(Sunday, Nov 20 2011, Addis Ababa)--As many travellers know, find a smart cab driver, and he will give you the best introduction to the country and city you are visiting. The stories these cab drivers are telling about our cities these days, offer both a troubling and intriguing picture about how our societies are changing. I was in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa a few days ago.
One evening, I took a cab from my hotel to the fancy Sheraton Hotel to meet up with Ugandan and Kenyan friends for dinner. As soon as I entered the cab, the driver asked me where I was from. I told him Nairobi. That got him started. He said he recently had three clients from Nairobi. “They know how to enjoy life, the people from Nairobi,” he said. Addis Ababa is notorious for its prostitutes, but the cab driver told me he had got “special order” for the chaps from Nairobi.
I asked him what the “special order” was. He explained that these were the “good women who serve customers only on a part-time basis,” otherwise they have regular jobs in offices, or are students at the university, and so on during the day.
In his mind, they were better than the prostitutes on the streets and Addis Ababa’s red light districts. He surprised me further when he said he had the photos in his dashboard, if I were interested in looking. We had reached our destination, and I had political problems with his proposals, so we parted without my taking a peek.
Earlier in the day, in another cab, we got lost because the driver did not know where my hotel was — it was a new one that had only just been opened. He stopped to ask. Nearby a vendor was selling pirate DVDs. He came forward as my driver was out asking for directions, and offered to sell me DVDs. I said I wasn’t interested.
He turned the pile over, and there they were – pornography DVDs. I said no. He insisted that it was “genuine Ethiopian” porn. This was a scene straight out of Nairobi and Kampala, where street DVD vendors will routinely offer you imported and local porn DVDs if you stop to look at their wares. My cab driver friends in Nairobi tell me even more dramatic stories about how the City in the Sun turns into Sodom and Gomorrah at night.
There is something troubling about this sinfulness of cities like Addis Ababa, Kampala and Nairobi. However, there is something equally promising about this willingness to dabble in pleasures once considered taboo, and the growing porn markets. It signals the emergence of societies that are not held back by old moralities and rules, and the rise of the truly urban African who is willing to embrace the breadth of city culture. Every city has its seedy and sinful side — it wouldn’t be a city if it didn’t — and a thriving prostitution, dope, and street crime scene are all part of it.
These urban demons drive creativity in art, film, music, literature, and even technology. If this says anything, it is that the creative future of our cities is bright. And the market for pastors setting up church to save lost souls, will also be equally big. Something for everyone.
Charles Onyango-Obbo is Nation Media Group’s executive editor for Africa & Digital Media. E-mail: cobbo@ke.nationmedia.com
Source: The east African
One evening, I took a cab from my hotel to the fancy Sheraton Hotel to meet up with Ugandan and Kenyan friends for dinner. As soon as I entered the cab, the driver asked me where I was from. I told him Nairobi. That got him started. He said he recently had three clients from Nairobi. “They know how to enjoy life, the people from Nairobi,” he said. Addis Ababa is notorious for its prostitutes, but the cab driver told me he had got “special order” for the chaps from Nairobi.
I asked him what the “special order” was. He explained that these were the “good women who serve customers only on a part-time basis,” otherwise they have regular jobs in offices, or are students at the university, and so on during the day.
In his mind, they were better than the prostitutes on the streets and Addis Ababa’s red light districts. He surprised me further when he said he had the photos in his dashboard, if I were interested in looking. We had reached our destination, and I had political problems with his proposals, so we parted without my taking a peek.
Earlier in the day, in another cab, we got lost because the driver did not know where my hotel was — it was a new one that had only just been opened. He stopped to ask. Nearby a vendor was selling pirate DVDs. He came forward as my driver was out asking for directions, and offered to sell me DVDs. I said I wasn’t interested.
He turned the pile over, and there they were – pornography DVDs. I said no. He insisted that it was “genuine Ethiopian” porn. This was a scene straight out of Nairobi and Kampala, where street DVD vendors will routinely offer you imported and local porn DVDs if you stop to look at their wares. My cab driver friends in Nairobi tell me even more dramatic stories about how the City in the Sun turns into Sodom and Gomorrah at night.
There is something troubling about this sinfulness of cities like Addis Ababa, Kampala and Nairobi. However, there is something equally promising about this willingness to dabble in pleasures once considered taboo, and the growing porn markets. It signals the emergence of societies that are not held back by old moralities and rules, and the rise of the truly urban African who is willing to embrace the breadth of city culture. Every city has its seedy and sinful side — it wouldn’t be a city if it didn’t — and a thriving prostitution, dope, and street crime scene are all part of it.
These urban demons drive creativity in art, film, music, literature, and even technology. If this says anything, it is that the creative future of our cities is bright. And the market for pastors setting up church to save lost souls, will also be equally big. Something for everyone.
Charles Onyango-Obbo is Nation Media Group’s executive editor for Africa & Digital Media. E-mail: cobbo@ke.nationmedia.com
Source: The east African
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