White man puts down the monkey, African man picks it up
Recently there was a strange legal fistfight in Kenya. It was a tussle over who had the rights to host “Mulembe Cultural Nights?.
Mulembe Cultural Nights is a pulsating celebration held every year by Kenya’s Luhya’s Community, at which Luhya foods, music, and all things cultural flow. People throw themselves into like it was going out of fashion.
It is huge, so it is good money. Hence the fight.
Mulembe Nights, though, are only a small part of a bigger African “cultural revival?. The Kikuyu have frenzied weekends where they dance Mugithi; the Luo probably outdo everyone with in their wiggles at Benga music bashes.
All over Africa, from Sierra Leone, Nigeria, to Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, name it, the biggest music and, increasingly, film heroes are no longer American stars like Jay-Z or Usher, or Hollywood biggies like Denzel Washington and Brad Pitt. It is local boys and guys.
Compared to just 10 years ago, the turn-around in fortunes for African films and music years is dizzying. And, increasingly, you hear less denunciation of the corrupting influences of western culture.
But then there is something. The Rhino Charge, an off-road grueling rally competition held every year to raise money for conservation, is today one of the biggest annual sporting events in Kenya—in terms of audience.
The Rhino Charge was started in 1989, by Kenyans of European descent - Rhino Ark founder Ken Kuhle and rally enthusiast Rob Coombes - to raise money for the conservation of Kenya's Aberdare forest system and the endangered rhinos. And, according to some analysts, it was also a low risk form of engagement in public life and re-entrance into national environmental politics by the white community.
In 1989, the Rhino Charge raised about $11,3000. Twenty years later in 2010, the Rhino Charge raised an eye-popping $815,000 – 74 times more than it did at the start!
One reason is that when the Rhino Charge started, it was almost an exclusive affair for Kenya’s European descendants and bored expatriate spouses. Very few black Kenyans even got to be mechanics.
Today it is a truly multicultural event, part-sport, port-exhibitionism and show biz, part environmental activism. Black Kenyans flock the event in their thousands.
A similar event elsewhere in East Africa is the “Royal Ascot"? Goat Races in Uganda. Again, the race was started in 1993 by some white folks Ugandans thought had been thrown mad by the African sun. A goat race?
Today the Goat Races have run out of country. The beautiful plan for months what they will wear. People check into the vast Munyonyo Resort Hotel on the banks of Lake Victoria where the event is held days before and line for more than 24 hours to get in. All sorts of people drive in from Kenya to Kampala for a weekend of debauchery during the Goat Races. The goat races in Kampala have grown into the most multicultural event in the city.
Right there is the difference between the Rhino Charge and the “Royal Ascot"? Goat Races, and the Mulembe Nights. The Rhino Charge and Goat Races grew by opening up and winning multi-ethnic and cultural appeal. The Mulembe Nights are revivalist movement, journey of rediscovery of African pride in their culture that had been frowned upon as being “primitive"? and opposed to modern advancement. The passion over the Mulembe Nights will remain alive for a long time, for sure. But it will mostly be among the Luhya, and it will never grow into a big national Kenyan event.
Foreign, especially European and American cultural events (count Halloween in) try to be politically correct, and tend to be conscious of being accused of being colonialist or racist. This is partly driven by guilt. At the Rhino Charge and Goat Races, you could argue, today’s descendants of European colonialists get an opportunity to throw the “white man’s burden? off their back.
The Mulembe Nights provide, on the other hand, give Africans an opportunity to carry with pride things that were thought to be politically incorrect some decades ago. You can go a Benga fest or Mulembe, and not be considered a tribalist.
Yet, in all this, it is only the white man and woman, to put it crudely, who find freedom, because they grow their circle of friends. For us Africans, it is a prison. The freedom to be a Luo, Muganda, Luhya, Kikuyu without alienating others, still leaves you in a pen into which other ethnic groups cannot enter—because they are too busy partying in their small pens too. In that sense, the white man in Africa gets to put the burden of history off his back, while the African picks up the monkey.
