Teachers singing nyenyenye

There are a lot angry faces in the news these days. We have become a bit like South Africans. When a group of Kenyans are really mad and want to express their anger, they take to the streets and hold hands, sings off tune and start dancing.

The drawn out teachers’ strike drew my attention to a symbol that I thought was obsolete in our 21st Century thinking. You may have noticed that the teachers have taken to public flogging of effigies that represent the oppressive authorities. The discredited cane that was a national discipline enforcer for years gone by is seeing a revival.

The cane has a long history as a humiliating punishment tool used to enforce of coercion in Africa.  It is alleged that founding president used to cane errant ministers. The teachers have decided to employ the metaphor effectively by publicly caning offending ministers because that is the only way to drive their message home. We have reached a stalemate in the salary negotiations and talking has proved futile. Therefore, the teachers have resorted to using the threat of violence something the Government has used quite effectively for eons, so no surprises that the shoe is on the other foot.

What captures my imagination about this affair, is that the inspiration for this symbolic protest is DNA! It has nothing to with science. I refer to the popular rapper, DNA, who got away with some of the laziest lyrics I have heard in a while, and a musician who uncannily captured the pulse of the nation.

The famous chorus goes something like, “Ukileta nye nye nyeee, fimbooo, chapaa!”I have heard kids in the neighbourhood playgrounds reciting those lines, but you know the education standards are down to the knees when agitated teachers are reduced to quoting DNA in a national protest of this magnitude.