The Legacy of Fear: How the Shadow of Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Shaped Kenya's Political Landscape In the annals of Kenya's political history, the events of 1969 stand out as a defining moment marked by fear, coercion, and manipulation. The political tension surrounding Jaramogi Oginga Odinga's candidature led to a series of oath-taking ceremonies in Gatundu that forever altered the fabric of Kenyan society. Understanding this historical context is crucial, especially when contemporary politicians attempt to invoke these dark chapters for political gain. The Fear of Jaramogi and the Birth of the Gatundu Oath The roots of the infamous Gatundu oath can be traced back to the fear and propaganda surrounding Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, the former vice-president and then-leader of the opposition. By 1969, the political landscape in Kenya was charged with tension. The assassination of Cabinet Minister Tom Mboya on 5th July 1969 had already set a volatile backdrop. Within this context, Pr...
The world was thrown into frenzy when the KONY 2012 video went mega-viral on YouTube.
After watching the hollywood style film (30 whole minutes of my life I’m afraid I’ll never get back), and seeing the atrocities committed on innocent children, many celebrities and top government officials worldwide have come out strongly to agitate for the immediate arrest of Joseph Kony and the decimation of his Lord’s Resistance Army.
When Jedidiah Jenkins from the “non-profit organisation” Invisible Children uploaded the video a few weeks ago, I bet he never thought it would escalate to the proportions we are witnessing. With over 80 million views in its first 7 days, and well over 100 million currently and still counting, KONY 2012 is the most viral video to ever feature on YouTube.
Rihanna was first on the ‘Stop Kony’ band wagon. She confessed that she learnt of the video from her twitter fans and then decided to check it out. “I’ve never been moved like this, I’ve never been involved. I want to go big. I want to get involved. I want this to be my thing and I want to blow this up. I want to get kids involved. I’m just responding to my fans. They’re so moved by this,” she reportedly said in a phone conversation with Jenkins.
Things quickly picked up in the next few days; people came out criticising the video and called it a scam (the KONY 2012 scam, replaced quickly by HORNY 2012 after Russell’s dramatic meltdown), even as the number of views kept rising and the celebrity activists kept coming.
Then Soulja Boy came up with a song.
In an effort to get his opinion heard, Soulja Boy went ahead to record “KONY 2012 (Stop Kony)”. Inasmuch as his intentions were for the greater good, the road to hell is paved with good intentions: Soulja boy has inevitably made a fool of himself. Even if one takes into consideration the fact that he is not known for melodious, lyrical and rhyme infested musical melancholy, this is still a complete fail.
On said song, he lets the commentary in the video run over a hip-hop beat as he occasionally yells “Stop Kony! Stop Kony!” It’s an extremely surreal and very disconcerting attempt at trying to make the most of a situation he seems to know little to nothing about. To the trained ear, it sounds as though Soulja Boy is in the bathroom howling away, the video is playing in the living room, a hip-hop beat is playing in the bedroom, and somehow his phone is somewhere in the middle to record all the three occasions. The production is cheap, rough, quick and dirty, and just when you thought Soulja Boy could never sound worse, he comes up trumps.
KONY 2012 (Stop Kony) could have sounded a lot better had he desisted from attention seeking, and it reeks of a publicity stunt gone tits up:
We gonna stop Kony / It’s 20 over its 2012 / 10 summers / Kidnapped the kid took him to the jungle / AK47 / And he can’t never ever / Never seen his daddy / Never seen his mama / Make this his history / All you gotta do is believe / Soulja Boy Tell Em tatted on my sleeve...
A friend recently told me that this whole Kony affair is like the Illuminati - everyone knows about it, but no one seems to know anything about it. Let’s do something about it already, instead of blatantly exploiting it. I’m looking at you Invisible Children and Soulja Boy.
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