My Journey to Neo Soul…

We all love music, don’t we? The only difference is in the different kinds of music that we find ourselves taking to. But whatever the case, the genre of music that we settle for has that thing that appeals to something greater in us and not just the ear.

I was born some time in the 80’s and never paid attention to music of any kind until I was in primary school. And even then, we would chant along like parrots to the most famous songs of the time without a care in the world what the words meant. It was all about the beat and a catchy chorus back then and for me as a young one, that was all there was to music.

I grew up a little and then moved school from the crappy local school that had all the kids from ghettos to a more affluent school that had kids mostly from the upper middle class category. It was here that I was introduced to the Idea of different genres of music and from the way they were presented to me; it was such that I had to make a choice on what genre to listen to. It was not that I was openly told to choose one and not the other but rather the approval or disapproval or ridicule that I faced when I expressed my preferences or lack thereof in music.

This was the time when though I still had a big ego and pride, I did not have the finesse that came with interacting with certain echelons of society. You see, we stayed at the edge of a well to do estate that was surrounded with various ‘ghettos.’ We were not rich, but from where we were standing, and at that time in history, having a car and a TV was the definition of rich. Every Tuesday, all children from the neighborhood thronged our house to watch wrestling. And these were the only kids I knew and their tastes and preferences were defined not by what was new but what was there and there wasn’t much.

In this new school, people were hands on whom the upcoming musicians/artists were, their songs so far, and all that other crap that we did not have the time of day for where I was from. These were the kids who had toys bought for them whereas we would sit down and make out own toys. The difference was therefore clear and being young, it was only natural that I try and fit in. And I did by listening to the music that all these affluent kids were listening to and pretty soon, I was so immersed I could afford an opinion.

Of all the music I lent my ear to, Hip-Hop came out the winner. I was in class 6 then, this was sometime on 96. I remember my big bro noticing the difference, telling me that my taste in music had changed. What he did not know was that I had just acquired the taste altogether. I would listen to the various Hip Hop artists of the time, make sure that I remembered their names and then slip them into conversations with the ease of an insider, which I now was but I still felt I needed to prove it.

Kids back home were still signing the songs that accompanied the Omo, Blueband, Mara Moja etc adverts because they had a nice ring to them. None of them gave a damn who Toni Braxton, Celine Dion, or the Backstreet Boys were.

Two more years of that went by and then I got to high school. One thing I am proud of is that I was never a fan of boy bands; and these were the curse of high school. This was around that time that it hit us that girls were actually people; and more importantly, the very people that our hormones were pushing us to get busy with. Unfortunately, with age had gone the ease with which we could approach girls and in its place had come a complicated due process, a rite of passage of sorts. Most boys, that s what we were, never had the guts to take that first step towards these increasingly complicated yet gorgeous by the day fair ladies.

Earlier when we were younger, there was no motive. It was just a girl and a boy who were neighbours, friends, and played together (Girl next door – Musiq Soulchild). Then the girl becomes hot, our hormones start to boil, and suddenly (it’s not that easy– Lemar.) Things that were never an issue start coming into play like what will I say? How will I say it that I sound cool? For most people, this was the biggest barrier to overcome and boy bands became the bridge to the other side. People would actually write down words from these songs in love letters and send them. For some, it opened ‘doors’ but others were not lucky.

I have never been a romantic let alone the hopeless romantics that most of my friends were as they went to extreme lengths to impress out fair ladies. I stuck to my guns and listened to Hip Hop the more. I remember rhyming along to all the tracks in Illmatic and later Stillmatic by Nas… (“One mic” was my favourite but I also loved and cursed along to ether.) I remember listening to Eccleftic by Wycleff Jean and thinking the man is a genius. There were Ice cube, Mos Def, Jay Z, Coolio, Born Thugs N Harmony etc who dominated the hip hop arena and who I continue to listen to.

Don’t get it twisted though… I have never been the Jeans sagging, hair braiding, earring wearing, baggy clothed, topped by an American Hip Hop accent and slang kind of guy. I loved the rhymes and bounced to the beats but that was where it ended.

And as far as the ladies went, I got my way without the boy bands because I was the exact opposite of the good natured boys. It pays to be on the wrong side of the authority at certain times.

