Violent Nations
I was listening to the TV in the background when they said “foreigners were being attacked in South Africa”. I did a triple flip with the fear that went through me. “Foreigners”, “attacked”, “Africa” was the message and that’s me!!! Well, of course, once the real message about a faraway country and African foreigners I calmed down. No surprise to me that South Africa is having problems. A country with so much wealth and so much poverty going through economic difficulties and cultural and economic growing pains… is it really a wonder that people snap? The situation there is not so unlike the situation here in Kenya and probably similar to Nigeria. Kenya has enough wealth and resources and land except so much of it is concentrated in too few hands. The country is definitely headed in the right direction, but there are too many being left behind. Under-educated, under-employed, fatherless young men and the way they protest their predicament is explosive. Isn’t this the basic ingredient in every riot? All they need is someone to blame for their situation in life and the mob mentality takes over.
For Kenya their “someone” was the other tribe that traditionally did not live wherever the mob lives. This is not very different than what is happening with the foreigners in South Africa. In fact, the violence is often focused on the “others” that are successful. Somali businesses in South Africa, Kikuyu tribe in Kenya, Koreans in Los Angeles… Luckily, in Kenya guns are not very common and they are illegal to possess. If fifteen hundred were killed in January, how many more would be dead if guns were as prevalent as South Africa or America? Of course, the police are armed with automatic weapons, travel around without identification displayed and, I believe, are a criminally corrupt organization here in Kenya.
(Aside: Two nights ago we were coming back from downtown in a cab with a friend. We came to a police blockade. Pamela and her friend were out of the car very quickly apparently because they had no seatbelts on. The cab driver was being harassed by the police because he had no current license. I’m just sitting there in the front rolling my eyes at this spectacle (many policemen with automatic weapons talking badly to three Kenyans in a country where real crime is rampant) when one approaches me. (First, I am golden in Kenya and most other countries. The police know not to hassle a mzungu and especially not an American knowing we will definitely call our embassy and that does them no good.) He asks for my ID and I tell him that it is a passport that I have left at home. I have no copy on me… me bad! He tells me something about taking me in. I just look at him in a not-too-kind way and give him short, polite but not friendly replies. He hassles me about who I am with. I tell him that I live in Kenya with Pamela just up the road. He scoffs at me. I know where this is all going. I tell him my passport is in our apartment just up the road and he can come and look at it. He tells me that will not do and asks for 5000 shillings ($80). He is not going to like my next statement that I expect to have him write me a ticket, but he leaves me before I have to go that way. Another cop comes over also with no badge or name showing. Apparently, his large gun on display is enough to prove he is a real policeman. He asks where I am from and says “ahhhh” when I tell him USA. We talk a bit and it is clear that I am not paying them anything and if they feel they really need to see my ID then they can give us a ride home. Unfortunately, Kenyans can’t or they feel they can’t make demands of the police such as making them write a legitimate ticket for an offense. The police take them in until a judge can hear them and in this case that would have meant being held overnight. I was going to be very OK with that treatment, but Kenyans definitely move to avoid this. In the end, it was agreed (not by me) to pay 1000 shillings each for the seatbelt offenses. The cabby slipped them 100 shillings for the license issue. I have no respect for the police in Kenya as they spend the great majority of their time collecting money from Kenyans and brutally treating accused criminals. Yes, they are a criminal organization from the top down.)
Of course, the violence in Kenya, South Africa and America is much more complicated than any media presentation of late. In Kenya, there are many criminal organizations. I can’t tell you how many, but I am more than amazed every time I pick up a newspaper. One of the great things in Kenya is the freedom of the press. The papers are honestly brutal to the political leaders and government including police and military. They report about so many different groups that I can’t keep track of it all. Most of the political leaders are corrupt as was clearly presented in an article in Kenya Weekly entitled “Kibaki and the 40 Chiefs – Past Scandals of the Next Cabinet”. As far as I can tell from readings, the three presidents since independence have all been crooks especially with how they appropriated public lands to themselves and their friends (or adversaries!). So we have corruption and illegal activity from the highest reaches in plain view of all Kenyans because the press reports it regularly. We have criminal organizations that are violent. We have wealth distributed in a very suspect manner also in plain view of all Kenyans. There is a police force more concerned with getting their own piece of the pie and not getting themselves killed. There is a great deal of wealth in this country and there is an even greater amount of poverty. Perfect ingredients for a lot of violence.
