from Research in African Literatures Volume 32, Number 1 Kimondo, Satire, and Political Dialogue: Electioneering through Versification
Kimani Njogu
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There is strong evidence that Kiswahili dialogue poetry is modeled on ordinary conversation. In this poetry, poets take turns making moves (see Sacks et al.) and in alternating their roles of active production and reception. Furthermore, they use each move to maximize on any local and global goals they hope to attain in the course of the interaction. This article examines a type of poetry that exists in Lamu, on the northern coast of Kenya, in which political electioneering is conducted through poetry.
Election campaigning is a period of power contestation and public social challenge. It is a time when individuals who represent different social, economic, and political programs come into the public sphere and advance their policies. It is also an arena in which political candidates .provide a public critique of their opponents. Thus, the election period is inherently replete with tension and competing points of view, occasionally expressed satirically. In Lamu, campaigns are at times conducted through poetry. That is, parliamentary hopefuls may hire the services of popular poets who then sing their praises while simultaneously ridiculing their opponents. The ridiculed opponents may also hire their own poets to respond to the accusations leveled at them, seemingly the poetic counterpart of the United States television ad campaign. These competing poems are either sung in public or electronically transmitted through cassettes. This satirical poetry in Lamu has come to be known as kimondo (pl, vimondo).
As Assibi Amidu has correctly noted, during the 1975 single-party parliamentary by-election in the Lamu East constituency, electioneering was conducted through versification. These verses represented competing and opposing viewpoints. The viewpoints were consequently open to public scrutiny and debate. On the one hand, Mahmoud Ahmed Abdul Kadir, the composer of the utenzi poem in praise of Mzamil Omar Mzamil, endorses Mzamil's candidacy. He depicts Mzamil as a positive and ideal representative of the people of Lamu East. On the other hand, he emits harsh and virulent attacks on the incumbent member of parliament, Abubakar Madhubuti. This form of electioneering through poetry was also evident in the 1997 multiparty political campaigns in Lamu.
But what really is kimondo? According to Charles Sacleux's Dictionnaire français-swahili, kimondo is synonymous with kinga cha shetani ("devil's firebrand"): "D'aprés la légende musulmane, les étoiles filantes sont des traits de feu lancés par des anges ou de génies" 'According to Muslim legend, shooting stars are bolts of fire shot by angels or genies' (382). This position is echoed by Jan Knappert in his exposition of stars that are known to the Waswahili: "Other stars and constellations known to the Swahili were: kimwondo, kinga la shetani (satan's firebrand), falling star" (97). Ludwig Krapf has stated in his dictionary that "kimuondo (sic) is a missile; a shooting star because they (sic) are said to be thrown by the angels at the jinns." In a sense, then, kimondo refers to a shooting star or the devil's torch.
According to an Islamic belief, angels and jinns target these torches at each other across the skies. But to what end? Specifically, the torches are aimed at blinding and neutralizing others and keeping them from heaven. The kimondo in the skies as reconceptualized here herald the continuing battle between the representatives of good and evil. When used in reference to political satire, the kimondo is aimed at neutralizing opponents and rendering them powerless. According to Athman Lali Omar of Lamu, "kimondo ni radi na ni pigo" 'kimondo is lightning and it is an attack.' It is an artistic fierce attack on an opponent, which, according to Omar (pers. comm.), can only be "cooled by the ocean where it lands after conducting its attack." Its power is immediate and effective.
