Simply BJ...

Halloween in Africa???

Hey you all, I'm sitting here on this Halloween day and simply wondering where in the world did this come from, what indeed are we celebrating and I seemingly have no answers whatsoever. All I know is that it's the second highest revenue generating holiday in the US after Christmas, WHAT??? Yup those numbers are for real... Now when I think about it, there are tons of Halloween costumes in the stores, supermarkets and malls. There are Halloween parties across the country for both grown folk & kids. The kids in school take this seriously and dress up in their super hero, witch's, vampire etc costumes and have a ball. At night they go out and knock on doors trick or treating.. WHAT??? There are pumpkins all over grown enmass specifically for just this one day.. WHAT???

Now friends & foe's, back home where I come from, this whole thing would be absolutely crazy and not even funny... First those giant pumpkins would make for a great meal for millions of families... don't sit there and pretend you've not had some tasty pumpkin meal mashed or otherwise... Then, what's with the scary masks and all, this is what we wore back in the day during special occasions and during folk lore dances in the night by the bonfire... A trip to the local witchdoctor would have been like a Halloween moment everytime you had to go... or a trip to Bomas of Kenya... or watching sisi majitu.. that was some scary %$#& right there..

What about the kids knocking on doors asking for candy as they trick or treat out in the cold... Kids back home would be doing their homework at that time or having dinner or getting ready for bed.. ati sweets, hell no, mum is not having us knocking on neighbours doors asking for sweets dressed in some scary or super hero costumes... that would have been regarded as bad manners...

A dude in Kangemi, Laini Saba, Koma Rock or Ziwani has no time for crap like ghosts and if one showed up it would simply ran away just by the blank look from this guy... "I have worked 12 hours, ridden my black mamba bike 10 Km's, brought home some flour for Ugali and some spinach for my wife and 5 kids and you are trying to scare me... Man beat it... Go try that in some upscale suburb like Muthaiga, Lavington or in Europe & America where the people can relate as for me I have to many issues to deal with and you are not helping one bit, ...." Says Mr Seth Mukabwa a security guard in Industrial area.

You can tell I still have no clue how this came about and what indeed we are celebrating, we are even having an office Halloween party, WHAT???? If you know how all this came about, c'mmon now tell a brotha coz I haven't got a clue.... just questions...

All am sure about is that Halloween in Africa as a marked calendar day in the year is non-existant & unheard of.... Hey and if you or your neighbour have one of those giant pumpkins mail it to BJ please, zip code 31904, the Uzbec..

Peace out..

posted by Shaggy @ 6:25 AM