Mombasa Hakuna Kazi

Photo Courtesy: Lonely Planet

The words ‘hakuna kazi’¹ are ones that live predominant on the tongues of everyone without it and as one of them residing in Mombasa, have seen it branded an attribute of the coastal people – for how unmotivated its youth are outside white collar job opportunities. Whether this is stereotypical to the fact that there are brilliant human beings doing unbelievable miracles within this strip, or this is a genuine reality in the homes of mothers who watch their sons waste away in drug dens and second home visits to cells, it is a narrative that the youth of our Pwani² have bitten off from and frankly, is now a local delicacy to their taste.

 

Osman – not his real name – is one of the older generation who drank former President Moi’s milk and could buy four loaves of bread with one shilling; if he was really hungry. He is also someone who walked every single day on the streets of Mombasa going from garage to garage, looking to put his mechanic skills he learnt when his circumstance couldn’t support higher education to a salary. When the day bore no fruits, and many of them did, he would go back to his newly wedded sister’s house for the night; dinner a pleasant delight the times it was present.

To digress, Osman is not the first person I’ve heard go through such trials and candidly an epic backstory. But the fact that he walked from the forests of Kisauni (back then) to these same streets of Mombasa and where he is right now, makes it that much more special. Hopeful even.

 

“I tell my kin all the time, how do you expect your kids to be driven if, every morning tea awaits them, food is a luxury, roof over their heads, house chores always on point let alone their laundry…? All they will do is sleep, wake up, look at their papers and say, hakuna kazi. Heck, if I had such luxuries I would also be in bed.” He revelry expressed in urgent wisdom.

 

“Mombasa is full of money. You just have to go get it. And the norm of work is to tire; that’s why it’s called Work…”

 

I remembered a close friend of mine telling me how amazing this country is becoming and how much hope there is for our future. We study and discuss the mindsets and inner environments of successful people and people of influence from Prophets and the stories of the Qur’an, to vibrant personalities along the centuries and even how much potential is waiting for the human psyche (soul) together. I know, he’s so cool.

It was the memory of him telling me of how he met a house developer, who was still awaited by six other projects just after completing a Mombasa-town sized storey building – and they are all high risers.

 

“The proof is all there,” he said, “You can only pump in money where a future exists. Even if people like us can’t see it yet.”

 

Things may seem bleak for this city but majority of Kisauni roads are now carpets, roundabouts are game reserves and the wall paints are ever so new. The seeming brings on the thought that perhaps Mombasa, minus its people, is actually moving forward and the people are being left behind. Or perhaps this is just another rouse by the government and we will always be ‘hapa hapa³’. Stereotypical blame or truth? Perhaps.

           

“Someone with a thousand shillings in their pocket will not have the same drive as someone with a hundred…” Osman settled.

 

“Move out of your parent’s house and you’ll never afford the words, “Hakuna Kazi“, were the words that rang true with his. Ones that a mentor preached once upon an iftaar⁴.

 

“The reason why we youth fall victim to this stereotype is because we are in the comfort of our homes, safe from bills, budgets and responsibilities,” I remember him saying.

 

He explained that when all of our luxuries have to be earned and maintained, we will have no choice but ‘kutafuta na kupata kazi’⁵, and also potential wife materials start taking you more seriously. We laughed at this and a bit off the nerves that came with the one before.

 

In the end, this entry is not about how hard you and I should break out of our parents’ houses, walk these streets of our city and become the ultimate workforce and entrepreneurs – even though it’s not out of the question. Our times have changed and we have new global markets at the touch of our fingertips, as Osman puts it. And that I should also wait until after grad school to go crazy.

The point of this is to make sure you and I remember to Decide; to be driven, inspired and motivated to create and depend on what is ours, not others’. These three people will always be among my mentors in shaa Allah because they share one quality that sums up the message of this epic backstory tale: - The Ability to Decide.

And not just decide, but to consciously make a decision to finish anything they do in this context to the very end and, discover ways to make them enjoy or more so, love the work of their decision so that the quality of it is always genuinely high standard. No matter what kind of work they have to do or what situations require of them, they look forward every day to doing them just because they decided.

It might be moving out of the family house, teaching yourself videography or coding, living with driven friends, learning new skills and pushing with everything to earn from it, baking for the sisters or anything just to be driven, they do it. All the way. And they invent ways for them to enjoy producing high quality results so that they can reach that end. Otherwise they’ll quit halfway. And if anyone tries to hinder the quality of their work, they actively move away from them with no compromise. And I admire them for that.

 

This mentality however is tiresome just reading on it. But when you create ways to enjoy being in it, the tire is replaced with love. That’s why in shaa Allah I, and if you may, you, will be moving to inspire and develop this driven mentality in ourselves and the homely youth of Mombasa Raha.

 

The day of this discussion with Osman was a long one. A man was arrested for hiding his child from the consequences and reality of the world, power was out nearly the whole of it and I had a proper allergic reaction after a long while. I sat back against the sitting room couch, in front of a forty-something inch TV screen and tuned in to find, ‘Enter The Dragon’⁶, sometime after the power was back. I’ve never seen the movie and after that day, the whole of it but, it delighted me when I saw Bruce Lee and even more so, when one of his famous quotes on how he attained his bewildering speed came to mind,

 

“If you want to punch, punch. If you want to kick, kick…”

 

If you want to do, do, I thought to myself and smiled.    

Key:

1. Hakuna kazi - No employment

2. Pwani - The Coast

3. Hapa hapa - Stagnant in development

4, Iftaar - Gathering to breaking fast during Ramadhan

5. Kutafuta na kupata kazi - look for and get employment

6. Enter the Dragon - Popular Bruce Lee film