In kimondo, a political opponent is attacked artistically through the use of satire (see Amidu). To this end, poets utilize satirical references, allusions, and a questioning of the opponent's public and religious life. The term kimondo encapsulates the spirit of political and social challenge in Lamu. According to the narrator of kimondo no. 3 (composed by Mahmoud Ahmed Abdul Kadir and performed on audiotape by Mohamed Abdalla Kadara "Mau"), a politician who is commited to his society has to fulfill certain minimal conditions such as sacrificing individual interests for the sake of the electorate and ensuring accessibility when needed. He or she should not be arrogant, but ready to serve everybody indiscriminately:
Lazima awe tayari
Kuhimili utiriri
Akiepushe kiburi
Kabisa kutotumiya
Ni lazima akubali
Matatizo kukabili
Asijitie shughuli
Watu wanapomwendea
Wabora hata wanyonge
Hishima yao achunge
Asiwafanye mabwege
Yao kutozingatia
Na ni lazima mbunge
Kabisa asijitenge
Watu kufanya malenge
Kura walompigia
Ni lazima atafiti
Kulla saa na wakati
Shida za wake u mati
Hamu kuzichukulia
After stating the minimal conditions of a people-oriented politician, the narrator wonders whether the former member of parliament had met any of those conditions. He draws on specific instances when the politician betrayed his constituents. The politician had refused to address issues of education, health, commerce, transportation, religion. Kimondo no. 3 acts as a continuation of kimondo no. 2, to be discussed shortly.
A person attacked in kimondo has the right to reply in like manner. Most politicians do obtain the services of poets to answer the attacks on their behalf. The kimondo genre definitely has the potential of continuing for as long as the fundamental issues addressed in the precursor kimondo are still pertinent. Moreover, it is an example of a dialogic poetic genre at times grounded in satire. The satirical nature of the verse emerges in the process of performance and oralization, other than in the written rendering of the same. Body gestures and the articulation of words communicate the hidden meaning of the otherwise straightforward composition. It is in the performance of the kimondo that its satirical nature truly emerges. In essence, the written text masks the communicative capacity of kimondo to the extent that the moments of satirization experienced in performance are denied expression. Such satirization shows certain features of the dialogic discussed in a number of works within dialogic criticism.
The question we need to ask at this stage is whether satire is inherently a dialogic relation. In his study of the Mennipean satire, Bakhtin defines satire, parody, the diatribe, and soliloquy in terms of the Mennipean satire (see Rabelais and His World and Problems of Dostoevsky's Poetics). Satire, like parody, is linked to the carnival sense of the world. In both genres, the world is turned inside out. For Bakhtin, the Mennipean satire was one of the "main carriers and channels for the carnival sense of the world, and remains so to the present day" (Problems 113). Because satire depends principally on the interpreters' ability to recognize that the oblique surreptitious expression is actually an attack with certain goals, it is an ambivalent genre. The satirist objectifies his or her aggression indirectly (Test 17). Northrop Frye has referred to satire as "militant irony" and in that process is able to capture two aspects of satire. First, he affirms that aggression is satire's distinctive component. Satire is an attack. Second, Frye captures the fact that irony is satire's often used weapon.
Irony is itself a dialogic relation. Satirists, by utilizing irony, call on interpreters to refigure the meaning of the utterance in view of its new context of use. They expect their readers to make the necessary external connections. Satire is dialogic in at least two senses:
1) It makes reference to another text that is the subject of critique.
2) It depends on the audience to read it as satire.
Satirists do not expect their utterances to be taken at face value. As George Test has emphasized, satire by its very nature asks the audience to make a connection between the work and the context in which it finds expression (32). In effect, satire.asks--demands--that its audience engage in a dialogue of a special kind. In addition to making associations, the audience is expected to assimilate the mixture of aggression, play, laughter, and judgement that is set before it. (32)
That does not, of course, suggest that satiric pieces are not taken literally. Satire may elicit multivalent readings. Test says that after reading Gulliver's Travels, a reader attempted to find Lilliput on the world map (11). Rushdie's Satanic Verses has been read as a critique of Islam as a religion, a fact that has led to Rushdie's death sentence under fatwa.
It would seem that kimondo in Lamu resulted from a feeling of anger, indignation, and betrayal at those who wield political power. The kimondo is thus a reply to a preceding utterance. In the kimondo under discussion, greed, injustice, criminality, economic sabotage, antireligiosity, and political betrayal are subjected to satiric comment. The Lamu vimondo utilize history to shed light on political trends. Their starting point is the understanding, re-evaluating, and reshaping of the sociocultural, economic, and political reality in Lamu in the living present. The vimondo are presented in a terrain of the immediate and familiar. The past and the distanced are presented in order to illuminate the present. Secondly, the vimondo have a multistyled and heterogeneous tendency. They have a multitoned narration especially in their use of direct and indirect speech; they make use of inserted genres, retold dialogues, and parodically reinterpreted citations; they use jargons, anecdotes, familiar episodes, and registers, and connect languages such as Kiswahili and Arabic. Vimondo nos. 2 and 3, for example, end with a long prayer in Arabic. Another phenomenon in these vimondo is that in all cases the name of the satirized politican is not mentioned but alluded to. Yet the name of the preferred politician is mentioned. In all instance, furthermore, election symbols are personified and incorporated into the poem.
