Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Yet Another Crappy Post

When I was growing up, we used to refer to mitumba as marehemu George. We referred to used clothes thus because we believed them to have been pre-owned by white folks and shipped to us poor Africans upon the instance of their death.

Then we grew up, left school through means either foul or fair and joined the hordes of dispossessed urban youth sitting on stones waiting and talking; sharing halflifes and cans of napalm-like liquor. We had neither gainful employment nor leisure so we drank- baadala ya kazi- and shagged each other indiscriminately to while away the days. We had no money and our clothes grew more threadbare on our backs; our toes peeped then eventually began to stare through the holes in our shoes- holes that came to represent the widening chasms in our souls and dreams.

It was time to re-brand marehemu George!

Marehemu George…

Marehemu George became Marehemu Baba George. Marehemu Baba George because in those emerging times, if you saw a kid in the neighbourhood wearing ‘new shoes’, you knew that they had been previously owned not by some dead guy in Europe but by some unfortunate Baba so and so in Nairobi. And that Baba so and so would be at that moment lying at the City Mortuary wearing a toe tag: Unidentified African Male. If you were capable of reading the Government Pathologist’s formalin induced squiggles then you would see such things as: Multiple stab wounds… Blunt object… Haemorrhage and in more recent times, ‘anal trauma’.

But all that seems like a long time ago as I pause to stare at my shoes. My new shoes! My new shoes; not new as in newly owned Gikomba Deluxe but NEW-box fresh new! Shoes that haven’t walked all the way to the EPZ Complex just to see: Hakuna Kazi and back again to one love Licker store just to say baadala ya kazi. Shoes that came in a box with the clothes store’s logo and not in a bale stuffed with soiled underwear from a Salvation Army store.

I resume writing but my fingers fail me. Fingers! These fingers that cannot get the hang to create on my new medium-this spanking new laptop! These fingers that learnt their trade scribbling: I WaNT tO BE a wRritER! with crayons mother pilfered from the main House (That was way back when we lived in an SQ in Loresho and mum used to earn a living cleaning soiled baby bottoms and the equally soiled bottom sheets of their mothers’ boudoirs. And those sheets soiled as the mothers played such indoor games as bedminton and table penis and danced the Horizontal but not necessarily to the guttural humming of their baby fathers!)

Fingers!

The fingers caress the flat LCD screen marvelling at how all those angst filled words have taken on a mundane feel as this wordsmith begins to believe his own publicity.

These fingers. The self same fingers that picked up smouldering bits of charcoal out of Mama Samaki’s brazier, as I staggered home from One Love Licker Store. Fingers that used that charcoal to trace caveman-like representations of my dreams- a writer’s dreams- on the crumbly walls of my cardboard lean to. And then came the street days; the hustle; Five-Os and their stray bullets. These fingers stayed with me throw it all. These fingers explored new media even of the public toilet variety. What joy I derived standing in choo namba nane, dipping these fingers in constipated shit and using that to write: Hello World, I am still writing!

Hello World…

Hello…?

Shit!

I stop tap tapping and pat my shirt pocket in search of a nyongi. Is Bilas! Then I see a flash of gold to the left. A whole fucking pack of A-Band gaffs just for me? Dadi, which Jesus, Benson or Hedges died and made me king? I light up, take two hits and flick the cigarette onto the parking lot down below. A gaff that has barely lost its virginity; a gaff way off Beggar’s Point- thrown away by Potash, The, what’s the world come to?

I stare at the smouldering fag as it lies in the midst of the lovely jacaranda bloom that litters the parking lot- oh; I see trees and flowers and manicured lawns. Damn, soon I will be writing of African sunsets.

The muted sounds of a television reach my ears. I turn round and peer through a gap where two velveteen drapes fail to meet. Oh; I see God. Okay actually it is a pair of breasts that I see; breasts created in the image of God.

The breast owner spots me. She waves. Man, she fine no? That there dadi is my publicist. At two a.m. while I struggle with words, she is living the out Nairobi’s latest fad: 24 hrs of Prison Break!

Mhh… she lies there on the couch looking pretty. When she is done watching TV I will get on the couch…. Oh how I wish she didn’t have to go to bed. Well, didn’t have to go to bed and leave me the couch. I would love to go to bed with her but I have to settle for her couch with her lingering scent and my trusted right hand for company.

