Kenya Dig It? ~ Nyimbo ya Watalii!

[bloodyrosemccoy]

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Independence Day (Benin)

 

Whoa. I just had a flashback.

 

Somewhere today while surfing Youtube, my sister and I came across video with the song “Jambo Bwana”—a stupid little song geared for tourists who come to Kenya.

 

I admit: I clicked the link just to have a listen.

 

And suddenly I was on a street corner in the speedy Mombasa twilight, with its constant flow of pedestrians, the lights of the shops blinking pools of peach warmth into the dark as we stood outside the Blue Room,* and Juli’s face was lighting up as that goofy little song blasted out of a CD store.

I was a few days into my four-month stint in Kenya, still a little homesick and hoping that our superpowered academic director was going to get my bag back, stunned to think I was on the other side of the world and still overwhelmed by the blue of that Indian Ocean and the white of the sun and the narrow alleys and the constant greetings.

I was outside Fort Jesus for my daily walk, chatting with the lineup of vendors as they haggled the price of postcards with me and sold their knickknacks to the tourists for outrageously inflated prices while I laughed—because students may be white, but everyone knows they don’t have money and can’t pay, so they get better prices.

I was watching a man shimmy up a coconut tree on a spice plantation in Zanzibar to cut down coconuts, singing the song and substituting “Zanzibar” for “Kenya,” with cats and scrawny chickens gathered at everyone’s feet waiting for scraps of coconut meat.**

I was walking with my heroic friend Joseph, trying to explain in my mangled ASL-KSL that that silly song was playing again.

I was sitting with Tito and Gachoki in their tiny studio-shop under my flat, discussing comics and admiring their art.

 

Four months all at once, bound together by an inane, ubiquitous, touristy song.

 

Really, the thing was everywhere.  We were all pretty sick of it by the end, and vowed never to listen to it again—it was about jerk tourists, and kitschy, and the lyrics were silly, and dammit, it was everywhere.  And up till today, I hadn’t listened to it again.

 

And so I had forgotten how much it was associated with.

 

Every once in a while I wonder if that was really me over there, since it was such a dissociation from my normal life. But this song made it real again, from the taste of that passion juice to the glare of the sun. It exists still.

 

I’m so glad memory works that way.  We need those little triggers around to keep our pasts real.

 

 

Sing along!

Jambo! Jambo Bwana!                      Hello! Hello, sir!

Habari gani?                                       How are you?

Nzuri sana!                                          Very well!

Wageni mwakaribishwa                    Guests are welcome

Kenya yetu!                                         To our Kenya!

Hakuna matata!                                 There are no problems!***

 

 

*Not well-named, as the décor was like a malt shoppe from the ’50s, only with more sambusas.

 

**Apparently, cats like coconut meat.  You have learned something today!

 
***Told you the lyrics were stupid.

Comments

[gondolinchick01.livejournal.com]

The one that really weirds me out in this department is evocative smells. The other day I was messing around with a lighter and managed to burn off a small amount of my hair. I smelled it and got the absolute strongest impression that I was once again 15 years old, singeing off unwanted body hair with the candles I kept on every available surface in my room and obsessing over LoTR with the fury of 1,000 fiery burning suns. It was so strong that it was slightly disorienting, and so I got to thinking about why certain smells can be so evocative that way, especially considering how weak the human sense of smell is.

And suddenly I realize how little that has to do with your original post, but I'm gonna leave it there because maybe you have some insights on the subject. In any case, like all the rest of your Kenya stories this was an absolute joy to read. You have a real talent for just making the whole thing come alive to the reader (or at least to this particular reader) and I really hope to see more of these on your blog in the future.

[chairman-wow.livejournal.com]

I get my most vivid memories from smells, too! (my sense of smell is pretty good, though, relatively. Better than my hearing, at least. XD) Though not quite as intense as yours sound. I think I read somewhere once that the sense of smell is generally associated most closely with memory, though why that should be with a sense this weak I have no idea.

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

Yeah, there's all sorts of theories as to why smell evokes such strong association. I first used that White Tea and Ginger about the same time you were lighting all those candles, I think, and then I didn't use it for several months. When I got it out again, I had an absolutely stunning flashback to--well, to the mindset I was at when I'd first used it, like viizou said, and to the season. It was mind-blowing.

I'm glad you like my Kenya stories. I am never sure how to write about some of it, so I had to do the sound bites this time.

[viizou.livejournal.com]

I encounter similar triggers on a regular basis. They come in various forms: food, music, smells, or a particular object.

What always amazes me is not just the memories of place, people and activities these triggers bring back. It's the return of the mindset that always takes me by surprise. The memory can be in a timeframe that occurred barely a few months ago, in the exact same room, without any major changes having occured in my life since then - yet the trigger can make me realize that I was in a completely different mindset at that time, and that in that respect, I was a completely different person. I always get a shock out of being reminded that things and people, including myself, keep changing without my realizing it.

Huh... Well, that went in another direction than I'd expected... Guess you comment section is conducive to introspection.

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

I have done that a few times (see above comment responding to gondolinchick01). It's so strange because you don't notice the change happening until you get hit by the memory of how it used to be.

[jesuitfluff.livejournal.com]

That song is on loop now. The lyrics might be stupid (no stupider than a random sampling of most radio stations and an anime soundtrack), but oh lord it's like a brain slug, if Khan had spoken Kenyan instead of Melville.

Every time I hear the Doors' "Light My Fire", I think of - not my childhood family vacations on the Sea of Cortez, but the drive down there, and a particular stretch of road where there are mountains made of piled-up tiny rocks. Jim Morrison's voice on the chorus evokes the single tiny house made of cardboard and cactuses in the exact center of Imperial County, surrounded by rocks as numerous as beach sand on every side.

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the lyrics are the old "turn a phrasebook into a song" idea, I guess. But damn it sticks, don't it? Especially since they just keep REPEATING it.

My sister and I have a particular--we'll call it "dance"--that goes along with the instrumental bit of "Light My Fire." When we do the dance--a lot of hand flailing--and start singing it, we are probably making some joke about being high. I guess my point is that songs evoke different responses in different people, but that's a reach, innit?

[chairman-wow.livejournal.com]

Your Kenya posts always make me a little jealous. :P I haven't gone somewhere new for so long! And it sounds like it was an amazing trip. You write about it ridiculously eloquently.

[packbat.livejournal.com]

Huh! Funny how the mind will work like that. :)

yay, I'm back to making late comments!

[queenlyzard.livejournal.com]

Memory jogs are a wonderful thing. Although, as some of your other commenters pointed out, they can be unnerving, too.

I actually think that song is kinda cute and catchy. But then, I've only heard it once. I could see it getting annoying with repetition.

Also, I'm not surprised at all that cats like coconut-- it's pretty high in fat content, which cats like. They're also often fond of avocados.