WAPI and Olorgesaillie

Saturday we went to an event called WAPI (Words and Pictures… or wapi also means where in Kiswahili). WAPI is a monthly festival of underground hip-hop music and graffiti art held at the British Counsel. The graffiti art at the WAPI is incredible as it features different works of art that included hipped out slogans of “Yes We Did” and “Free Gaza” as well as some other socially conscious pictures illustrated in this artwork. I was absolutely amazed at the amount of energy present at this festival. It was a collection of like-minded individuals for a good cause. What is very interesting is the contrast in thought process and connotations of this type of art between here in Kenya and in the United States. In the United States hip-hop has been plagued for years (and only amplified even in the last few years) as music that is immoral, untalented music that contains lyrics that are just about partying and demoralizing women. Graffiti is usually thought of in the same way as being ugly and ugly and defacing public property. WAPI completely shatters those images. All of the MCs market themselves as socially conscious, all of the hawkers walking around trying to sell me CDs were saying the music contained lyrics relevant to social issues and affairs relevant to right now. Even t-shirts being sold promoting the festival had the slogan Kenyan Hip-Hop: An Intelligent Movement. The headlining hip-hop artist at this festival Saturday has the nickname War Child, as he is a former child soldier from Sierra Leone and raps about social issues. Hip-hop music can be utilized for good (as it was originally intended before the whole style became convoluted as it is today.) Likewise graffiti art can be used as a means of expression (and can look very cool in doing so) such as with messages and images like “Yes We Did” and “Free Gaza”. I find it ironic and an amazing sign for the future in arts in Kenya that this festival is hosted by the British Government at the British Counsel, and I hope that future governments can look to this events and similar events to sponsor arts for the good of society.

Today we saw a sort of art (albeit more of a life necessity) as we visited Olorgesaillie. This is an ancient prehistoric archaeological dig famous for hand-axes and other tools being found here. This was in part of the Rift Valley and had absolutely stunning scenery. It was very interesting to see ancient tools from early hominids, and I admit it is hard to recognize them as they look like just common stones… except there are ways to tell they have been carved by small carvings and other workings on them. They also had bones from ancient elephants and hippos, and its amazing to see how much larger these early ancestors of those animals are than the current ones. It is fascinating to be in part of the cradle of civilization and see the development of our species first hand, and to see how far we have come along.