Some of these general characteristics find expression in one of the 1975 vimondo. The results of the Lamu East general elections, in which the incumbent member of parliament, Abubakar Madhubuti had lost, were nullified due to certain election anomalies. A by-election was called, and the by-election became more aggressive in approach than the general election proper. The intoning of vimondo as competitive satirical verses was part of that close contest. Because political elections are an imposition of obligatory contest between contenders, contestants expose each other publicly in order to win votes.
The Lamu kimondo is a poetic rendering of verbal duels during campaigns. As Amidu has noted, it is simultaneously a mordant attack on "devils" in human shape and Muslim attire inclined towards breaking the teachings of the Quran and hadith. Kimondo is thus a public questioning of such evils as ufisadi ("corruption"), dhuluma ("oppression"), usaliti ("betrayal"), and other evil deeds in society. It is a public challenge and exposure of parliamentary aspirants. Through the kimondo, the public is called upon to gauge and evaluate the aspirants' life history and public and private deeds vis-à-vis Islamic teachings. Without doubt, the kimondo is a poetic display and challenge of political leaders.
The Lamu by-election was contested on the basis of economic, religious, and moral standards. These were linked with Islam as an all-encompassing and unifying ideology in Lamu. The by-election was also informed by such socioeconomic issues as the unavailability of schools, good drinking water, health facilities, electrification, investment programs, and employment. In a sense, kimondo was bifunctional. On the one hand, it was a questioning of the religious lifestyle of political leaders and, on the other hand, the 1975 kimondo was a collective reflection on the socioeconomic problems in Lamu East. Furthermore, it was an answer to claims and tendencies attributable to the local Member of Parliament. In that sense, the kimondo acted as the people's courtroom. In his kimondo no. 3, for instance, Mohamoud Ahmed Abdul Kadir "Mau" says that he is morally obliged and committed to exposing evils in his society not only because it is his religious responsibility to do so but also because it is human:
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| Naamini ni lazima | I believe it is important |
| Kwa kulla mtu kusema | For everyone to speak |
| Kuwaelezea umma | To inform the people |
| Maovu na mema piya | Of the bad as well as the good |
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| Ikawa nitanyamaza | If I keep quiet |
| Takuwa sikutimiza | I will not have fulfilled |
| Wajibu wa kueleza | My obligation to explain |
| Lawama nitaingiya | And I would be blamed |
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| Nitangia lawamani | I would be blamed |
| Kwa Mola wetu Manani | By God our Lord |
| Nitakuwa nimehini | I will have betrayed |
| Umma wote kwa umoya | Everybody, all together |
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| Mtu kiona makosa | If one sees wrongdoing |
| Ya dini au siasa | In religion or politics |
| Kuyasema yampasa | It behoves one to speak |
| Watu wapate sikiya | So that everyone may hear |
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| Ni lazima kulla mtu | It is vital that everybody |
| Kueleza kulla kitu | Expose everything |
| Chenye kuwadhuru watu | That is harmful to the people |
| Na hasara kuwatiya | And that leads to deprivation |
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| Na nimetoa ahadi | And I have promised |
| Mimi nyuma sitorudi | That I shall never retreat |
| Mno nitajitahidi | I will try as hard as I can |
| Kalamu kuitumia | To make use of my pen |
The kimondo composer sees a connection between poetry and sociopolitical life and the committed poet as contributing towards sensitizing people to reflect on the evils in their society and on how best to resolve them. The poet and, similarly, the performer of the kimondo verses become social commentators. On the basis of the verses quoted above, kimondo no. 3 is not closed, but open. It invites everybody to speak out against evil because it is their right to do so. In other words, it is advocating for a "dialogics of the oppressed" (see Hitchcock). By exposing political hypocrisy and oppression, the poet empowers the oppressed and disempowers the oppressors, by unmasking and demystifying them in public (in the spirit of carnival). In kimondo, that is done through reference to specific events and situations familiar to the public.
