By
Margaretta wa Gacheru (May 2020)
In light of
the lockdown and government restrictions on movement, most local artists must
either work from home or out of doors.
That’s not a
problem for graffiti artists like Brian ‘Msale’ Masasia despite the fact that
his studio, behind the Kenya Railway Museum is normally a beehive of activity.
But now it’s gone silent. Previously, the old derelict railway car, which Msale
and his fellow graffiti artists, Kaymist and Thufu B, transformed into a funky
art studio, was regularly filled with young aspiring artists who wanted to
learn graffiti techniques from these street-art masters.
But right
now, Msale has a different audience, message and agenda in mind. As usual, his
primary platform for painting is Nairobi walls. But ever since the coronavirus
shut down most of the graffiti painting and training at his railway studio,
Msale has been painting with a simple message elsewhere.
The latest
location where he’s been working outdoors is in Nairobi’s second largest slum,
Mathare. His mission is to bring a greater degree of enlightenment to the local
people in that one slum so they’ll be better informed about the
life-threatening coronavirus and COVID-19.
“Not that
Mathare residents are unaware of life-threatening diseases,” says Msale who was
accompanied that day by a couple of other graffiti artists. “The people deal
with deadly diseases like cholera, typhoid and malaria on a daily basis, so
they may not understand the difference between them and COVID-19,” he adds.
One
passer-by admits that if he had to make a choice, he’d choose buying food
before buying a mask. But that doesn’t deter Msale.
“We want our
mural to convey five simple points meant to keep people safe at this time,”
says the artist who collaborates on this one wall with Mutua-Arts and his
assistant Poolman. (“Those are the names I know them by,” Msale admits.)
The five
points are integrated into the painting. They are to “stay at home, maintain
social distancing, wash your hands regularly, cover your mouth whenever you
cough and call 719 if you feel sick,” says the artist.
This mural,
like the other four that Msale previously painted in Mathare, was conceived
without sponsorship or donor support. “I just have an affinity for Mathare
since it was the first place that I created graffiti art. I had been a third
year [Kenyatta] University student attached to the studio of the graffiti
artist Swift 9 [Elegwa] when Swift had a mural to paint in the valley and
invited me along,” Msale adds.
Trained as a
painter at KU, Msale says he learned about the aesthetics of fine art at
University. “But I always knew that art could also be a means of informing and
teaching. I learned that from my mother who was a pre-primary school teacher
who used art to teach.”
So it seemed
logical, once he and the country went into lockdown, there might be a means of
employing his talent to convey a valuable message to people who he says are
“forgotten” by the powers that be.
“I know
people are prepared to play their part [in fighting the pandemic]. But if they
don’t know what that part is, then they can’t play it,” says Msale who feels
his murals are informing the locals about what they must do to protect
themselves from this deadly virus. The idea, he says, is to reach people on the
ground and help them to stay safe.
One of
Msale’s friends who was born and raised in Mathare, Anthony Mwelu, is the one
who helped him obtain paints for his murals.
From the outset,
Msale was documenting the process of creating the COVID murals on Facebook and
Instagram. It was one of the later murals that attracted the attention of a
reporter with the British publication, The Guardian.
“We were
already in the process of creating the fifth Mathare mural when The Guardian’s
Duncan Moore asked if he could come along with us,” says Msale who introduced
Moore and his video team to Lucas Odhiambo, of the Mathare Roots Youth
Initiative.
“Lucas helped
us find the wall where we painted this last mural in bright bold colors meant
to attract people’s attention,” says the masked Msale.
“When I was
painting the first mural, I rarely saw people wearing masks. Now I see many
people wearing home-made kitangi masks,” Msale notes.
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