Life is not fair.
Mulembe Cultural Nights is a pulsating celebration held every year by Kenya’s Luhya’s Community, at which Luhya foods, music, and all things cultural flow. People throw themselves into like it was going out of fashion.
It is huge, so it is good money. Hence the fight.
Mulembe Nights, though, are only a small part of a bigger African “cultural revival?. The Kikuyu have frenzied weekends where they dance Mugithi; the Luo probably outdo everyone with in their wiggles at Benga music bashes.
All over Africa, from Sierra Leone, Nigeria, to Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, name it, the biggest music and, increasingly, film heroes are no longer American stars like Jay-Z or Usher, or Hollywood biggies like Denzel Washington and Brad Pitt. It is local boys and guys.
Compared to just 10 years ago, the turn-around in fortunes for African films and music years is dizzying. And, increasingly, you hear less denunciation of the corrupting influences of western culture.
But then there is something. The Rhino Charge, an off-road grueling rally competition held every year to raise money for conservation, is today one of the biggest annual sporting events in Kenya—in terms of audience.
The Rhino Charge was started in 1989, by Kenyans of European descent - Rhino Ark founder Ken Kuhle and rally enthusiast Rob Coombes - to raise money for the conservation of Kenya's Aberdare forest system and the endangered rhinos. And, according to some analysts, it was also a low risk form of engagement in public life and re-entrance into national environmental politics by the white community.
In 1989, the Rhino Charge raised about $11,3000. Twenty years later in 2010, the Rhino Charge raised an eye-popping $815,000 – 74 times more than it did at the start!
One reason is that when the Rhino Charge started, it was almost an exclusive affair for Kenya’s European descendants and bored expatriate spouses. Very few black Kenyans even got to be mechanics.
Today it is a truly multicultural event, part-sport, port-exhibitionism and show biz, part environmental activism. Black Kenyans flock the event in their thousands.
A similar event elsewhere in East Africa is the “Royal Ascot"? Goat Races in Uganda. Again, the race was started in 1993 by some white folks Ugandans thought had been thrown mad by the African sun. A goat race?
Today the Goat Races have run out of country. The beautiful plan for months what they will wear. People check into the vast Munyonyo Resort Hotel on the banks of Lake Victoria where the event is held days before and line for more than 24 hours to get in. All sorts of people drive in from Kenya to Kampala for a weekend of debauchery during the Goat Races. The goat races in Kampala have grown into the most multicultural event in the city.
Right there is the difference between the Rhino Charge and the “Royal Ascot"? Goat Races, and the Mulembe Nights. The Rhino Charge and Goat Races grew by opening up and winning multi-ethnic and cultural appeal. The Mulembe Nights are revivalist movement, journey of rediscovery of African pride in their culture that had been frowned upon as being “primitive"? and opposed to modern advancement. The passion over the Mulembe Nights will remain alive for a long time, for sure. But it will mostly be among the Luhya, and it will never grow into a big national Kenyan event.
Foreign, especially European and American cultural events (count Halloween in) try to be politically correct, and tend to be conscious of being accused of being colonialist or racist. This is partly driven by guilt. At the Rhino Charge and Goat Races, you could argue, today’s descendants of European colonialists get an opportunity to throw the “white man’s burden? off their back.
The Mulembe Nights provide, on the other hand, give Africans an opportunity to carry with pride things that were thought to be politically incorrect some decades ago. You can go a Benga fest or Mulembe, and not be considered a tribalist.
Yet, in all this, it is only the white man and woman, to put it crudely, who find freedom, because they grow their circle of friends. For us Africans, it is a prison. The freedom to be a Luo, Muganda, Luhya, Kikuyu without alienating others, still leaves you in a pen into which other ethnic groups cannot enter—because they are too busy partying in their small pens too. In that sense, the white man in Africa gets to put the burden of history off his back, while the African picks up the monkey.
Life is not fair.
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