Piece sourced from http://www.mwafrika.com/
We love to hate them. We think they’re the most rowdy, most uncouth, crudest people in our lives. We know they’re the cause of all our problems – at least the ones on the road, and every time there is an unmanageable traffic jam, they come to mind. Many of us have already devised elaborate schemes in our minds on just how to make this race of people extinct – the matatu menace, we call it.
But film director George Ngugi King’ara went a step further – he decided to delve right into the lives of these people who bring us so much distress. Out of this was born Gari Letu Manyanga, the latest Kenyan film to hit town. With no budget and a crew of three, George brings home the real going ons in the matatu world. Screened at the French Cultural Center this week, the film follows the life of matatu crew plying the Buru Buru route (notorious for matatu havoc) and gives us a hitherto unseen glimpse into their world.
Presented in the form of a documentary, but without the annoying voice-overs, the film follows Drama, then one of the route’s most popular matatus and its touts and driver as they go through the day. Starting with the driver’s morning routine (up at four a.m.), we’re driven in semi-darkness through the streets of Buru Buru and into the city centre. Through the day, the film confronts with familiar scenes of matatu crew hanging precariously on doors, loud music blaring from the vehicles, crazy driving at almost unbelievable speeds, and generally being themselves.
The film’s first interview is with the matatu driver, who gets to answer the question about rowdiness among his crew. He boldly points out that that’s a thing of the past, and that as long as people treat the matatu crew well, then they can be expected to behave themselves. He continues to insist that ‘things have changed for the better’. These words are echoed by two of the touts who also get interviewed as they speak about their work being a job like any other. “Vitu zimekuwa poa. Hiyo story ya umang’aa ni ya zamani” one of them quips.
Before the audience can fully identify and agree with them, the flick cuts into footage of matatu crew (taken just a day earlier) attacking and robbing passengers of a Metro Shuttle bus in broad daylight. Their excuse – the matatus were on strike, and so, in their opinion, the buses ought to have been as well. Criminal as it is, no action is taken by the police who cannot identify the perpetrators anyway.
The story is picked up by yet another driver who joins the touts as they speak on another touchy area of the matatu industry – police supervision. They blatantly narrate how they have to bribe the policemen to go through their day without incidents. Just how much are these bribes? Between one and five thousand shillings on a good day and that is if you don’t get sent to prison. They admit that most of the time, they had rather bribe the policemen than risk wasting the whole day in jail. And in any case, they argue, the policemen expect the bribe. They accuse the policemen of fault finding, saying that most of the time, the cops just cook up offences to charge them with.
As if on cue, the matatu Drama gets pounded by the cops, and the crew has to go to the police station for an entire day, waiting for the relevant authorities to approve a release. The interviewer asks them why they didn’t bribe their way out of this particular arrest. “The cops were too many, maybe six inspectors. One of them told us they couldn’t take a bribe because one of them might leak information to the boss, so we ended up here. It’ll probably cost us one thousand shillings each to get out”, one of them says. An interlude with the Buru Buru traffic police at that time yields no answers to these allegations as he insists that the matatu crew are law breakers who are just complaining against law and order. His words ring hollow, and he leaves more questions unanswered than he answers.
The film brings out in a very striking way the conflict that has always existed between law enforcers and matatu crew in an attempt to rein in the industry. It brings to the fore questions that many helpless commuters have been asking themselves for a while now on whether the uncouth behavior of matatu crew can actually be checked. And it provides no answers, leaving it instead open for discussion and dialogue on how the transport industry can survive with matatus.
Gari Letu Manyanga is three years old. Since then, it seems that change has come, and gone, in the matatu industry. One of the drivers interviewed had this to say about change: “Matatus will never change. They can never be like the (metro) shuttles…do you think matatu crew can ever wear uniform? Never!” For a moment about two years ago, it seemed that he would be proved wrong, that the law had finally won the battle and matatus would behave themselves. But now, the industry is back to square one: matatu crew hanging precariously on doors; loud music blaring from the vehicles; crazy driving at almost unbelievable speeds; the yellow lines required of all public service vehicles are no more and no one bothers to wear the prescribed uniform any more.
Perhaps it would have been prudent for the traffic commandant, who was invited to this screening to have actually made it. Because in true sense, there doesn’t seem to have been much difference since then, and maybe, just maybe, matatus will never change. In any case, Gari Letu Manyanga tickled us with its clever shots and the down-to-earth wit of the subjects, but also left us really thinking about the definition of progress.
Watch out for Gari Letu Manyanga on your TV screens soon.
Insider Comment
This wonderful film has screened on AFRICA MAGIC of M-NET, the South African Satellite television company. They acquired limited rights to screen the film 18 times between December 2007 and until the last licenced screening goes on air. The film should is available for screening licencing to other interested television stations. Show of interest can be directed to KENYA FILM HOUSE COMMUNICATIONS through: ngugik2001@yahoo.com
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