In the response of kimondo no. 2, which is in support of the politician Mzamil and an attack on Madhubuti,1 the poet narrates how Madhubuti shrugged off his constituents who had gone to seek assistance so that they might go to Mombasa and participate in the burial of a colleague, Abdurazaki:
| 22: | Kaambiwa: "Tafadhali | He was told, "Please |
| Tu maiti sipitali | We have a corpse at the hospital |
| Fanya ala kuli hali | Do all that you can |
| Upate kutulolea" | To get the body released to us" |
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| 23: | "Fanya haraka kabisa | "Please act as fast as possible |
| sije tukamkosa | Lest we should fail to get him |
| Twataka rudi Mombasa | We want to return to Mombasa |
| Huko tutamzikia" | Where we shall bury him" |
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| 24: | Akawajibu umati | He answered the delegation: |
| Kawaambia: "Hiki kiti | He told them, "This seat of mine |
| Si cha kutowa maiti | Is not meant to do an undertaker's job |
| Cha bungeni nilongia" | This is a parliamentary seat!" |
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| 25: | Kisa hilo kutamka | After speaking thus |
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| Papo hapo kazunguka | He turned around then and there |
| Bila ya kusikitika | Without any mercy |
| Mlango kawafungia | And shut the door in their face |
According to the poet, Madhubuti as a people's representative in parliament should have been sensitive to Abdulrazaki's death and helped his constituents remove his body from the mortuary. But the member of parliament was grossly insensitive. First, he insulted them by claiming that his parliamentary seat was not for removing corpses from morgues and second, by shutting the door and forcing them out of his office, Madhubuti delinked his world from that of his people.
Matters of death are treated very respectfully and cautiously among the Waswahili. It is considered extremely impolite to insult the dead. Madhubuti's action was therefore an affront to his constituents. According to the poet, this insensitivity to the needs of his constituents is true to the character of Madhubuti. His insensitivity to matters of death is juxtaposed and contrasted with his concern for perpetrators of criminal activities. He is depicted as a person who goes out of his way to protect criminals and those with criminal tendencies:
| 35: | Na yeye ni maarufu | And he is infamous |
| Kusaidi wahalifu | For assisting criminals |
| Na watendao uchafu | And those engaged in dirty deeds |
| Mno huwasaidia | He quickly helps them out |
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| 36: | Na watendao makosa | And for those who commit offences |
| Adhabu ikiwapasa | And deserve to be punished |
| Yeye hutoa mapesa | He comes forward with money |
| Tayari kuwatetea | Ready and eager to bail them out |
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| 37: | Kazi yake husaidi | His tendency is to assist |
| Kulla aliyo gaidi | Those that are malefactors |
| Ili apate kurudi | So that he may come back |
| Kuihalifu sharia | To transgress the law |
By helping criminals Madhubuti negates what the people of Lamu aspire for and by protecting those engaged in dirty deeds, he
promotes criminality and antisocial tendencies in his political constituency. The poet is here bringing into public display deeds performed by Madhubuti in private and by so doing exposes him to public scrutiny.
