Creativity builds nations Muthoni Drummer Queen
Between 2004 and 2008,
I unsuccessfully tried to get
into the Kenyan music industry.
But the recurring answer from producers
was I was not Kenyan enough.
Meaning what?
I didn’t sing fully in the slang
derivative of Kiswahili
and I didn’t sing enough party tracks,
so they said Kenyans wouldn’t listen
to a Kenyan who sounded like me.
This idea of otherism,
the exclusion of a person
based on their perceived
deviation from the norms,
goes to the root of the problems in Kenya.
And it runs deep.
Kenya was invented
by colonialists in 1895,
and with it, came the erasure
of our identity
and the class system built on otherism.
So by 1963, when we received
our independence,
these ideas had already become
the new normal.
Now, we’ve tried a lot of different ways
to move forward since.
We have a common language,
currency, infrastructure,
basically all the things
that make a country a country.
But all these efforts at nation-building
do not go to the heart of the matter.
Which is this:
we cannot build what we do not truly love.
And we cannot love
until we love ourselves.
The thing we have to heal, us Kenyans,
is our lack of self-love,
our deep self-hate
and our existential identity crisis.
And this is the work of nation-building
that only the creative industry can do.
The idea that Kenya
can only include some of us
led me to found a music festival in 2008
called Blankets and Wine,
to give a platform to myself
and other misfits.
Ten years later,
we’ve programmed over 200 bands
and put at least 100,000 dollars
directly into the hands
of artists and managers,
who have in turn spent it
on technicians, rehearsals,
music videos and other things
along the music value chain.
Our platform has allowed
for multiple Kenyan identities to exist,
while inspiring the industry
to discover and engage
the wide variety of Kenyan music.
What we do is necessary but insufficient.
And we must urgently pivot
into a live music circuit.
But there are other ways
music can help heal the nation.
According to a 2018 state of media report,
traditional radio is sill by far
the biggest distributor of ideas in Kenya,
with 47 percent of Kenyans
still choosing radio first.
This presents an opportunity.
We can use radio to help Kenyans hear
the diversity that is Kenya.
We can reserve 60 percent
of all programing on Kenyan radio
for Kenyan music.
We can break down ethnic barriers
by playing Kenyan music
done in English, Kiswahili
and other ethnic languages,
on what is now
single-language ethnic radio.
Radio can help stimulate
interest and demand
for Kenyan music by Kenyans,
while also providing
the much-needed incomes
by way of royalties.
But more importantly,
radio can help us build a more inclusive
narrative about Kenya.
For you cannot love
what you do not know exists.
Other creative industries
too can do the work.
When you consider
that 41 percent of Kenyans
still choose TV as their primary medium,
it’s obvious that film
has a huge potential.
The meager resources
that have been put into the sector
have already produced world-class acts,
like Lupita Nyong’o and Wanuri Kahiu,
but we are going to need
a lot more incentives and investments
to make filming in Kenya easier,
so more Kenyan stories
can get on the Kenyan TV
and spark off the really
difficult conversations
we need to have with one another.
We’re going to need to grow
a lot more home-grown stars,
so we can reverse the idea
that we have to blow up abroad
before we get the acceptance
and validation of home.
Fashion too can do the work.
We need to make it possible
to affordably mass-produce
Kenyan clothes for Kenyan consumers,
so we don’t all have to rely
on second-hand imports.
The first running shoe made in Kenya
needs to be a local and global success
as an ode to Kenyan excellence,
epitomized by Kenyan runners,
who are literally world-class.
For these ideas to come to life,
jobs will be created,
and Kenyan ideas will be exported.
But more importantly,
Kenyans may finally
consider themselves worthy
of the love that we reserve for others.
Kenya’s creative industry is dynamic,
cosmopolitan, forward-looking,
and without a doubt,
a true manufacturing industry
of the immediate future.
But its true power lies in its ability
to help heal the psyche of Kenya,
so we can finally build a nation for real.
Thank you.
