The Hood Beyond Stereotypes

By SHARON MWENDE 

Second Year Communication Student, Chuka University 

Right before the streets are claimed by the sun, vendors open their stalls, mothers wander around with jerrycans in search of water. School kids rush for school with way worn out uniform and backpacks. And yes, the unemployed, they queue at the gates of Angels, Darling, Osho, House of Manji..... but that's not what they call the industries here, it's ‘kwa mhindi’. Another day yet to place a bet on being taken in, for life here does not wait for comfort.

To outsiders, the ghetto is defined by crime, poverty, hopelessness and violence. The only time the ghetto is on the news is when violence and inconveniences erupt. For instance, Mukuru Kwa Jenga only appears in the news when its residents are being forcefully evicted and houses being teared down by bulldozers. 

The cameras of journalists will only zoom in on undrained sewages, unattended dumpsites, broken roofs and muddy roads. What people do not understand is that behind the stereotypes lies something utterly different, a community built on resilience, hardwork and determination.

For many residents, survival here is not just guess work or trial and error, it is a skill perfected over time. Take Miriam for instance, she is forty five and a mother of five with a running hotel just opposite Mareba Hospital. She learned of the potential business idea from Rebecca who is now fifty seven and has hers just opposite Olivia hair company. "I never got the chance to be well educated, so I wake up every day so that each of my five children can learn as much as there is,” she says while serving a customer. "I know that one day they will deliver me from poverty.”

The business is normally stable especially when the companies around her are running well as she largely depends on their workers for customers. Like Miriam and Rebecca, thousands of people in the ghetto wake up daily to hustle in the informal economy for even the companies require one to have a lump sum or know someone on the inside to be taken in.

Poverty here is visible. Water shortages are common, people are then forced to walk for long distances to find access. Overcrowded housing forces families of more than five into single rooms, people like Miriam for instance. During the rainy season, flooding turns pathways into rivers. Companies with poor drainages flood roads with contaminated water hindering passage. The drainages near homes flood letting water inside people's houses. The mud is usually a hinderance especially for children going to school since the roads are murram.

In the evening and weekends, open spaces transform into football pitches as barely used roads turn into cycling and skating parks and also dance tutorials. Young ones learn from the rest how to dance, ride bicycles and skate. Some sing their composed songs and rap about struggles, dreams and love to their friends as they hype them up and vibe to their music. For them music is therapy, a chance to talk about their setbacks without being judged.

 Even here ambition thrives. When you meet a young boy from school wearing worn out uniform, ask them what they want to become and you will hear it all; a journalist, an engineer, doctor, ambition so fierce. They look up to being able to go to university. They want degrees, businesses, creative careers and better housing. 

They study under dim bulbs or sometimes with candles when KPLC cuts down illegal power in the ghettos. They hustle honestly and tirelessly and most of them genuinely earn their places in the university. Hardships that they come across every single day is what drives them.

Crime exists. Drugs exist. Frustration is visible from the surface. When opportunities are limited and systems feel rigged, some turn to shortcuts. Some go for pickpocketing in busy towns, others deal drugs while others loot shops. But even this reality demands understanding rather than condemnation. The desperation that these young people have is cultivated by inequality. They do not choose to be like that, situations choose for them.

Something that people do not understand is the fear that the people in the ghetto have of outgrowing it. In his book ‘Born a crime’, Trevor Noah talks about how the ghetto will not let you sleep hungry as it will take care of you, but also it will not let you outgrow it. It will keep reminding you that it owns you and make you believe that leaving it is unrealistic. Many do not realize how addictive the ghetto is, emotionally, physically and economically. Life is cheaper but also with the existence of resources, many choose to stay.

Contrary to the stereotypes of hopelessness, young people grow up quickly, they inherit responsibility with pride as mothers strive to keep their children in school. Walk through the narrow paths and you will hear laughter, real unfiltered laughter. Children invent games casually, neighbors confide in each other and exchange advice.

The ghetto does not wish to be saved but rather seen. It longs real recognition and realisation away from stereotype. Recognize it for who it houses and what it has to offer. Beyond stereotype the ghetto is not solely defined by what it lacks, but what it produces; ambition, resilience, creativity and hope. The story needs to be told.