Has ‘majuu’ finally lost its appeal?

There was a time buses adorned with banana leaves were common at the airport, either receiving Kenyans returning home or sending them off. When did you last see such a bus? Has going abroad, or majuu, lost its lustre?

Harambees to support studies abroad used to be very common, but are rare nowadays. Interestingly, the most common harambees today raise funds for travel to India for medical reasons.

When foreign envoys threaten visa bans on those implicated in corruption, I wonder how effective this will be, given that going abroad is no longer considered cool.

The number of foreign universities coming to Kenya on recruiting missions could be another indicator that Kenyans have lost their fascination with majuu. Some have, however, argued that their recruitment missions are based on rising prosperity, with more Kenyans affording education abroad. The truth is in-between.

Why did going abroad (sorry, majuu) lose its lustre?

First, travelling follows the laws of supply and demand. Majuu held our awe because few ever travelled there. There was a time when we knew how many people in each village or hamlet had a passport. Now, anyone who wants a passport can get one.

More people today have travelled and lived abroad. There are few who do not have a relative outside Kenya, some of whom will never return. With so many people having travelled abroad to visit or live, there is little that’s big about it today. If you increase the supply of anything, holding other factors constant, its price or prestige goes down.

Have you noted how Kenyans are buying exotic cars because rising prosperity is making once unavailable cars available? Why are Jeeps, Porsches, Aston Martins and Ferraris more common on Kenya roads? Buying a Mercedes today adds nothing to your class, unlike before. But I love my Vitz ....

Unintended consequence

The dilution of majuu is aided further by globalisation. Kenyans have more places they can visit, including China. TV and social media have also made it possible to visit almost any place on Earth virtually.

Globalisation has had another unintended consequence. Most of the products or services we could only get abroad are now available here. What can you buy in London, Paris or Tokyo that you cannot get in Nairobi?

Education, which used to be the most common reason for going abroad, is also more available here. Universities are now all over the country, even in refugee camps.

In the past, students used to look abroad because of a shortage of opportunities locally, and for the prestige. Not any more. Graduating undergraduates are quick to enrol for master’s classes, and graduating master’s students are quick to enrol for PhD classes. Skipping work experience reduces the effectiveness of your next course of study.

In Kenya, higher education is more affordable at whatever level, so why go abroad to worry about housing, new accents, air travel and foreign cultures?

The only downside of this is that it leads to in-breeding — you study with familiar people and are taught by familiar people. This fails to stretch your thinking and makes you too comfortable. On graduation, it will be hard to ride on the global market. Exchange programmes are diluting this locality, but they are still a rarity in many Kenyan universities.

Side hustle

One student confided that hanging around has other advantages — your life will move on as you study. You can run your side hustle, marry and keep your networks. Could it be that money is now competing with degree certificates as a source of prestige?

Policymakers could argue that studying or buying products here saves the country foreign exchange. That is a short-term view.

The long-term view is that we need to expose the next generation to new cultures and perspectives.

Living majuu makes some differences. It is not so much about the education — because the textbook used in Harvard might be the same one used at the University of Nairobi or Kibabii University — what matters is the experience outside the classroom. Who you meet, what you share with them and how the socio-political system influences you. You cannot learn work ethics from textbooks.

Visiting a Native American reservation and finding the Choctaws wearing Maasai belts and participating in their dance was fascinating. Riding a buggy among the Amish was an experience. Taking a walk along the streets of Shanghai cannot be described adequately in any textbook. I never stop comparing my students in Kenya and to those I had in the US.

Taking palm wine in Ghana and finding hawkers selling snails might not be found in any textbook. Using the underground train (subway) in Toronto, taking a ferry to Vancouver Island at sunrise or using the Eurotunnel are experiences that change your perspective about the possibilities of technology and human ingenuity.

What of attending the inauguration of Omukama of Toro Kingdom or driving through one of South Africa’s Bantustans?

I believe that one way to change this country is to have a critical mass of Kenyans exposed to global cultures. This will kill tribalism and open our youngsters to new possibilities.

If we all stick around, we are likely to turn against each other because we create fewer enterprises and opportunities. No wonder immigrants create disproportionately more jobs than natives.

Seeds of independence

Interestingly, we have had a precedence. The Kenyans who travelled abroad to fight for the British Empire came back and planted the seeds of the independence struggle. They changed this country forever.

The airlift beneficiaries — from Tom Mboya to Wangari Maathai —did the same. Even the fight for multipartyism and the Constitution has roots majuu.

Asia’s new economic powers learned from majuu. Maybe we need a new paradigm with respect to going abroad to expose more Kenyan youngsters to new cultures and thinking, and dilute ‘local thinking’. We can start with a student exchange programme within East Africa and expand it to other parts of the world.

I am not the one who said that if you do not travel, you think your mother is the best cook.

The writer is senior lecturer, University of Nairobi.

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