But then I accidentally listened to what I rhymed to as a Nas track was playing, wrote it down, and thought… Damn, this guy is actually saying something. I borrowed a source magazine from a friend and read it, especially the parts where they attributed some sick rhymes to the various artists they were rating. This was the best part of the whole thing for it exposed me to something beyond the beats and the anger that the rhymes were usually delivered with. This was the meat, the moral of the story kind of thing and it was powerful. I had to look up some words that I came along, such as reparations from a Nas rhyme. I also recognized that there was a flow, a rhyme, a theme; hey, this was poetry…

So I paid attention when I next heard these tracks, dismissed those had good beats but said shit, embraced those had good beats and a message to pass along, gave time to those who were trying to say something but still lacked the tact and umph. The boys went, the men stayed and my idea of the right kind of music was developing. I could finally tell you what I would listen to and what I wouldn’t be caught dead, even in my funeral, listening to. Most of these tracks fell under Hip Hop and for that I was content.

But then something happened…

When I was still in High School, I remember watching Channel O, the music channel, and having difficulty changing the channel when Jill Scott started performing on some stage. That lady sang, bled her heart out on that stage, those in the audience below were as taken as me, some even to the point of crying. I remember the song coming to an end without me changing the channel. My heart felt heavy because, God forbid, I had loved that. I tried to make excuses but the overriding feeling in my stomach was, Marvin, you’ve gone soft, worse than those boy band maniacs.

Then a pattern developed. I would watch Channel O and then when Sade appears, something happens. I would watch again and when Maxwell appears, that something again. This happened time and time again with Jill Scott, Floetry, Raphael Saadiq, Joss Stone, and India Arie etc. I soon realized that I had stumbled onto Neo Soul, the genre to which all these musicians belonged to. And Neo Soul was what I set out to write about today but ended up writing about my Journey to Neo Soul. I better change the title of this post then which means Neo Soul is therefore pushed to another time, another day.

Heard a Man Die; though I have seen Plenty.

It is now exactly a week after I sat for the CFA exams. It is 1:51 am, in the dead of the night over here and I have just been rudely woken up by shouting men and a crying man. I am usually a light sleeper and I am usually woken up even by a whisper. This was no whisper; it was a crying man and shouting men.

Seconds after I woke up, I realized what was happening. The shouting men had just caught a thief and the neighbours around here have woken up too and are now punishing this thief. It sounds brutal. I have heard them from far, but with every minute that passes, I hear them getting closer and closer.

They seem to be near the gate because the man receiving the beating is crying and I can hear the pain in his voice. It is not a scream; it is not even an all out sobbing, it is a muffled cry, as if the voice is constricted at the throat. It might be that his mouth is swollen or is filled with blood such that his voice cannot be heard properly.

I am now fully awake and I doubt that I will sleep again. That man crying like that and his incoherent attempts to beg for his life have killed any prospect of a peaceful night that I hoped for.

I can hear the kicks as they land on him. That is not a sound that I would like to hear ever again but probably will. Even from far, I can tell from the sounds of the kicks that they are heavy, the kind that have the whole body’s weight behind them. It sounds as if someone is hitting a wall with a sledge hammer. I also hear the sound of crude weapons breaking on impact with his body.

Those beating the man are increasing in number as evidenced by the increase in the noise levels. I hear Ua! (Kill!) And now I fear for the man’s life. I am now asking my bro where the nearest police station is but my bro tells me it is quite some distance away, and that only the police on patrol, if there are any near here, can save him.

My bro tells me that they will beat him properly. But that to me is naïve thinking. Though I hope it won’t happen, I know deep in my heart that this man was dead the moment he got caught. Only a stroke of luck or a woman’s pleas will save him now. On that note; yesterday, I was walking with my cousin when another alleged thief ran past us and a crowd after him. But what stuck with me about the whole thing was this lady who was telling everybody that was chasing after this guy, “if you catch him, please don’t kill him. If you catch him, please don’t kill him.”

Women seem to appreciate the sanctity of life more than men.

They have now moved some distance away, but I can still hear his muffled cries as they continue beating him. I sure sound like a coward typing away how a man is losing his life outside on the road that I use daily. But what can I do? I feel the urge to walk out there and ask them to take this guy to the cops, but that will put me at the very real risk of being killed as well as an accomplice. Not to mention it is in the dead of the night. So I sit up and type this hoping that whatever emotions that this post evokes in you will in the least get you thinking about the ills of mob justice.

My bro says again that this guy will receive the beating of his life; but this time round I tell him that this guy will not walk away from this. He is a dead man.

I hear more cries from the man, from a distance and then no more. Did I just listen in to a man lose his life? I think he is dead because he is no longer crying and I hear gates opening and closing as people get back to their homes to sleep. Will I find a dead body on the road tomorrow morning? I hope that the cops got there in time to pick up what was left of his life and not just his dead body.

And now I am torn. Between the thief who has been caught and the people who have come from their homes to beat him to death, who should I be more scared of?