In this poem, Madhubuti is consistently depicted as a person who has significantly cotnributed to the economic deprivation of his constituents. The poet says that Madhubuti has contributed to unemployment in Lamu by sabotaging any employment-generating local initiatives. According to the poet, the economic independence of Lamuans would have denied Madhubuti the subservience he so needed to exercise control over them. Thus, by sabotaging their economic initiatives he hoped to keep economic and political hold on them so that they would be dependent on him. Economic empowerment of his constituents would have translated into their political empowerment and his own concomitant disempowerment. He therefore set out to ensure that his constituents remained unemployed:
| 49: | Siku alipowaona | When he saw |
| Watu wengi, huyo bwana | So many people |
| Si usiku si mtana | By day and night |
| Makazini waingia | Seeing them preoccupied with their business |
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| 50: | Yalimpita hatiri | He sensed danger |
| Kuwa hini ni hatari | "This is a dangerous trend," he reflected |
| Watu kuwa matajiri | "They will all become rich |
| Hawa watu mara moya | The whole lot of them, within a short time" |
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| 51: | "Kwao hawa mafakiri | "If for these paupers |
| Ikidumu hini kheri | Prosperity is allowed |
| Kwangu itakuwa shari | It will be to my downfall |
| Na mwingi mno udhia" | And this will make me intensely anxious" |
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| 52: | "Hawa wakineemeka | "If these people do well |
| Mwishowe watazunguka | They will end up turning against me |
| Nami hapo bila shaka | And without doubt, if that happens |
| Taabani nitangia" | I shall be in immense trouble" |
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| 53: | "Hawa wakisha kushiba | "As they become self-sufficient |
| kwangu mimi ni msiba | So will it lead to my lamentation |
| Sicha zangu zilo haba | I must protect the little that I have |
| Mwenyewe watanatia" | Before they overpower me, their master" |
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| 54: | "Tawakosa hawa kuku | "I will be deprived of these chickens! |
| Kwanza karibu ni siku | In any case, the election date is near |
| Na hiki kiti cha huku | And then this parliamentary seat |
| Mimi kitanipotea" | I will definitely lose it" |
Notice how, by making the politician's thoughts public, the poet brings into the arena of public scrutiny the politician's private conspiracy to disempower his constituents economically. The poet imaginatively represents in quasi-direct speech the politician's dialogue with himself on how he needed to control his political constituents. That discussion with the self is presented as the poet perceives it to have occurred. It is as if the poet was privy to the politician's thoughts.
In addition, there is the constant shifting (evidenced throughout the poem) of the poet's evaluative purview to that of the character under discussion (Madhubuti) and back again. The poet's acting out of his character is not only realized in the change of expressive intonation but also (as a performed piece) a change of persona ("mask") in terms of facial expression, gesticulation, and the "complete self-consistency of this voice and persona throughout the entire acting out of the role" (Bakhtin/Volosinov 156-57). The intersection of voices begins to sound as if it were in drama, and as Bakhtin/Volosinov have indicated:
[R]elations between reported speech and authorial context, via absolute acting out, take a shape analogous to the lines between alternating lines in dialogue. Thereby the author is put at a level with his character, and their relationship is dialogized. (157)
The poet uses the discourse of another for his own purposes (to show his character's unreliability) by incorporating the character's intention expressed in his "own" words into a discourse that has its own goals. This allusion and incorporation of the words of others make the poem double-voiced. The poet makes room for the voice of the other to be heard and assessed by the audience.
