Twa twa is good, and so is wamlambez
Twa twa has proven Ezekiel Mutua wrong in two fronts: 1. Sex sells. 2. Sex is not immoral. Not long ago Ezekiel took to social media to discourage artists from believing that sex will make them popular, or even sell their content. Contrary to that, sex has actually given Pastor Susan Munene an overnight fame in Kenya through her now infamous slogan, twa twa. The fact that sex and twa twa were hyped in church where god supposedly resides (where two or three are gathered in my name, I will be there), says that sex is as clean as it can be. By the way, if sex is immoral, why is it not immoral in other animals? Let’s talk about clean content.
Over the past several months Dr. Ezekiel Mutua, CEO of Kenya Film Classification Board, has been going around TV, Radio, and Social Media stations to campaign for clean content. In his endeavour to ensure no dirty content airs anywhere including but not limited to platforms such as YouTube, the clean doctor has called for Songs such as Wamlambez and Tetema not to be played anywhere outside a club environment. This is what he actually had to say, “Tetema and Wamlambez songs are strictly forbidden outside of clubs and bars. It’s embarrassing to see even national leaders singing and dancing to the obscenity in public. The lyrics are dirty and not suitable for public consumption, especially mixed company or where children are likely to be watching or listening. Both songs are pure pornography. While we may not ban the songs because they are coded, it’s important for the public to know that they are dirty and unsuitable for mixed company. Let them be restricted to clubs, for adults only!” According to Mutua, those songs are nothing but sexual slurs. Then recently a church Pastor, Pastor Susan Munene, took Kenya by storm when she introduced a new sex terminology, twa twa.
Twa twa and the silence of Mutua over its sexual slur has left me wondering whether there is any difference between twa twa and any other creative words used to describe sex. Someone may argue that twa twa is clean because it was spoken in a manner likely to promote family cohesion, love between husband and wife, and relationship between man and god. But anyone who has cared to follow the consequences of the slur online know pretty much that there is very little that has been accomplished in those regards. If at all, unmarried single teenagers and young adults have used the trend to not only create interesting memes, but to also go ahead to twa twa.
The other argument that someone may use in support of twa twa is the idea that sex slurs as used by secular artists have a lot of graphical portraits of sex acts; the dancing, the dressing, and related portrayals. If those are supposed to be considered immoral, then Pastor Munene’s body movement during her twa twa sermon must be considered sexually graphic.
Twa twa brings into attention the question whether the government through bodies such as KFCB should be concerned with regulating “immoral” content. Where for example should the government draw the line, and what parameters should be used to define what is immoral.
For example, we all know the consumption of alcohol is restricted to adults only. Does this mean we as the general public must never watch movies, music videos, or any other creative works that depict alcohol? What about other illicit drugs? What about murder? Gruesome or not? What about robbery?
On robbery, when Ezekiel Mutua banned the Tarimbo song by Ethic, I had a debate with a friend over at Facebook whether or not his ban was called for. I used the robbery argument to argue against the Tarimbo ban. My argument was framed like this, “Now that Ezekiel Mutua has banned Tarimbo, should he go ahead and ban Money Heist, given that Money Heist has been used, twice, to rob banks in Kenya – one in Thika, and another in Nairobi?” My argument was based on the understanding that according to religious doctrines that Ezekiel Mutua relies on, there is no difference between robbery and rape in as far as sin is concerned.
But I have come to realise that according to anyone religious and particularly according to people like Ezekiel Mutua, other ills in the society can be tolerated or even promoted other than sexual ills. Responding to a post done by a one Victor Bwire dissecting the reasons the media industry is in a loss making spree, Ezekiel Mutua singled out sexual morality as the most important cause for the media industry’s dismal performance, hence watering down looting, corruption and revenue leakages that Victor had identified. According to the good doctor, “No enterprise can succeed with the sort of arrogance, ineptitude and sheer malice for the media in Kenya. No other industry has destroyed families, reputations and careers like journalism. No other sector has contributed to the current wave of moral decay like the media.”
Arguably therefore, we shouldn’t expect enterprises in Hollywood to succeed given that there is no place or ideology that has contributed to the current human moral standards as Hollywood. Talk about how we view sex and relate to it, the place of homosexuality in the Western world, portrayal of drugs and drug use, fashion, food, music – Hollywood has a say in all of that. We should therefore not expect Hollywood players such as Disney’s, FOX, Warner Brothers, Universal, SONY, and the several others to continue making profits.
One thing I don’t understand, why is religion and religious people so obsessed about sexual sins yet the sin that put us down is CORRUPTION in all its forms? Twa twa is good, and so is Wamlambez.
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