The violence here doesn’t only come from the youths, criminals and police (or army – they are currently accused of killing thousands, yes thousands, of people in the Mt Elgon area over the past two months as well as torturing many). The violence is throughout the Kenyan society and I am not sure why. For instance, papers report almost daily about vigilantes and lynching. This past week “fifteen people linked to witchcraft were killed” by some mob of regular folks in Kisii. I’ve been meaning to write about magic in Africa. It’s a sensitive topic here and I am not sure how to write it since the whole idea that people believe in magic, curses, and witches is so ridiculous to me. Africans, regardless of their religious beliefs, believe in the old powers – so funny to me that all these missionaries have converted so many people yet their converts still believe in magic!!!! Pamela even pointed out references in the bible dealing with sorcery, that is the evil of sorcery, so they even have a cover for being Christian (or Muslim) and being able to believe in magic. This is really humorous to me. Lynching is going on all the time in Kenya with most of it aimed at believed-to-be criminals such as robbers. Most of the vigilante crimes go unpunished. I’m not sure many understand that violence breeds more violence and allowing vigilantism over real criminal prosecution is creating more problems. Especially, when directed at people who have committed no real crimes – witches!!! They kill owls for their supposed bad powers so why not witches, too! I bet if you went before a judge for committing some crime by using witchcraft you could end up in prison in Kenya and probably most if not all of Africa. I have no factual or anecdotal evidence, but I bet that most of this anti-witchcraft business is focused on women.
You can really do something with this magic belief stuff. You can control a sub-Saharan country easier using this than you can with religion. I know it has been used by leaders in the past, but I don’t remember details. Instead, maybe it is better to illustrate with a recent use albeit not by the leader of a whole country. In January, after looters had ransacked businesses in Mombasa (most of which were owned by the very successful Kenyans of Indian descent), a local leader announced that curses would be placed on all people that have some ill-begotten merchandise unless the items were returned. They offered an amnesty from curses if the loot was returned. Sure enough, an amazing amount of the stolen goods was returned promptly. TAB!
I have a better way of dealing with the violence in America than in Kenya. They are supposedly about the same level of violence except during the post-election period here. The latest peace/violence list that was released (world organization, I forget) had Kenya at 121 out of 140 countries where Iraq was number 140, but before the riots earlier this year Kenya was ranked 97 while USA is 91 – not much different. But there is something very different about the violence if you ask me. I read about crazy crimes resulting in mass deaths regularly. Deaths occurring when they seem to be avoidable. Kenyans seem fast with the trigger. In America, those kinds of crimes always seem distant whereas they seem much closer here. Plus the deaths seem so much more violent here such as the regular beheadings and immolations. The crimes are also often directed at neighbors and that seems too common and too strange to me. The odd thing is that I do not feel threatened when I am around Nairobi and I have personally seen no evidence of violence in my daily life. The only Nairobians I have seen that I fear is the police such as the two guys who walked by me yesterday near my apartment. They were in uniform caring automatic weapons with no badge or name tags. I really wanted to say something to them, but they were carrying the guns and their organization murders people regularly!
Tags: Africa, kenya
vagabondrick
It’s been over 30 years since I was in Nairobi – and the seeds of the violence were very much in evidence then. I remember all the prosperous (in Kenya standards) shopkeepers of India descent and the undercurrents of deep resentment. The streets were filled with so many sullen angry young men – most who had fled villages for a better life and found nothing in the “big city.” There were occasional outbursts from these deeply angry, disullusioned, and desperate young men. I don’t know just why they didn’t return to their village and eke out a life there as they lived on the streets in Nairobi. I didn’t know enough about the customs to know if once you left your village it was shame or even forbidden to return or what else would cause these young men to cling to the homeless street life in Nairobi. I was very struck by that way back then. The current situation seems an almost inevitable outcome of what was going on back then. I would be interested to know how many of the “thug/mafia” style policemen had their roots in what I saw back then. All my love to you and Pamela and her son too.
Your adventure reminds me of being stopped while driving in South Africa. Of course a white female driving was immediately fair game for “being taken to the police station”. It is great memories now but terrifying at the moment. I soon discovered that I wasn’t being singled out as far more South Africans were stopped throughout my visit. This seems to be routine in many countries in Africa.