Madhubuti is furthermore criticized for sabotaging commercial activities, having dictatorial tendencies, ignoring the religious beliefs of his people, and insulting their culture. His overacquisitiveness and self-aggrandizement have alienated him from his people and what they stand for. In discussing this cultural alienation, as if in anticipation of a not-yet-spoken contestation on the relationship between what is said and what is believed, the poet draws parallels between spoken words and the subconscious. He claims that Madhubuti uses his "tongue" to express what is in the subconscious:
| 74: | Nasi tunavofahamu | And as we all know |
| Ulimi wa mwanadamu | The human tongue |
| Ni kama kupiga simu | Is equivalent to making a telephone call |
| La moyoni hutwambiya | It tells us what is in the mind. |
The poet provides numerous examples, allusions, and anecdotes (at times including dates and place names) to authenticate his claim that the politician being critiqued is disrespectful, arrogant, corrupt, and dictatorial. These examples and anecdotes function as subtexts to the main text and contribute to the overall intertextualization and dialogization of the poem. One such example is seen during the election petititon when the politician is reputed to have arrogantly insulted the electorate:
| 119: | Aliiambia korti | He told the Courts: |
| "Watu wa Lamu maiti | "The Lamu people are like corpses |
| Hawashiki hawaati | --They are incapable of grasping or relinquishing an idea |
| Hawaisi jambo moya" | --They do not understand anything at all" |
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| 120: | Alisema kuwa sisi | He told us that we |
| Mambo yote hatuisi | Are ignorant of everything |
| Mwishoni kutia Xsi | --That even marking an X on a ballot paper |
| Latushinda hili pia | Is, in fact, beyond our capability |
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| 121: | Alitwambia wajinga | He said we are ignorant fools |
| Na yeye ndiye malenga | And he was the enlightened one |
| Awezaye kutuchunga | Who could keep an eye on us |
| Kama ng'ombe na ngamia | --Just the way cows and camels are tended |
According to the poet, the politician has objectified his people by denying them the capacity to comprehend and change their environment. They are likened to corpses, cows, and camels. The poet challenges the claim that it is only the politician who "knows" and who can provide leadership. The kimondo at this point becomes an attack and a contestation of the object status assigned by the politician to the Lamu people. It is also a negotiation of the politician's monologizing project and an affirmation of his objectification of the ordinary people. The kimondo at this juncture is an assertion of their status as agents capable of bringing about sociopolitical changes in Lamu through the ballot box.
The poem is a reply to challenges, utterances, and omissions made by the politician at different historical moments. The poet, for instance, alludes to a 1969 event in which the politician refused to participate in deliberations concerend with legal changes:
| 165: | Mwaka huno hakika | Truly, this particular year |
| Daima twaukumbuka | We shall always remember it |
| Kwani twalijumuika | For we were gathered together |
| Sisi sote kwa pamoya | All of us in solidarity. |
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| 166: | Ni katika huno mwaka | It was in this year |
| Mzozo ulipozuka | That disagreements emerged |
| Sharia kubailika | The laws of the land were to be revised |
| Kutaka kutungwa mpya | And new ones to be passed. |
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| 170: | Abu Somo alikuya | Abu Somo came forward |
| Sisi kutusaidiya | To help us |
| Na mbele katanguliya | And he led the way |
| Bendera katushukia | Raising high our flag. |
The poet goes on to say that Abu Somo was not a local politician, but a politician from upcountry. The local politician had deserted his people. Historical events are immensely utilized to publicly challenge the sincerity and commitment of the local Member of Parliament. We are told how he has collaborated with others to manipulate the local Farmers' Co-Operative Movement so that he may have an absolute monopoly of the sale of oil and construction beams.
The kimondo is also a challenge to the role of parliamentary democracies. According to the poet, Parliament has ceased being an arena of meaningful social change and has become instead a place of opportunity for individual Members of Parliament to accumulate capital at the expense of the general public. This particular politician is depicted as being a millionaire with extensive housing and commercial interests. Yet he is ready to do everything, including rigging the elections, bribing voters, having people arrested on trumped-up charges, and killing in order to go to Parliament. According to the poet, Parliament has become an avenue for the acquisition of massive power and riches:
| 224: | Ni taa ya kuombea | It is a lamp for begging. |
| Ugenini huendea | He often goes abroad with it |
| Kafanya kulialia | --And pretends to weep out of desperation |
| Akajaziwa rupia | --And is then loaded with lots of money |
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| 227: | Kiwa si sababu hini | If this is not the reason for his actions |
| Kuna nyingine nadhani | There is another one that I suspect |
| Nayo pia tabaini | And I shall explain that one too |
| Mupate kuisikia. | So that you may hear it. |
The other possible reason he gives is that the politician is worried over something he has done while in office and is afraid of prosecution. A parliamentary seat would give him the power and political protection he needs to avoid legal action. The use of the word nadhani ("I suspect") in this verse is significant, as it allows for other utterances. By using this word, the poet leaves a loophole for another's word and in that sense his statement is nontotalizing. This tendency to accommodate the contribution of others is also manifest in his call to poets to engage each other in dialogue poetry so that they may participate in the shaping of Lamu politics:
| 360: | Kulla mmoya anene | Let each person speak out |
| Maneno tujibizane | And also answer the other's question |
| Na wananchi waone | And let the public determine |
| Nani atakayekwea | Who has triumphed over the other |
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| 361: | Sambi haya kwa hasira | I am not saying this in anger |
| Wala kutaka kukera | Or with the intention of provoking you |
| Nimezidiwa na ghera | I am full of competitive zeal |
| Ndiyo nikasema haya | And that is why I say these things |
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| 362: | Na kuvunda urafiki | To break the binds of friendship |
| Mimi kabisa sitaki | I do not want at all |
| Kikisa kiwingu hiki | When this election cloud is over |
| Tutarudi mazoea | --We shall resume our former relationships |
The poet wants different competing perspectives to emerge during the kimondo exchanges. These perspectives should not be advanced in anger and animosity, but rather in unswerving concern for the people. In addition, he calls for tolerance as a principle to prevail in the land during and after the election period. To that end, the poet is calling for a world informed by unity of purpose in a multiplicity of worldviews. The views to be expressed in the vimondo would result from an understanding of local and foreign events.
