Ngari Gituku
With regard to Kenya’s current ache for national cohesion, reference to artistes as ‘umpires of taste’ by the acclaimed 19th century American essayist, poet and philosopher, Ralph Waldo Emerson, is right on the money.
This is particularly so in this era of unceasing ethno-political dissidence, acerbic inter-ethnic disquiet and our leadership’s seeming disinterest in meeting ordinary Kenyans at their level.
The growing tendency among Kenyan communities to shun meaningful interaction is the net result of the failure of past regimes to encourage positive attitudes in favour of harmonious co-existence among Kenyans of all ethnic backgrounds. Today, individual communities are largely, but dangerously pursuing parallel lives.
To get Kenyans to embrace each other freely calls for broad strategies delivered in a subtle yet captivating manner.
Getting Kenya’s 42 or so sub-nations to wilfully find and foster abiding mutual acceptance is indeed a complex task. It calls for a multi-disciplinary approach. Underpinning an ideal framework for coherence will certainly benefit from a whole legion of insights, principles, doctrines, theorems and case studies. But not before identifying a superset of all attributes that engender the true ‘Kenyan soul’. To distil the elements of that soul will take art.
Unique influence
Why art? Precisely because its unique influence is not limited by race, gender, age, religious persuasion, style or circumstance. Its application transforms the oddest of places and the most eccentric of minds. Art thaws hearts of stone; it affects and inspires in the most humanly flexible manner ever. Art, by nature, is friendly, it defies confinement instead thriving best in liberty the liberty by which every Kenyan may experience his or her utmost being as a valued citizen.
The seamless nature of art provides inestimable opportunities for the most accurate determination of what can bind humanity and abolish man-made barriers in whatever circumstances. The grace in art is such that humour can light up a mourning party without the speaker or preacher sounding offensive or callous.
Besides, art manifests just about everywhere — in speech, song, dance, the written word, the pulpit, classroom, sports, corridors of justice or power with equal allure, be it in favour of intended charm or calculated revulsion. Only art really is capable of pointing beautifully at the ugly in humankind. At the moment, Kenya is trapped in a heap of repugnant unresolved misdeeds, attitudes and fears that need a bold stare in the eye.
To move forward, we as citizens have a solemn duty to look at the ugly in our midst, confront it and then conquer the serfdom of our unresolved iniquitous past — real or imagined. We need, for instance, to see the extreme ethnic bigots, base rapists and budding ‘genocidaires’ the 2007 elections exposed in us. How? By invoking the soothing yet enduring admonition to which art is naturally bestowed.
In the same breath, we must ingeniously harness the glamour and elegance embedded in Kenya’s potpourri of indigenous cultures, heritage, languages, folklore and customs.
Needed though, is a new breed of effective geniuses capable of fusing local classical content with popular avant-garde mass media delivery technologies.
Well appreciated art, heritage and culture do affirm the uniqueness of societies. The best midwife in this process is art.
I believe a national treasury of shared and acceptable commonalities will be evolved through art. Without such critical mapping, I am afraid we may not establish a national soul on whose pillars enduring coherence among Kenyans will be erected.
So next time a stand-up comedian tickles you, a gifted writer marvels you with his word-craft or Kayamba Africa tunes get you gyrating, think beyond taste; think instruments of social cohesion.
The writer is Associate Fellow,
Kenya Leadership Institute
