'Double Wahala Part 2' by Oritse Femi and D'banj

In the honored tradition of the troubadour, Oritse Femi teams up with D'banj to offer us a delightful Double Wahala Part 2, which, I find, I like very much.

They ask for silence, but there's no silence here. Nonesuch. Not silence, but its very opposite. Creative pauses, yes. Some naughty Ness too. Constant motion punctuated with a great beat. Just, just a jam of a time!

Their high spirits and colorful tones, and stirrings, will stir everyone who, with a moment to spare, keenly listens and watches.

They're making some noise. Infectious noise. And they're player(ful). It's oosum!


Here, click and watch the video for yourself!

Zahara's Loliwe

[Loliwe = 'train' in Xhoza/Xhosa (that is, KiKosa, EkeKosa, DhoKosa, if you like)]

A couple of months ago I posted three tweets about Zahara's truly moving and memory-evoking song, Loliwe.


Click here to watch the Loliwe video


Certainly, the memories relived in Loliwe are not just of the South African 'condition', in the heyday and latter years of apartheid (which we others, far from Southern Africa, knew little if anything about), but also of our own distinct ontologies; we, particularly, who were Children of the Railways in East Africa -- Children of EAR -- many of whose fathers all too often took the train to elsewhere and lived like bachelors, plunging the children into deep longing. What the mothers felt was of course much beyond their children's innocent imaginations.

Let me share with you, in a partially rewritten form, the main point I wanted to make in the main tweet:

We can clearly see in Loliwe that Zahara is great as a guitarist and great as a vocalist. Loliwe is for me a silky, silky mix. It ranks Zahara among Africa's top balladeers of our time

Loliwe reignites a past that many will remember in different sorts of ways, a past interwoven with childhood itself, a childhood that's woefully incomplete without the railways -- and that's at the same time as varied as the terrains traversed by the Iron Snake for over a century now.

In some sense, it was simply, historically, our fate. Just as it was the fate across the Atlantic of those in America raised in the smoky and sentimental shadows of Chattanooga ChooChoo. It was our 'networked' fate to be the Children of the Railways.

As a mode of transport, the railways came into history only in 1825-30, in Britain. Just seventy years or so later, in 1896, the construction of Uganda Railways (later Kenya-Uganda Railways, and later still EAR) began in Mombasa, in a country 'named' Kenya, after its majestic and snow-caped mountain, which was not to become officially a British colony until 1920. The rail-head reached Nairobi in 1899-1900, and in 1901 Port Florence, now Kisumu City, farther to the west, on the shores of Nam Lolwe, the great Lake Victoria. 

My own father, still a bachelor, joined the railways in Nairobi in the decade before WWII. How he got himself there is a story in itself. I think the railways did keep him from serving in the Carrier Corps in Abyssinia or places, such as Burma, far farther to the east.

Read this History of the Kenya Railways

Yes, Loliwe evokes deep memories, but it has its critics (read this piece, for example)

I conclude this piece by sharing with you another of Zahara's songs, which I like very much as well.

Here it is ~ Ndiza

OJWANG: The Passing of Kenya's King of Comedy

1. He may not have been the father of the Kenyan comedy nation. There were luminaries before him that we remember, in particular: Mzee Pembe and Kipanga. But these were mostly of the radio era. In the Seventies and Eighties, Ojwang became the quintessential king of comedy for most TV-era Kenyans. Comedy, more specifically the Vitimbi series, made him famous -- but far from materially comfortable, let alone prosperous. 
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3. Fame may have been good enough for him, but not for those who know how talent should properly be rewarded, and who now join everyone else who's mourning him.
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5. For the man's died. A Kikuyu (aka Wanjau) with a Luo pseudonym, who -- once you were hooked on his stage character -- it spooked you to even imagine was a Kikuyu. He was so genuinely a Luo in his looks and accent and vocabulary and turn of phrase and mannerism..
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7. He died last night of (we understand) pneumonia, a poor man, all of 78 (or 85 or whatever) years of age. Kenyans of all walks suddenly found themselves 'orphaned'; and in silent, private hand-wringing for someone who had made them (us) laugh all these gone years -- years we now had to pause to fondly remember.
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9. So we rushed to social media to express and share our many-sided sorrows and remembrances. On Twitter, the hashtag #MourningMzeeOjwang became the kraal at which kindred #KOT (Kenyans on Twitter) 'gathered' -- some, I dare say, with intimations or temptations of 'Tero Buru'. It quickly became the country's top trending tag, though not for long.