It is not just local events that are alluded to in this kimondo. The poet also alludes to global politics, which are shown as having a bearing on local politics. The attacks on Lamu by Somali bandits, the Palestinian question and the pro-Israel stance taken by the politician and the Nixon Watergate scandal are some of the allusions. Through these allusions, the political interaction among nations is reaffirmed and the dialogic claim that there is no figure without a ground is once more accentuated in verse.
Finally, this kimondo is a metacommentary on other preceding and future vimondo. The poet comments on the impact of a preceding kimondo and on how the supporters of the other camp responded. Kimondo no. 2 in that sense acts as a metapoem:
| 349: | Tulipotowa kimondo | --When we came out with the kimondo |
| Chalikuwa na kishindo | --There was pandemonium everywhere |
| Nguo wakapiga pindo | --They folded the loose ends of their gowns |
| Ndiani wakakimbia | And took to their heels. |
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| 350: | Wakajifunga masombo | Then they readied themselves |
| Na kushindana kwa nyimbo | --And tried to compete with us in performance |
| Wakitoa vina kombo | But their rhymes were defective |
| Wala hazikwelekea | And not appropriately written. |
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| 351: | Sisi handiki kwa dhati | We write what we believe |
| Nao hutunga kwa noti | But they write for the money |
| Kuna kubwa tafauti | There is a big difference |
| Katika mawili haya | Between these two situations. |
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| 352: | Zetu hutoka nyoyoni | Our verses emanate from the heart |
| Na zao za ulimini | But theirs come from the mouth |
| Zetu sisi nda imani | Ours are based on principles |
| Zao ni chambo huvia | Theirs are baits for making money. |
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| 353: | Zetu hufanya ni ghera | For us it is a matter of honor |
| Wao wataka ijara | But they write for a fee |
| Wakikosa ni hasara | It is a loss if they get no pay |
| Kubwa imewaingia | Such a loss they cannot bear. |
The poet intends to create a distinction between the positions taken by the two camps as represented by the subject pronominal sisi ("us) and wao ("them") and possessive pronouns zetu ("ours") and zao ("theirs"). The different positions led to the composition of vimondo from competing perspectives. According to the poet, the poet's camp was motivated by matters of principle and commitment to social justice while the other camp was motivated by monetary considerations. The latter camp is also presented as lacking in skills of verse composition.
This kimondo on parliamentary elections recorded on cassette and played in public places represents a shift in our understanding of the notion of public performance. Because of changing socioeconomic situations, the cassette (played in public) is slowing replacing the live marketplace performance. These cassettes are played in private and public places. Though in most cases they are listened to collectively either at home or in public places, they lack the immediacy and simultaneity of composition and reception of the live public square performance. But unlike the live marketplace performance, they can be replayed for detail and clarity of possible meanings.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
I am grateful to Athman Lali Omar for the useful discussions on kimondo in Lamu. I am also grateful for useful comments from a RAL reviewer on an .earlier version.
NOTE
1. All verses of kimondo no. 2 are from Amidu. I have used and adapted his translations whenever necessary.
WORKS CITED
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