Hakuna Matata gained new meaning in my mind three nights ago. For me the phrase had always meant ‘Don’t fear us, come to Africa. We will neither hurt you nor eat you.’ You see, when there was a coup attempt in Kenya in 1982 I was still a child and around that time the song Hakuna Matata played over and over again on radio and TV in an attempt to reassure both Kenyans and foreigners. I didn’t realise at the time though that we needed to reassure foreigners, I was too young to understand the dynamics of tourism and foreign investment. So the song attained its association in my mind, ‘Don’t worry, everything will be alright, there’s nothing to be afraid of.’ Yeah, right in the middle of a national crisis. Good one! It did reassure my young heart at the time.
Later in my adult life I encountered a different and rather unflattering meaning to the same phrase. The West interprets it to mean ‘There’s no hurry in Africa. Take your time, the grasslands and wildlife stretches out before you; the sun shines bright all year round, no uncomfortable winters or summer heat-waves; you’ve got enough oases here and there; work a little, get just enough to get by, food for the day, some kind of roof over your head, some kind of roads, some kind of hospitals, some kind of minimum wage. Tomorrow will be another day and you can get up and do it all over again. So why stress, why strain, why do any more than you have to today? Sleep or rest a little.’
A long one, right? But that’s exactly how the West translates our beloved Hakuna Matata phrase in relation to Africa. If you don’t believe me just watch ‘Lion King’ again.
I hated that translation and would have done anything to defend my continent, until like I mentioned earlier, three nights ago.
I’m sleeping peacefully in my bed when I’m suddenly awakened by a bright flash of light followed by a loud explosion. ‘What on earth?’ I think to myself, simultaneously jumping out of bed, calling out to my husband and looking out through the window to see what was happening.
It did not take a genius mind to figure it out though. You see, right behind my bedroom is this electric cable that is suspended 3 meters from the ground and comes right across to the wall of my second floor flat before going up to somewhere on the roof of the three storey building. (I've always distrusted that cable, especially so near my bedroom.) I'm made to understand it has something to do with pumping water to the houses, the details are lost to me. Now this cable was spitting fire like the old dragon and had become a menace to the whole building, threatening to raze down the place.
Within seconds I had the house keys in my hands and the front door open while my husband flew to the mains and cut power to the house, a basic cautionary measure in case of fire.
As fire rules demand we knocked on our neighbour’s door trying to alert them on the possibility of fire but that idea was lost on them as they did not bother to get up at all, not then nor during the 30 minutes period when we woke up the watchman – yes, woke him up! – called the caretaker and tried to get the Kenya Power emergency service so maybe they could cut power supply to the area for a while. Speaking of which try as we did we could not reach the Kenya Power emergency service. So much for 24-hour efficiency!
Did I mention this happened around 3am? Who gets up at 3am in Kenya for anything, even if it is to run from, or prevent a fire that has not yet reached destruction stage? Take your time, we will run, scream and blame the fire service once our property is already burning and people are caught in the flames. In the meantime we sleep and wait for those with the energy and time to try and deal with the problem. Hakuna Matata! There… you see how easily the phrase takes on its ugly meaning?
As the explosions got louder and the light brighter, sometimes red sometimes white, we decided in the absence of anything more meaningful the caretaker should switch off the power to the troubled cable, which he did and assured us all would now be well and that promptly at the break of day the fault would be rectified. Even though the landlord lives right behind us, we couldn’t convince the caretaker to alert him of the problem. Yet if that short-circuit did result in real fire, no one around would be safe – not with the live fence and trees over which the cable disappears to the landlord’s side of property.
You can imagine how difficult it was to go back to bed after that, for me at least. My poor husband wanted to sleep – bless men for their courage – while I on the other hand needed a scientific explanation from him that assured me now we were out of danger. Which he went on to provide, but with the caution that, save for power being completely cut off to the cable, it was still live beyond the mains switch (hope I didn’t lose you there) and so the explosions might happen again.
And they did, two more times, louder and even brighter this time.
Anyway, this morning, two days later, after a peaceful night, the cable started to spit fire again. And now I was mad. I called the caretaker and took him to the place where it was all happening. All I wanted to know from him was, did we not communicate? Did he not promise something would be done the day before? Did the landlord not imagine this to be a serious issue? I reminded him these were really after all not our houses. We could move, but the real loser would still be the owner (unless of course he’s counting on some kind of hefty insurance?) God I hope not, otherwise help the tenants for then they are on their own!
As we speak they are working on the cable. I decided people may have played around with my life as a child when maybe I wasn’t allowed to speak for myself, but as an adult I’m not gonna sit back and watch my life and property threatened by something so preventable, so I gave them a piece of my mind and told them ‘this is the last time I’m telling you about this. My work here is done. Now do something about the silly cable!’
Now, flashback to 2007. I’m in my bedroom in my flat in the UK. I’ve just come from taking a shower and I’m busy dressing up when I smell electric fire. Quickly I go to the living room and the place is engulfed in smoke. I do not see any flames but I sure can tell that’s electric fire. So I switch off the mains then go to the hall to see whether maybe the smoke is coming from the outside but no, just my flat.
