There happened to be this poor guy, whose name I will not mention because I never got to know it. His wife heavy with their first child fell sick, and the man did not have money to hire a taxi to take her to the hospital because in her condition she could not ride in a matatu. It was in the 1970s. He went to his boss and explained the case. His kind boss wrote him a cheque of Shs.150. The man looked at the cheque and the only words he must have seen written on it (other than the amount) were 'bank' and Kenyatta Avenue, Nairobi.
He walked from the Industrial Area, over the Railway Bridge near Kenya Polytechnic and soon found himself on Kenyatta Avenue. He saw a bank and entered. There were many people in the queue and he had to wait for almost 45 minutes before he could be served. But on presenting the cheque, and his kipande to prove that he was the real owner of the cheque, the young cashier said that he was in the wrong bank (Barclays), and pointing across the street, she told him: "You see that bank across the road? That is where you will get paid." He looked in the direction she had pointed, and he saw Kenya Commercial Bank.
Thanking the cashier profusely, he walked towards the right bank, and the next thing everybody in the bank heard was a very loud bang as the man walked into those glass windows that stretch from the floor to the ceiling. Momentarily people thought there was a bank robbery and some even dived for cover. The man fell heavily and it took the security man to pull him up and showed him the door. The security guard later told the manager that those 'glass walls' would kill people because they used to be cleaned daily making them appear as if there were not there, but they were there (not borrowing from Alex Haley's Roots). The following week the manager put some flower boxes by those glass windows, to avoid further mishaps.
Our man got paid at Kenya Commercial, but initially he had thought the girl at Barclays had misspoken or that he was seeing a mirage, where money was there, yet it was not there when he needed it. I recently suffered a similar fate when I thought I had clinched a publishing deal. It coincided with the Valentines' Day and I thought it was my best ever gift, after I had complained I felt like a man in a desert where I kept on seeing mirages instead of water. The man making offer told me not to worry as it was in the desert that the boy Ishmael and his mother Hagar saw a well. The attached message said: "His (God's) ways are not our ways". That brightened my day, but soon after finding the well, and as I rushed to drink from it, I hit an imaginary glass barrier around the well with a thunderous bang such that my head felt like it had been detached from the shoulders. I was warned: "Hold your horses. Not yet!" He had misspoken.
That soured my life until last week Friday which happened to be my birthday, when I received two personal birthday wishes, and two on-line birthday wishes from persons I do not know. (In a world of over six billion human beings, I could only be recognised by four - 4 - people!) Of the personal birthday wishes, the first came from a lady who I will not comprise her integrity by mentioning her name because apart from being a senior manager in one of the most successful financial institutions in the entire Eastern Caribbean, she is also a pastor in her church. Here is a person, who though not close to me, allowed herself to be used by God as a vessel to pass on His blessings to me. The next person was Jobjow, who apart from sending me an e-card in the form of an animated cartoon; he also sent me a package of goodies. I won't elaborate, so as to save him from being overwhelmed by fan mail from persons wanting him to know their birthdates. Jobjow you truly are a blessing – endelea hivyo hivyo.
A few days before my birthday, I had checked on the new videos Jobjow had posted, and lo and behold, one literally swept me off the floor, both by its melody and lyrics. Hagari (Hagar) by Sarah Mwangi.
This is a song with words of hope; lyrics that tell you God sees your suffering and never fails to deliver on His promises. God heard the cries of the man whose wife was sick. He heard the cries of Hagar's son in the desert. He heard my cries after I could not drink from a well I had been told about. He hears the cries of all of us any time we cry upon Him. We only fail to get His blessings because we never cry out for them. Sarah Mwangi's Hagari has pacified me for the pain I experienced. Jobjow could not have posted the video at a better time.
Let me not be carried away by my own joy. I am aware that I had taken an unauthorized sabbatical from my duties, but Jobjow being the good man he is, has accepted me back on the job, without any conditions attached. Here I am reviewing some of the songs he has posted on the Angaza Family Radio's website. There are so many new and good songs that I did not know where to start, until Sarah Mwangi's Hagari hit me like the force of angels coming to take us to our heavenly abode. I still do not know where (and how) Jobjow gets these videos. The only thing I will say is that he gets some of the best our Gospel artists are able to churn out.
Hagari is a title that does not explicitly point out to the greatness of the song. If I were Sarah Mwangi's song writer, I would have gone for a more potent and eye-catching title; one that would tell anyone seeing it that she is about to preach the best God has in store for us. I do not need to suggest any now because the video is already out. Listening to its melody, it tells me that she has been able to fuse two genres to bring out one of the most powerful contemporary Gospel songs to have come out of Kenya. Those who are well versed with Kikuyu genres will without doubt not miss the classic mũthĩrĩgũ beats in the song. She sways in calculated synchronisation to the beats. So do the choreographed backups by the young dancers. They could have, however, polished their act. She then introduces the keyboard, whose powerful and enchanting rhythm brings in the next genre that has been the living pillar with our East African contemporary Gospel artists.
While the language of music is universal, singing in Kikuyu does not stop anyone from grasping Sarah Mwangi's message. It is crystal clear leaving no one with the unfortunate prospects of seeing a mirage. Her lyrics have moved away from the norm where many artists are known to lift verses from the Bible and quote them verbatim without examining the context. She has not just quoted Hagar's predicament in the desert, but has gone further to teach us the lesson God intends for us, while using very simple language. She has compared her thirst for God to an antelope (thwariga) panting for water. No one should accuse her of borrowing from As The Deer Panteth for Water, as we do not have them in Kenya.
Sarah's enactment of the episode for the video is equally powerful, even though the child she has portrayed as Ishmael is rather too young, taking into consideration that before they were forced from Abraham's homestead, he had been circumcised (along with his father) at age 13. Sarah Mwangi has introduced her family (I want to believe so), but they have only managed to slow down the song's cadence, as some are at times out of step and others not looking very serious. However the two young children captured separately (2:24-2:28 and 4:20-4:23) attempting to dance to the beat have come out with flying colours. Video clip mixing is of a high standard, especially with the dropping in of clips where she is singing the refrain mimicking the young Ishmael crying out for water (1:12-1:14 and others). If one listens carefully at the opening of the video, one will hear the sound of water flowing!
The underlying message by Sarah, and that is what makes the song great, is that just as Ishmael's cries were heard in the desert, your cries today have been heard by God. This goes on to confirm that God does not misspeak, and that His promises are true. For her superlative effort, Sarah Mwangi gets four and a half (4 ½) of our green stars. We need more singers like Sarah to communicate God's blessings to us in such a powerful manner.
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