Was Your First Phone a Mulika Mwizi or a Smart Phone?
The Great Old Days
I distinctly remember the day I got my very first phone.
December 28th, 2018.
My big brother and I stroll through Nairobi CBD, I can feel the beat of my heart. It must be the excitement. I’m zoning in and out thinking about all I’m going to do with this new phone. Kutesa lazima.
We pass one green shop, then another, then another. I think to myself, why are we passing these Safaricom shops, but Big Bro knows best. So, I shut up and follow along in a military fashion. Struggling to keep up, I brush shoulders with a stream of people walking by. “Changamka msee!” My brother exclaims, his smile spreading from ear to ear. Why are Nairobi people always in such a hurry? I wonder.
After matching relentlessly, we come to a halt and I look inside, It’s also a Safaricom shop but not the ones in Malls like Sarit Center, the ones on Tom Mboya Street along Moi Avenue. He believes the ones sold here are for “common mwananchi” like us and the prices are cheaper. Now this is the true meaning of being a street-smart person.
There are two things I had to have immediately after finishing High School: a smartphone and a pair of milky-white Nike Airforce shoes from Gikomba.
The latter would have to wait, but today, I was getting a phone. Not a mere touchscreen device. A smartphone.
If you have gone through the Kenyan 8-4-4 system then you must know the peer pressure that comes when you don’t possess a phone. I vividly remember the stories immediately after midterm by my peers: trendy juicy gossip on social media, like which celebrity broke up with whom, the latest movie by Marvel or DC, they exaggerated how cool Instagram was and I think to myself, if these niggas knew the phone I was about to get, they’d put some serious respect on my name.
After a few negotiations, the whooping 13k dad had given me is handed to the teller, and voila! I am a proud owner of a phone. I felt on top of the world because I was the only person in our entire household who never used a kaduda (or a mulika mwizi) as their first phone
How it felt!
I was officially recruited into the information age, following the great migration from analog to digital. The phone was a sleek 3 GB RAM device with 16 GB internal storage. It felt like acquiring a brand-new whip mostly A Porsche Cayenne or any beast under the tag Bayerische Motoren Werke (I am referring to a BMW precisely an X 7). Don't worry about any of these toys though. Just take a random stroll along James Gichuru Road and these beasts will zoom by like Boda-bodas in your village. The number of boda-bodas has increased so much nowadays, that I even wonder if anyone cares about their contribution to climate change. Hello Nduthi gang!
“Bro uko na simu kali. Si I -phone but ni simu ngori” Philip, our next-door neighbor, and my friend, said to me after scrutinizing my phone.
“It’s not among those phones that have a reputation of overheating and hanging whenever they feel like” he continues to glorify it. “The word in the street is that they can be used as a substitute for an iron box.”
This statement prompted a burst of laughter from me. I don’t want to be sued for defamation by revealing the brand names of “those phones” that Philip suggested, but I know your guess is as good as mine. Remember, if it looks like a dog, smells like a dog, barks like a dog, and pants like a dog, then it’s a dog.
I embarked on an odyssey of installing all applications that didn’t come with my phone. Facebook, WhatsApp, X, Instagram. And it being an Android device powered by Google, I had to create a Gmail account to access the Play Store. I still don’t have any idea why it’s called play store. Maybe Google thought shopping for apps would be more fun. With the Naivete of a high school kid, I desperately wanted to experience what the cool kids back in high school used to brag about. The finer things in life. And I enjoyed every single bit of it.
WhatsApp became my companion-my new bae. Chatting with my high school friends, and viewing memes became my new normal. I was extremely elated every time I heard the default notification sound. Everything in my world would come to a standstill just to give the notification the proper and cordial attention that it deserved. When I had supper with the family, I used my left hand and when I did the dishes and a notification chimed on my phone, I would gently wipe on my pants, eager not to miss out on the excitement.
With the discovery of Yo WhatsApp and GB, things went from zero to 100 pretty quickly. Playing with those settings made me feel like a Tech Guru. I cherished the ghost viewing and other ‘premium’ services that I didn’t enjoy on normal WhatsApp.This was the coolest shit way back then.
The worst of it all however was when you were censored from using the platform and that dooming notification popped up -You are temporarily banned from using WhatsApp. Try again after 72 hours. These were the good old days when life was lifing.
I remember my mom took advantage of this; whenever I dared to express how I was feeling in the house, she'd shush me with her classic response "Ni hizo simu mnatumia." Even if I was feeling cold or hungry, my mom would say the same thing. It was like her go-to catchphrase, no matter the situation!
How it feels now!
Life has moved on pretty quickly. I have outgrown that bubble. Hunting for attachments and internships just like any other Kenyan graduate is proving to be quite the hustle. My friends, I have written letters akin to Paul in the Bible. Each letter is addressed to different organizations but the message remains the same: I would love to work for free so I can gain experience by being part of your reputable organization. But still no replies. How did I get here? I think to myself.
Navigating the endless sea of writing and sending emails now feels like shooting in the dark, similar to those intense movie scenes where the hero, armed with night vision glasses, confidently corners the bad guy in the dark. The hero has a crystal-clear view. Can see every move, every nuance, while the bad guy, feeling exposed and helpless, aware that his aim is futile, resorts to firing shots blindly and aimlessly, a desperate attempt in the face of inevitable defeat. Sending emails can feel much the same. You’re hitting the send button, each message a shot fired with determination. There's a sense of pitifulness in knowing that, much like the disoriented bad guy in the movie, you can't always guarantee hitting the mark. Yet, in this digital battleground, we keep firing away, fueled by the hope that one of our shots will find its target.
But I’m neither the first nor the last and reminiscing about my lecturer’s nuggets of wisdom,
“You have a great future ahead of you.Don’t let impatience or any force of darkness derail you from that which will come gravitating towards you. You have a beautiful destiny laid out for you. And as I said, it will present itself to you very soon. It may sound far-fetched but that’s the absolute truth”
-Dr.Abu Muka-
brings a sense of calm reminding me that even in the chaos, there's still hope. I take a deep breath and let peace envelope and flow through.
Now I don’t crave notifications from social media anymore. The notifications that I am seriously waiting for don’t show up at all. The ones that come flooding my inbox are the ones I do not want. I can no longer stand the Uber Eats notifications- Denis, You Deserve a Free Meal. Just pay the fees! A tempting offer that plays with my appetite and budget simultaneously; a constant reminder that I cannot afford even with the discounted prices. The pain is real, leaving me to grapple with the bitter reality -"inauma but itabidi nizoee"
As I refresh my Gmail to see if there is any reply in my inbox, my lecturer’s words still ring clearly in my mind “You have a great future ahead of you. Don’t let impatience or any force of darkness derail you from that which will come gravitating towards you. You have a beautiful destiny laid out for you. And as I said, it will present itself to you very soon. It may sound far-fetched but that’s the absolute truth”
As usual, live fully and love wholeheartedly. Remember to live is to love, and to love is to live. So:
Live and let live.
Adiós
Ah, let's take a journey back in time to the golden days with this timeless banger by Twenty One Pilots!
Great read ~DA~ ... I was taken a back when I confirmed the speech that Nokia's former CEO made back in 2016. Indeed if you don't adapt, you'll be out of the competition.