Page 66 - Msingi Afrika Magazine Issue 4
P. 66
ART PERSONALITY ART PERSONALITY
lost interest in computers and were recommending. So I wrote they used to do for me, they
joined drama. a letter and compiled all my never did anymore. If I wanted a
In Form Two, they brought an sketches and sent them to BIFA, brush or sketchpad, it was hard
artist in, to paint the backdrop but I did not hear back from them. for me to get them. So I resorted
for drama festivals. I didn’t like At one point, I lost hope because to stealing money to buy myself
it that the principal was using I thought in Kenya there was no paint brushes. The funny thing
money to get an artist and we school that teaches art or African is people think seminary school
were just there and we weren't music. I thought that becoming a is the best and that everybody is
even painting. The artist made priest would allow me to do what a saint, but everyone has their
the mistake of leaving their I liked, which is to touch and own weakness.
brushes and paint behind after change someone's life and the At home I had nothing to do, I
they finished. I had a few people only thing I would have to do was wanted to join BIFA, my parents
I was teaching to draw - I didn't sacrifice myself to God, to give were 50-50 about it because
know how to paint then - we Him everything. I was like, that's they were like it's not a big
covered the whole thing and did it, I'm going to become a priest. school. They wanted me to do
an entirely new artwork. The next We finished our exams and as another course. I stayed for one
morning, the people going to the I was leaving, three teachers year before choosing the course
drama festivals folded it up and told me sort of the same thing. I wanted to do. I would say it
carried it with them. It hadn't fully My drama teacher told me never was the wise thing for me and
dried by this time so when it was to stop writing, because the my parents because in that one
opened everyone was shocked. stories I write are inspiring. My year period I met lots of people
The principal knew I was the only computer teacher told me I could with different characters.
one who could have done it, so I be the greatest graphic designer
prepared myself to be punished, if I wanted to. Our principal School of Life
but the school won the best asked me if I wanted to become I had started looking for youth
backdrop award. The judges a priest. It was a big deal to be groups to join because I didn't
took the painting as abstract art. in a seminary school and then want to be lazy. My brother
There was no punishment and tell your principal that you didn't had left home and gotten into
that's when I was introduced to want to become a priest. You'd trouble and I didn't want to be
abstract art. From then on I used be in big trouble. So I just said like him. I joined a Community
to do the backdrop but I soon yes. He looked at me and said I Based Organization where I got
became bored and so I also could become a great artist. After into film and film making and I
started to write narratives as well finishing my Kenya Certificate of also started acting. One of the
and was eventually chosen to Secondary Education (KCSE), I characters I was given was that
be a narrator. Meanwhile, back got a letter from BIFA that was of a rapper. I started rapping and
in the computer lab, I became sent almost three years before friends of mine used to give me
one of the best students. I it was given to me. The principal CDs and mixtapes of Kenyan
failed in almost every subject hid it because he knew I wouldn't rappers I had never heard before
except literature and computers. focus; I had actually planned to like Ukoo Flani Maumau who
No one, apart from my mom leave school if I was accepted at were rapping about their history,
understood me and even though BIFA. about Mau Mau, about the
she beat me up when I'd fail, she After high school, I joined a Afrikan heritage, governance,
would brag to her friends and seminary for a while and then parenthood, love... they never
say, "I have a son who can draw I left because I wanted to start rapped about bling. I also started
you." a family. I was famous where I writing. I had no idea that one of
was because I used to do good my brothers was in that group.
Touch and Change a Life artworks, but I left not knowing So those times that my parents
While in high school I started what next. So I went back home. were complaining that he had
looking at universities and My father was disappointed run away from home, he was
colleges that taught art. In Form that I wasn't going to become a doing tours.
Two, I came across a school priest, my mom felt ashamed. I was introduced to other rappers
called Buruburu Institute of They never told me, but you who were doing underground
Fine Arts (BIFA), which people could see it because the things rap. The moment I entered
66 | heal . restore . rebirth . Afrika www.msingiafrikamagazine.com heal . restore . rebirth . Afrika | 67