And so it was that at 10:30 this morning (GMT+3), Twitter's Top 5 'Kenya Trends' featured as: 

1. #MourningMzeeOjwang

2. Morgan Schneiderlin

3. Raheem Sterlin

4. #CampusIconOnKuFm
5. El Chapo.
Here's the tweet that I myself posted this morning:‏

"#MourningMzeeOjwang: #Vitimbi various part 2 (Oldies)full movies https://youtu.be/6gNSGaJemZk  #Ojwang #Comedian #Comedy #Kenya #KOT [Y sez: RIP]"

Click here for another offering of Vitimbi >> Ojwang's opus:
Let me also share with you below a few of the many tweets that appeared today:

1. ktn ‏@KTNKenya 

   RT @JaneNgochi @KTNKenya @Ian_Wafula R.I.P mzee,most of us rem how he made our childhood with his jokes #MourningMzeeOjwang
2. 
   

   TheHubKaren ‏@TheHubKaren 

   Our heartfelt condolences to Benson Wanjau's family. #MourningMzeeOjwang. We celebrate you. Rest in eternal peace Mzee.

1. 
   

   Francis Njogu ‏@fknjogu  

   If you grew up in the 80's Kenya, your entertainment probably revolved around Vitimbi and the one & only Ojwang Hatari. #MourningMzeeOjwang
2. 
   

   Mageto Elijah ‏@MagetoElijah1 

   Mzee Ojwang,Greatest Male actor of all time in Kenya #MourningMzeeOjwang
3. 
   
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5. David Njuki ‏@njukey 

   Will always remember the classic intro of himself as 'Johnstone Sibour Mang'ang'a Hatari Ojwang! ….Brrrrrrrrrrr' #MourningMzeeOjwang
6. 
   

   KenyanKid ‏@menamench 

   My childhood was fun because of MzeeOjwang on the screens, the unsung hero of Comedy. May you RIP #MourningMzeeOjwang this is a wake up call

1. wycliffe ozumba ‏@wycliffeozumba 

   I was shocked on learning of your promotion to Glory,i first saw you in a Red 14'' Black&White Great wall R.I.P #MourningMzeeOjwang
2. 
   

1. HiviSasa ‏@HiviSasa 

   RIP #MourningMzeeOjwang

   
   

   

   
   

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In a sort of quick summation of what I consider a key pillar of Ojwang's comedic legacy, I later tweeted as follows:

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"#KOT: Advertisers/Marketers who feel safe using #Luo words in their commercials & billboards have #Ojwang 2 thank 4 it. #MourningMzeeOjwang." And as I pointed out in a tweet even before he died, he is the reason (because he had the platform) that many, many Kenyans now say, without batting an eye (and without knowing when or how it all started): "Nilimpea" (I gave him, or her), instead of the old conventional: "Nilimpa" or "Nilimpatia."   .


[PS: I have reworked some parts of the original post, after a simmer].

"Weaving is Digital" ~ Teshome Gabriel and Fabian Wagnuster

QUOTE: "In fact, despite the newness often attributed to computer technology, much of its vocabulary, as well as that of the internet, draws on relational concepts borrowed from back-strap weaving. Terms such as texture, pattern, layering, links, nodes, sampling, net, network, web, web weaver, and threads belong to a lexicon employed in both weaving and computing. On a structural level, they both rely on the use of crossing, interweaving lines" ~ Teshome Gabriel and Fabian Wagnuster

CSO302: Qualitative Research Methods. CAT Questions for the May-August 2015 Semester

Many students in the Regular and Module II classes have already received the above-referenced CAT questions via email. For those who have not, here is another way to access the questions: Just click here