Okay now I am too fidgety to write. I meant to prepare some sort of speech for a panel discussion later on in the day. But I do not give a rat’s arse about speeches. I mean, what is there to tell people about the efficacy of blogs. Blogs are a powerful tool for writers, duh! I live on the ill side of the Digital Divide and yet I was discovered on the Blogosphere. Quod Erata Demonstradum. I am here talking about blogs, aih Kwani, si you jijazia.

That is about all I have or need to tell anyone about blogs, so I will hopefully be able to make the panel engage me in a more life changing discussion: How do I get to sleep with my publicist?

***
Damn I am on conference overload and this blog has gone to the dogs. Let me fly down to Lamu and rethink the shit I do. It has become bigger than me. Oh and yesterday some two girls from England said that this hood shit is bullcrap… that I am a reluctant rich kid.
What the fuck...?

I will blog when I can. I do not know when.

I just wanna fucking get back to the hood. Oh and by the way, I wrote this post on Monday but just couldn’t get it out. I do not really think I care abut this blog anymore. So all the new readers read the archives- that’s where the tight shit be at!

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

My dear breathe, the post is not as usual yet still its you. Yet'anal trauma' is deeply disturbing makes me wonder do we have to go that way?
Try to enjoy and maybe learn in Lamu then share in the club.

Anonymous said...

Keep them comming, i always look forward to your posts.
Another year of Mad crazy post.

Happy Happy Holiday,

Nyama choma na tusker...or is it black & white thudder?

Anonymous said...

Hey Potash. I see you still be trying to get into your publicists undies. Never heard that you should not shite where you work?

Marehemu George brings back memories from childhood. I see you are moving on up, new shoes lovely new laptop, sigh, usitusahau sisi wananchi wa kawaida when you become a 'superstar'.

Go, educate, learn, then come and share. Have a Mary Krismas and a more prosperous new year!

Anonymous said...

I dont know your usual post but i read this and read and realised i had finished. Whatever you might think, this was - damn. You write good.

Anonymous said...

hey Potash, you may not think that this post is good but as a fan-almost-groupie i disagree. it may have a more baleful hint at the edges but the words still jump out of the page and the visuals still wrap themselves around the brain. good lick... ahem! luck with the publisher.

Anonymous said...

Enjoy the respite!! When the storo comes, you will unleash with venom~something about 'taking the boy out of the hood but not the hood...??'

Anonymous said...

Enjoy the respite!! When the storo comes, you will unleash with venom~something about 'taking the boy out of the hood but not the hood...??'

Anonymous said...

Take your time and get back to the hood if you must, as for those british gals don't waste your time on senseless talk, And hey there is nothing wrong with enjoying the fruits of your labour. Hope lamu gives you what your yearn to get back.

Anonymous said...

You leave us but we know you'll be back. As for hiatus and the such I am in a semi hiatus myself right now, blogging just isnt doing it anymore.

Anonymous said...

Mighty glad we have that flat LCD screen..

Wantng to go to bed with your publicist got me mighty jelous..

You not caring about this blog is a mighty first!! needless to remind you that this blog was your baby at one point?? tsk tsk.

Have a blast in Lamu and get your mind off breasts and all sorts'a mighty envies for once!!

ms. vs said...

What an enchanting and honest post.

Anonymous said...

if memory serves...it was year (almost to the day) that you led us down and through the streets of Nai., that leads me to wonder, as neither I nor the 'potash'believe in mere consequence, what the new year/new life will bring-

waiting with bated breath

Anonymous said...

Happy New Year Mista, and give us the low down on Lamu.

Anonymous said...

Hi Potash - British woman here - just want you to know we're not all the same and that I agree with the rest of your readers here - this prose sings!

Anonymous said...

Ati unadai nini? Weeeee!
Ebu tuliza mzinga kwanza....Unataka kutudisconnect na ishhh!!!
------
Enuff of the reproach....Publicist!!! Ehe?? Uli..... Hehehe!! Give ur right hand a brek!!
What are the honkie chics sain'? Evven if its tru....*its not tru, is it?*
Acha nifike ma-archives....

iman said...

Critical theory has destroyed me as a reader. I can't help but read this post as fiction, so I know that you (the "real" author - lacan would laugh to hear me say that) are fine and this is just "potash" being "potash." But then look at the comments, these ernest missives from believers! I want to believe! Give me the red pill, I want to know just how deep this rabbit hole goes!