Thread by @wmnjoya

The other white pathology narrative that has confused Kenyan elites is that annoying word called "privilege."

Here goes the thread.

That story of 'privilege" makes our every day life sound like we walk around with tickets which we use to open doors.

It's like I go to an office and there's a check list:

"White? No.
Male? No.
Upper class? No.
Educated in the Roman imperial system? Yes.

Here's your place."

So you find people saying stuff like "your male privilege," "your elite privilege," "your American privilege."

But that is not how race, tribe, class and gender work. They work from loyalties, not access. So, for example, white people are asked to be loyal to the imperial aristocracy by virtue of being the same skin color as the aristocrats.

They are asked to overlook their own disempowerment. They may be poor, but at least they are not black.

Same with uthamakistan. They may be poor, but at least they are uthamaki.

It's identity by negation, by whom you are NOT, not who you actually are.

And that identity necessarily requires dehumanization of those whom you are not. So to feel white, one must degrade blacks. To feel uthamaki, one must degrade other Kenyans.

And that loyalty comes from ritual violence against men, not openly political propaganda.

One of the first celebrations of Msando's death came from Moses Kuria who, not coincidentally, made reference to sexual behavior (sex is a dominant theme in these rituals).

And then we went to vote like zombies, completely traumatized.

People were killed in Kisumu, and more celebration. More trauma to reinforce uthamakistan loyalty at the ballot. And then the icing on the cake was a white man called God-ec making uthamakistan internationally acceptable as "democracy" and Kenyan exceptionalism.

Kenyan male bodies are violated and brutalized all the time, but Kenyan men dont make it a male issue. They make it a failure to respect European-style liberalism instead.

All these gory details are to say that privilege doesn't explain how oppression works.

These categories are about loyalty, and that loyalty is reinforced through ritual. That is why kumirans will still vote uthamakistan in 2022.

Even though kumirans are materially doing badly, the rituals of uthamakism are still being performed.

Like kiama kia ma, Tekayo's humiliation of his previous allies, and "boy child," are still being performed unchallenged. It's an underhand way of reiforcing uthamakistan "integrity" through force.

So next time a kumiran tells you about the poor in Mathare not having privilege, show them this thread.

And tell them to read.

The problem is consciousness, not actual material wealth.

END
#politicaleducationKE ajendaafrika.wordpress.com/2014/09/09/uhu…