WAZEE WA SIKU HIZI

The old people of nowadays have a problem with our generation. I am not talking about age here. I refer to the good men and women who are scared of change especially in fashion and technology. They disapprove of everything youngsters do. Sometimes justly so but more often than not they are just scared… And it did not just start recently; it began when we were born. Ask anybody who was born after 1990 and they will tell you that, in more than one occasion, we have been referred to as “watoto wa siku hizi”; the children of nowadays. We have been branded as the manner less generation that watches violence and sex on TV… and we do not respect our elders. Flash forward to approximately 15 years later… there we are in our early 20s and the “watoto wa siku hizi” has metamorphosized into “vijana wa siku hizi”.

 It is true that my generation has done many wrong things including twerking, skinny jeans and killing letter “s” by replacing it with “x” (xorry, am not apologizing!).

You do not see us condemning your generation when Aden Duale exposes his small brains and big mouth on national television, do you? Or when Shebesh and Kidero are slapping each other senseless? Or when some genius decides to embezzle tax-payers money? Do you see us shaking our heads and condemning the whole lot of you going “tsk tsk tsk! Wazee wa siku hizi!”? Many of the Wazee wa siku hizi have done a lot of harm to the society too. Well, we have out done you but that doesn’t give you the right to judge us blindly. All these feelings I have “caught” come from a single incident where my hair was on the spotlight…

I am a proud owner of a curl activated semi-Mohawk that I spent my own money to make. For those wazee wa siku hizi who do not know what that means, it’s almost similar to the box shaving style only that I have put some chemicals on mine to make it look awesome. My problems started at the salon where I was having it treated. That is right, we go to salons nowadays. A woman in her midlife crisis could not contemplate for the life of her what a man was doing under a drier.

“They do that nowadays madam… it is normal” the salon lady tried to come to my aid.

“Vijana wa siku hizi…” she shook her head in disapproval. She went ahead to give everyone who cared to listen a lesson in morality. Well, I have seen rapists and thieves who are loyal to the old fashioned kinyozi with old fashioned hairstyles.

Things took a turn for the worse when I boarded a matatu in Eldoret. It was in the evening and the wise old people of today were coming from work. I could sense more than ten pairs of eyes staring at my freshly done hair. Everyone had decided to keep their opinion to themselves were it not for Mama nani who had coincidentally followed me from the salon.

“Mimi nipate kijana wangu amekaranga nywele!” (Should I find my son frying his hair!). The all too familiar voice broke the tense silence. And just like that the “vijana wa siku hizi” massacre arose. Dreadlocks and skinny jeans were put on the table and devoured hungrily and angrily. Examples were given of naked girls in the streets and in the villages alike. Universities were cursed as the breeding ground for irresponsible youth. The driver even slowed down and threw his thoughts on the topic. He predicted that the next time we meet I will have ear-rings on my nose and a tattoo of the devil on my fore head!

I am twenty one, the hair on my head is yet to fall out when balding sets in, let me play with my hair! Plus I am not trying to impress the wazee wa siku hizi, this is for my future wife!

The Fundamentals of Quails, Mohawks and Selfies BY BARASA B'JAY ONGETI

There are songs that sound good but never hit. Then there are songs that are a hit the instant they are released. For example, Sinzia by Nameless, Kigeugeu by Jaguar, or Merimela by that guy. These songs stick with us and are repeated over and over like a broken record (pun intended). The third category of songs that hit is the most curious: Songs that take forever to hit, and once they reach a certain boiling point they do not want to leave us. The most apt example is Fundamentals by Ken Wamaria.

This song was released two years ago and only caught its buzz recently. Despite being a song with utterly no content and basic repetition of the same ten words in four different languages, it is so infectious you will catch yourself humming it in church. You probably started humming it as soon as you saw the word fundamentals in this sentence. What caused its sudden catchiness two years after release?


Infectious. That is the word. What makes things infectious? What made the "Pesa Pap" advert so infectious that today pap is accepted as a word meaning "instant"? Why would you yawn when the person seated across you yawns? What made quail rearing a hit in Kenya? Why is everyone and their president taking selfies?


The complex answer is based on biologist Richard Dawkin's theory of genes. A simplification of it is that just like genes; songs, ideas, social behaviour, catchphrases, fashion trends – like skinny jeans and Mohawks – replicate themselves and transfer themselves from human mind to human mind. These ideas are called memes.


A book I read recently by Malcolm Gladwell seeks to explain the self propagation of a message/idea/product in three ways:

1. It has to be sticky: Such a message has to have an inherent quality of being memorable. For a song, catchy beats and repetitiveness are probably the most obvious sticky factors.

2. The 'right' people have to spread it: Gladwell says three kinds of people are fundamental (ahem) if an idea is to become epidemic. You need connectors who are people who know almost everyone. You need mavens who are guys who know almost everything. And you need salesmen, who are persuaders. Somebody influential, say a respected DJ like DJ Styles, must have come across Fundamentals recently and claimed that it is a great song. Then our minds were convinced it is a great song.

3. It has to be in the right context: Human beings are sensitive to their environment. There has to be a right environment for an idea to become an epidemic. This can explain how waves of student strikes become fashionable in boarding schools before mock exams. For the case of a song, if it is what is played to you in a matatu or a bar after a long day, it becomes catchy.


Can this theory be used to make your product or business or political campaign catch and spread like wildfire? I think so. But this article only tries to explain the What of memes. I do not know the How. If I did, I would become an advertising agent and every commercial I make will hit.