikuyu president is in office.

They are not, enemies of Raila or Kenya or change or any other tribe in Kenya as others would want to imply.We are all one people only with slightly subtle differences in concerns,ambitious and expectation that do not necessarily put us worlds apart.Any other diatribe must be ignored.

Behind Nyeriology