I will tell you who…

I am scared of that guy next door who has gone out, helped in killing a person in the crudest of ways, talked about it with the other people in the mob, before coming back into his house, putting on the TV for some minutes and then heading on to sleep. How can taking a life seem like such a simple routine thing for people?

I will tell you if the man was killed tomorrow when the sun rises. I will now try to close my eyes and see what happens.

I wrote the above almost two weeks ago. It was in one of the folders that I am sorting out as I clean up this laptop.

The guy was not killed… I was elated when my bro told me that. The police came but they are not the ones who saved him. People just got tired or were too sleepy. They had a tire on him but for one reason or the other (no petrol) they did not burn him. But what struck me was what the police said when they got there. Word is going round that the police prefer caught thieves dead because it is less work for them hence the “why didn’t you kill him?” question when the police got there. With him dead, their only obligation would have been to take this guy to the mortuary. But now that he was barely alive, they had to take him to the hospital, wait until he gets better, re-arrest him, and then press charges against him.

I have seen plenty of men die but hearing one just jolted something in me.

The Kenyan Boardroom Saga…

I live in Kenya, and for all you all out there who have no idea what that means; I will elaborate using recent occurrences here in Kenya; a country that sits pretty as the third most corrupt country in Africa and eying to take the top spot. I always tell those who care to listen that it is indeed a wonder how we remain competitive yet so much that we work for is lost to corruption. But here we are, corrupt as ever and always prone to drowning; yet managing to stay afloat for just long enough to catch a lifeline from donor countries. Speaking of donors, walk with me as I tell you what transpired with one of these non-governmental donor organizations.

Some months back, the CEO of the Youth Enterprise Development Fund, one Mr. Umuro Wario, was sent on a compulsory leave by its Board. He was on official business in Mombasa when he was informed of his suspension. For somebody who has been doing such exemplary work, this indefinite suspension (pending investigations) brought with it its fair share of media scrutiny; and for good reason. This is Kenya and there is always more than meets the eye on every other issue and this was no different. There were the usual nonsense speak from the board when put to task as to the reasons this man was sent home. They said he did something but cannot get into the details. And not getting into details was to cover their own asses as opposed to the commonly peddled reason, “we cannot comment on an ongoing investigation.”

I am loving the Kenyan media every passing day. One of the investigative journalists went digging and the rot that we have to expect in everything made in Kenya came to the fore.

It was revealed that Mr. Wario, the now former C.E.O of the Youth Enterprise Development Fund refused to play ball on a deal that did not make NEITHER financial nor economic sense to anybody with half a mind.

There was a Canadian NGO, Enablis, which needed 300 million from the fund and committed to match that money with 300 million of its own. That was all well and good but as far as basic accounting principles and economic sense went, it was pointless and stupid because there were better deals on the table that were offered by our own banks. Basic ratios have shown you that this NGO could match this KES 300 Million 1:1 but when put into context, this is not even close to an attractive offer, let alone something worth writing home about. But that became the issue that defined the relationship between the Board and the C.E.O, pitting them against each other, and in the end, Mr. Wario, and the Kenyan youth in general lost, and the patriarchs and matriarchs of this country won, again.

And here is the whole picture.

Mr. Wario refused to hand over the money to this NGO yet the board demanded that he did so. Mr. Wario, in the years that he has been there had made deals with banks such that for ever shilling he released to these banks, the would in turn release 9 more in form of loans to the youth for Equity Bank and 8 shillings for KCB. When compare and contrast, will see that the matching ratio for Equity as being 1:9 while that for KCB is 1:8 and yet that for this NGO remained as 1:1. Now you tell me. Mr. Wario could not deny this truth, even for the sake of his bosses. This man not only had brains, and a conscience, he had the balls to say no to his bosses; which is the worst thing you can ever do in a country where the corrupt are your bosses. This man Wario was sacked, unceremoniously, and with the alleged investigation still pending. What actually happened was that one of the Board Members sent an internal memo to all employees telling them that their suspended C.E.O was sacked.

Normally, Boards are established to serve as the overseers of the management’s activities. Boards should check the awry activities of the management but this is Kenya; the exact opposite is the case here. Where the Management is competent, the Board is lopsided towards the powers that be and in the end almost always sacks those with the education, competence, capacity and the moral authority to do what is right as opposed to what the board demands. This was the case wit Mr. Wario and once again a good man is on the tarmac looking for a job. This of course brings to the fore the question of the composition of these Boards. Going back to out independence, Board Members in Kenya have been appointed on the basis of tribe, nepotism, politics etc. And to this day, little has changed in the way of appointment to Boards, even in the most crucial of positions.