(Applause)
(Applause)
For this song, I’d like us all
to take a minute
and think about immigrant communities,
and especially refugee
immigrant communities,
and the daily struggle
they have to endure,
building a life with dignity and meaning
away from everything
they have loved and known.
If you feel any empathy for this idea,
I ask to see your fist
up in the air with me.
(Music)
“Million voice.”
The mandem make some noise
With a million, million voice
All the mandem make some noise
With a million, million voice
Can’t stop I, won’t stop I
With a million, million voice
Can’t stop I, won’t stop I
With a million, million voice
This one dedicated
to my people building something
Working hard to make sure
that their children will lack for nothing
When them people come around
and treat them like they’re basic
I just want to LOL and tell them
to consider all their options
Caution, natural distortion
You can’t even kill us
we survive even abortion
Say we cannot make it,
watch us how we make it
Watch us in a minute
come and run and overtake it
TED, clap!
Can’t have enough of it
This our only way of life
Keeping, keeping on the grind
TED, will you clap like this.
Can’t have enough of it
This our only way of life
Keeping, keeping on the grind
Keeping, keeping on the grind
The mandem make some noise
Like a million, million voice
All the mandem make some noise
With a million, million voice
Can’t stop I, won’t stop I
With a million, million voice
Can’t stop I, won’t stop I
With a million, million voice
Can I be your leader
Can I be your Caesar
If I show you how to make some more
will you pledge allegiance
Is it always either
Me or you or neither
If I show you where I’m coming from,
will you take a breather?
Cos what you’ll find – what you’ll find
What you’ll find
guarantee will blow your mind!
I’ll blow your mind – I’ll blow your mind
And then you’ll see the reason
I stay on my grind
Would you clap!
Can’t have enough of it
It’s our only way of life
Keeping, keeping on the grind
Keeping, keeping on the grind
Can’t have enough of it
It’s our only way of life
Keeping, keeping on the grind
Keeping, keeping on the grind
The mandem make some noise
(Cheering)
(Applause)
This next one is partly in Kiswahili,
which is what we speak in Kenya.
And it’s about female friendship
and female power.
And girls coming together
to build something that lasts,
a true legacy and intergenerational worth.
“Suzie Noma.”
(Drum music)
Sitting at the corner
Me and Suzie Noma
We ain’t got no worries
we are looking like the owners
Sipping on Coronas
Looking at the phone as
All them pretty boys
come and tell us how they want us
Mambo ni kungoja, aki mtangoja
Sinaga matime za kuwaste na vioja
Planning how we want
to take over the world soon
Riding on the drums
and the clap while the bass goes
Hey! Shake it down shake it down like
Wait till you, wait till you see my
Hey! Shake it down shake it down like
Wait till you, wait till you see my
If you really know it
and you really wanna show it
Be the way to go
Go and grab somebody,
move your body, show somebody
Be the way to go
On this I know,
all this I know, all this I know
On this I know,
all this I know, all this I know
Iyo!
Scheming at the corner
Me and Suzie Noma
We ain’t got no money
but we do it how we wanna
Painting our nails checking our mails as
All them pretty boys
wanna have us but they fail like
Aki mtangoja, leo mtangoja
Saa hii tukoworks hakunaga za vioja
Planning how we want to
take over the world soon
Riding on the drums and the clap
while the bass goes boom
Shake it down shake it down like
Wait till you, wait till you see my
Hey! Shake it down shake it down like
Wait till you, wait till you see my
If you really know it
and you really wanna show it
Be the way to go
Go and grab somebody,
move your body, show somebody
Be the way to go
On this I know,
all this I know, all this I know
On this I know,
all this I know, all this I know
And now you whine your waist
And now you screw your face
Exaggerate your waist
Resuscitate the place
Na wale wako fifty fifty comsi
Na wale wako fiti pia sisi
Tuko tu sawa mdogo mdogo yaani
Hallelu-yawa tumeiva design
If you really know it,
and you really wanna show it
Be the way to go
Go and grab somebody,
move your body, show somebody
Be the way to go
On this I know,
all this I know, all this I know
On this I know,
all this I know, all this I know
Iyo!
(Cheering)
(Applause)