STORYTELLING SOSA ENCOMPASSED THE ARTS

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted July 31,2023) Christine Mungai is a creative force to be reckoned with as everybody saw in this past fortnight when her vision was realized in the form of an ‘experimental’ show, directed by Mugambi Nthege, entitled 'Storytelling Sosa'. [Sosa being that extra dab of ugali or rice that you ask for when the food is too yummy and you need a ‘top up’ to complete your delicious meal.] Her concept has to do with combining several creative processes in one production. She starts with storytelling, which she describes as ‘’a longform magazine style of writing’. After that, she adds animation, video, data presented in graphic forms, and finally, photography. I would personally add stand-up comedy and spoken word rap since the show’s presenters, June Gachui and Elsaphan Njora are masters in both fields. June is well known for her humor in ‘Because you said so’ (BYSS) while Elsaphan is someone like June of many talents, including his gift for rapping, rhyming, and taking command of the Louis Leakey Auditorium’s front-stage at Nairobi National Museum last weekend. Both artists did what they do best that night which is improv’, (that form of theatre that’s liberated from a written script). Their job was to moderate the whole show, which they performed well. But their interludes were witty and grabby of our attention. We didn’t want to let them off the stage. But then they went on to introduce the Sosa storytellers. They included Christine Mungai herself, together with Lilian Majanja, Wanjeri Gakuru, Paul Otieno, and the queen of storytelling Aleya Kassam. Each explored the theme of ‘Home’ from their own unique perspective while situating it in a broad historical context. Opening the storytelling was Christine who shared ‘The Parable of the Monkeys’ based on her personal experience of witnessing the way monkeys have gotten so familiar with humans, they are now invading people’s kitchens and eating everything in sight, as if they had divine rights. She was also able to place her parable within a larger social framework which enabled her to interrogate the issue of racial bias, algorithms, and even the use of AI as a means of replacing human beings, especially those who don’t have easy access to WIFI and the internet. Her presentation was compelling, thought-provoking, and far-sighted in her views on the future prospects of how the rule of machines and AI could bring new challenges to those seeking equity and social justice. The other political story was by Wanjeri Gakuru entitled ‘Siku za Mwizi Aeibaini’. It was one that made us cringe at the horror she revealed the way Kenyans stand by as they witness the impunity of mob justice. They watch yet do nothing to protect or prevent the harming of those who often are the vulnerable in society. She took us back to colonial times when the British colonizer mistreated his African employees. He was especially brutal during the Emergency when people were raped, beaten, castrated, and of course, they had already been robbed of their homelands. It is that same sort of insensitive cruelty that we see in mob justice. Wanjeri’s storytelling was also powerful, provocative, and painful to think about. But at the same time, her implicit point was that there is need to rouse awareness of such bad practices so that they can be purged from the systems we encounter in our everyday lives. Paul Otieno went on to give us a wonderful retrospective of his mother’s trendy sense of fashion, focusing the history of hair fashion and his mum’s sharp sense of trending hair styles. His story, entitled ‘Mama Onyango’s Hair’ went from what he saw as a toddler up until now when she shaves her hair and still looks chic in the process. Paul added photography to the Sosa mix as he brought out lovely models wearing fashions that trended during his mom’s heydays. Meanwhile, Lilian Majanja admitted she had grown up in many different physical houses, such that none could qualify as giving her a permanent sense of comfort and home. The one thing that gave her a feeling of ‘Home’ (the title of her story, ironically) was the table that got carried along as her family moved from one house to the next. Finally, one of the reigning ladies of storytelling, Aleya Kassam came out in her elegant Sari to share her story, ‘100 Years of Samosa’ about her family’s history of going from having little to creating a fine home out of making samosas, one by one.