If you are cognizant of such issues, you understand the issues of conflicts of interest as far as the composition of Boards go. If you are not aware of this, the following is the CFA Institute has to say as far as Corporate Governance and composition and independence of Boards go:

This is quoted verbatim from the CFA Institute Curriculum, Volume 4, page 157 and 158.

Corporate Governance is the arrangement of checks and balances, and incentives a Company needs to minimize and manage conflicting interests between insiders and external shareowners. Its purpose is to prevent one group from expropriating the cash flows and assets of one or more other groups.

In general, good corporate governance practices seek to ensure that:

ª   Board Members act in the best interest of Shareowners;

ª   The company acts in a lawful and ethical manner in their dealings with all stakeholders and their representatives;

ª   All Shareowners have the same right to participate in the governance of the Company and receive fair treatment from the Board and management, and all rights of Shareowners and other stakeholders are clearly delineated and communicated;

ª   The board and its committees are structured to act independently from management, individual, or entities that have over management, and other non-Shareowner groups;

ª   Appropriate controls and procedures are in place covering management’s activities in running the day to day operations of the company; and

ª   The Company’s operating and financial activities as well as its governance activities are consistently reported to Shareowners in a fair, accurate, timely, reliable, relevant, complete, and verifiable manner.

The part that deals with independence has the following.

Generally, to be considered Independent under these codes and rules, a Board Member must not have a material business or other relationship with the following individuals or groups:

ª   The company and its subsidiaries or members of its group, including former employees and executives and their family members;

ª   Individuals, groups or other entities  – such as controlling families and governments – that can exert significant influence on the Company’s management;

ª   Executive management including their family members;

ª   Company advisors ( including external auditors) and their families; or

ª   An entity which has cross-directorship relationship with the Company.

In light of the above, ponder on the following:

The man who sent the memo terminating Mr. Wario’s job at the Youth Enterprise Development Fund is also the Lawyer of the NGO that Mr. Wario had denied the KES 300 million. Is there a clearer indicator of conflict of interest?

This is unfortunately too common to even raise eyebrows.

Looking at the list above and the rest of it that I could not squeeze into this post, I can assure you and you will see that in Kenya, most directors if not all contravene most if not all of the corporate governance principles laid out above and elsewhere. That is why no eyebrows have been raised after Mr. Wario became a victim of the conflict of interest with one or more of the board members. And it is no wonder that we rival the corruption bigwig countries of the world.

For some warped reasoning on the part of most leaders in Kenya, they have this twisted idea that Board positions are a reserve of family, friends, and loyalists. The moment ministers took office, they always went ahead to appoint family and friends to the boards if not management

This also takes me back to the Kenyatta and Moi governments where many loyalists who failed to capture seats in parliament were rewarded for their loyalty by being made directors of boards especially of national companies. Most of those companies died, making thousands jobless and their director millionaires. As I wrote a while back, board members used these companies to take personal loans and that was the time in our history when the non-performing loans in our banks made some collapse, and more non-financial companies to go under the hammer in auctions that sought to recover any monies that board members had borrowed for personal use. Still; you would think that this was legitimate business since it took place all around. It is still taking place.

And then there is the thing of titles that Kenyans are infatuated with. Most of the directors of these boards also serve as directors of more than two dozen companies and yet they continue to be appointed as directors of more companies. These are people with day jobs and who cannot logically do their jobs as directors of all these companies. They are paid ridiculous amounts of money yet their commitment are to their day jobs and to a few select companies that they serve as directors. Of what use are they to those organizations that they are appointed as directors, whose meeting they have never attended, whose activities they do not scrutinize, whose supervisory responsibility they have neglected, and whose competencies or experience are not up to or cannot match that required of a director in these boards.

Whichever angle you look at it from, we are in a bad place that is damning us to the deepest darkest part of the hell hole we are already in.

Mr. Wario got his matching orders because a compromised board member (there may be more) was angry that his client would not benefit from public funds that they do not deserve.

People ask where we should start in ridding this country of corruption; I say start by removing the rot that is in the majority of these boards. In the meantime, I hope that there is somebody with some moral authority in this Government who will not allow the 300 million to be given to this Canadian NGO. The opportunity cost is too great for we will be forfeiting 2.7 Billion from our local banks for KES 300 Million from this Canadian NGO.

Kenya! It is tough living here but we try to make due. We are winning an inch at a time, and will finally get out country back, maybe after I am long dead. But I will train my kids to keep up the good fight.