I quickly call the Fire Service and inform them of the situation, though I clearly mention there is no flame, only smoke and the smell of electric fire. The smoke is concentrated somewhere near the computer.
For starters I’m able to quickly get my call through to the Fire Service, a far cry from our attempts here to reach the Kenya Power. The lady on the other side advices me to close the door to the affected room (another fire rule), then get out of the house, and wait for the fire service. To tell you the truth I’m hoping they’ll only send one guy in a small car because the fire is not yet blazing and I think all they need is to find the problem and rectify it.
Within 10 minutes I hear fire truck sirens and I go, ‘Oh No!’ Would you believe it? Can you imagine our emergency service responding so promptly and overwhelmingly that you go ‘Oh No!’? I hope it happens in my lifetime!
Soon five – FIVE, NO EXAGGERATION! – fire trucks are parked outside my street, and TEN or so handsome, tall and neatly uniformed firemen emerge, ready to tackle the smoke in my living-room, ha ha ha ha. ‘Amazing,’ I think to myself. ‘The neighbours must be wondering whether the street is burning down.’ I reckon it’s a slow fire day in London otherwise for the life of me I can’t imagine why they turned up in FIVE trucks, but I’m very glad they are here all the same.
As the men are too huge to all squeeze into my little flat, the chief among them, plus a few others, come through and, after a few minutes establish the fire was coming from my computer. A little more check and it’s now clear what caused it; the computer motor had overheated and burned out. Phew! I’m so glad it’s nothing worse.
See, I had broken two simple rules of fire prevention that day. One, I left my computer on standby when going to the bathroom. Fire rules demand you switch off all electrical appliances when you are not around (whenever reasonable, that is. Please don’t switch off the ventilator, or the fridge!) Second, I had neglected to replace the batteries in my smoke alarm, so the silly thing never rang when all the smoking started. Well, the fireman had a thing or two to say about that, and made sure he put a new smoke alarm before he left, one that needed no batteries and one, he assured me, that I could not remove without it going off and alerting them.
Interesting, wouldn’t you say? While on the one hand one group responded extravagantly to my cry for help, the other adopted a laid back attitude to a potentially fatal situation. And therein is the difference between our culture, our philosophy as a country and continent, and that of the West. Hakuna Matata is still wreaking havoc in our midst.
Think of all the fires that could have been prevented had the appropriate parties responded in time. Think of all the deaths, injuries and destruction that could have been avoided. Think of all the accidents on our roads, unnecessary deaths in our hospitals, plane crashes, ferry accidents, famine, drought, fighting, crime, deforestation. Think of what little action was required on our part to prevent most of these. Think of all the lives and property that could have been spared, all the water and food we could store, how much more orderly our society would run with a little bit of initiative and efficiency.
True, I know God has a hand in what goes on in society, but God also gave us brains. That is the greatest indication that He intended for us to use our heads to solve problems, deal with undesirable situations and generally make our lives better. I hate to break it to you but God never intended for Kenya or Africa to be a constant terrain of pain and anguish. Otherwise He would have to explain to us why the West is doing so well despite, let’s face it, massive degenerate behaviour. So quit playing the sin and judgment card and let’s just take responsibility for our lives, and our mess. You’ll be surprised just how much judgment would be reduced if we rolled up our sleeves and did some real work. Believe me, God does not need your help to bring disaster. If we do take responsibility and work to eliminate these problems and ensure an abundant supply of food, water, services, law and order, then we can rest assured that we have done our best, and that Caesar gets credit for what belongs to Caesar, while God is credited only with what He is actually responsible for.
‘If you don’t work don’t eat,’ says the Bible in so many words. So if you’re hungry ask yourself, ‘Is it because I’m not working?’ If the answer is yes, then get out there and do some work. If you can’t get work then ask God to give you work and then go out and look for it. If the answer is no, you are working and are still hungry – yes, then ask God to give you food, and maybe more profitable work – but whatever you do please keep working, otherwise you will get even hungrier. Let’s show some initiative, my beloved Africa.
One more Bible verse states that ‘a wise man sees danger and takes refuge, but the simple (foolish) keep going and suffer for it.’ Yeah, that was literally the situation in my building; real threat of fire yet two days go by and nothing is done about it. God have mercy.
Africa, Kuna Matata (we have issues). The sooner we realize this and wake up to the reality of our situation and issues, the sooner we will begin to mop up and make our continent habitable and attractive. Then we can sing the song, Hakuna Matata and this time truly mean there is nothing to fear in Africa, we have no issues, everything is as it should be: Birds are chirping, children are happy and playing safely on our streets; our public coffers, as well as personal pockets are swelling up; what a wonderful world, God has smiled on us, and we are blessed. We can change our culture of laxity, we can command respect, and people will only be too glad to travel and spend their hard currency on our soil.
May that day be soon, and it will be, if we all pull our weight in our area of responsibility.
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