Muthoni Garland | Millie Jackson in Nairobi | London StorySLAM 2016

muthoni garland

[Applause]

I want to tell you about a story that

happened where I grew up

in Nairobi which is a fair distance from

here and I'm gonna take you back almost

40 years ago it's always shocking to me

when I realized how old I really am but

anyway when I was a teenager 1977 and I

was crazy about an American musician and

her name was millage Aksum I don't know

if any of you know milli Jackson but she

is the one who sang if loving you is

wrong I don't want to be right and you

know I mean I can't sing it but you know

I adored that song and I don't know why

because I was very sweet well brought up

Catholic girl and all that but there was

something about that song that just

spoke to something in me you know anyway

1977 and I hear in the news that Billy

Jackson is coming to Kenya to perform

we'd never heard of such a thing we

didn't even know if it is real oh it's

one of those common people you know

doing some show doing something but we

decided and this was a whole

neighborhood committee where we lived

that we are going to sneak out and it

was the first time we'd ever done such a

thing but we were going to sneak out I

was 16 and we were going to sneak out

and go and see the show so lots of plans

afoot and I tell it was serious planning

okay and because where we lived it was

it was like a row I don't know how to

describe it in English terms but anyway

it was like a row of major net does that

make sense anyways the to you know

double storey height but they all

connected to each other yeah and and we

were about six six

different houses on the road that way

you know that we are going to break out

that night okay and we all had plans

because you know I don't know if you

know this but Nairobi used to have a

reputation

thank God it's kind of died away but she

used to be called narrow-body it's very

unsafe so all the houses you know there

were very high walls you know the very

very high walls and when I say high like

ten feet high at least and and so

sneaking out involved removing the glass

from the louvers on the second floor

which I never know cause in the UK I

think second floor is fast flow it's

meza night I don't know the flow above

this one anyway it's so anyway so so we

had to remove the louvers in the

afternoon very gently so that we don't

break you know any of them and then tie

these sheets from a bed oh this was

plunder anyway so tiny sheets from a bit

and somehow propeller sails which now I

understand is called up sailing but

anyway propeller through Lee's louvers

and onto this sort of wall that sort of

dissected up you know that the houses so

onto these wall and then lower the

sheets such that we would be able to

reach it when we come back anyways

so get onto this wall and somehow you

know so I can't remember that was the

the there was a guy who lived next door

was Lane six you know his foot was six

inches shorter one foot one leg was so

short like I remember it was him who was

responsible for lowering us once we got

onto the wall so you know hold us up and

even cut a long story short we all made

it that says something about the power

of neighborhoods that work together okay

we all made it there was a few little

risky ones we had to go help a bit more

but we made it

anyway so we go off to this concert and

it was in the new Kenya International

Conference Center and it was huge fall

and the turnout I think the Americans

overestimated the ability of Kenyans to

sneak out our parents were not the type

to say yes to you know this kind of

foreign you know disruption of our

culture okay so so we got what people

pay a lot of money for and we were right

at the front and we danced all night it

was fantastic because I've had the

whistle I'll just say this we made it

back

it was long it was hard it was ideas we

made it back at least in my family we

did one did get caught but in my family

we did the only thing is the following

morning my father was reading a

newspaper at the breakfast table the

cover is this Milly Jackson and she's

wearing a white sort of suit and big

sweat stains big sweat saying how

terrible is him

people come look at the culture they

bring is disgusting and we're just

fascinated at the photograph because

right there in the front all of us all

of us I recognize every single night row

cheering on Milly Jackson and that's my

story thanks for sharing

you