By KENFREY KIBERENGE
Concern is being raised on the growing trend where comedians are relying on tribal stereotypes to keep their audiences entertained. National Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC) chairman Dr Mzalendo Kibunjia says they are monitoring the trend, warning it could escalate the already charged ethnic tensions ahead of the next General Election.
Chief Justice Willy Mutunga was the first to warn that pejorative commentaries, sometimes excessive even in comedy, should be purged from the national discourse. Dr Mutunga says ethnic profiling – ideally designed as parody – sediments into ‘truth’ and people from other tribes start making decisions in real life based on the emerging caricatures.
“I enjoy comedy, and I would be the last person to suggest that anybody should censor it, but let us give a thought to instances when well-meaning activity may end up hurting the broader public interest,” cautions Mutunga.
Use of stereotypes
Dr Kibunjia says NCIC had raised an issue with excessive use of stereotypes in a popular TV comedy show when it was on air. “We raised concerns with the MD of the TV station and they were very apologetic and dealt with the matter satisfactorily,” said the chairman. He said the commission, however, does not have qualms with stereotypes that do not enhance discrimination of the targeted community by the rest of Kenyans.
Mutunga advises comedians to strive and complete the cycle by celebrating Kenya’s idiosyncrasies, and deliberately banishing any notions of ethnic hierarchy that may unwittingly be transmitted. Renowned stand up comedian Dan Ndambuki, who goes by the stage name Churchill, agrees the use of stereotypes might have a negative impact on the country and should thus be discouraged.
“Personally, I don’t use stereotypes; I play a character,” says Mr Ndambuki. He says although the use of such stereotypes in comedy is the surest way for Kenyans to appreciate their diversity, being an election year, the timing was wrong. His sentiments are echoed by another celebrated stand up comedian, Eric Omondi, who says he has not used tribal stereotypes in the past six months.
“I understand they have a negative effect especially when it is an election year, so I totally concur,” states Mr Omondi. Benson Agaya, a sociologist at the University of Nairobi, argues that the stereotypes could have negative effects but only during election periods. “Politicians could use these to portray their competitors as untrustworthy but we should not target comedians unfairly. People understand these as purely jokes and nothing else. The country should focus on tackling other problems like favouritism and tribalism,” said Dr Agaya.
Research fellow Murimi Njoka also says comedians should be left alone as they are simply mirroring the thinking of the society. “Don’t censor comedians; change the perspectives of the society,” says Dr Njoka. Omondi also argues that it would be impractical to expect such jokes to be expunged from the comedy in totality, especially after the election fever cools down.
To be fair, though, comedians world over rely on diversity in terms of race, skin colour, tribe or ethnicity to tickle their audiences. For instance, despite racism being a sensitive issue in America, stand up comedian Chris Rock has made a name out of making racially themed jokes without a fuss.
Laugh at themselves
“That is the problem with comedy, people like to laugh at themselves. It is typical of comedians even in the US the best jokes are about black versus whites. The only important thing is context and that is why we are saying the timing for cracking such jokes in Kenya is wrong,” stated Omondi.
Despite the appreciation of racial jokes in America, though, a President Barack Obama impressionist was pulled off the stage at a Republican Leadership Conference last year after telling a string of racially themed jokes about the President.
The impersonator, Reggie Brown, took the stage at the annual presidential cattle call to the Bruce Springsteen song “Born in the USA” — an apparent allusion to the birther controversy. He proceeded to tell a series of off-colour jokes, poking fun at Obama’s biracial heritage and a gay member of Congress. In Kenya, the situation is no different with most people using stereotypes to judge people from other tribes.
For instance, although made as jokes, it is hard to convince most people from other tribes that all Kikuyus are not thuggish and money-minded; that Luos are not proud, Merus are not hot-tempered and that Coastals are not lazy.
Ndambuki argues that Kenya has a long way before accepting stereotypes as a technique of appreciating diversity in culture.
“The best way to make peace with yourself is to laugh at yourself. I poke fun at my skin colour, saying I am the brownest in our family. It does not make me any less a person. With time, maybe society will grow and appreciate such jokes,” Ndambuki says.
Besides deepening the existing tribal hatred, concern is being raised that the stereotypes might be creating what experts calls passive tribalists, where young children innocently internalise the jokes as truths. Njoka, however, dismisses the notion as baseless. “For a long time, my children were watching these stereotypes on comedy shows but did not know they were Kikuyus, until 2008 when they heard Kikuyus were being chased out of Rift Valley. Therefore, unless the society exposes them to other factors, comedy does not have any negative effect,” he says.
Consider young adults
Agaya also says the country should be more concerned with the young adults than children, saying they are eager to act on their newly acquired voting rights. In the UK, a similar debate is raging about the possibility of books creating passive racists.
Last week, former Liverpool winger John Barnes blamed authors such as Agatha Christie, Rudyard Kipling and Edgar Rice Burroughs for making Britain a country of ‘passive racists’.
He claimed classic tales such as Ten Little Indians, Tarzan of the Apes and The Jungle Book have instilled bigotry in the minds of generations of British children.
