An African Xmas Venting

I just need to get this off of my chest before it's too late.

In the office, I've heard some of my non-Kenyan colleagues complain that it just doesn't feel like Christmas here in Nairobi/Kenya. Even though the many malls here are decked out with fairy lights and Christmas trees and local school groups carol regularly in front of stores (very western, indeed), they just don't feel the holiday spirit. The only time that they say they felt the holidays were coming was when I recently baked sugar cookies.

I think I know why this is the case.

Even here in Kenya we listen to popular western holiday songs. With sleigh bells jingling in the background and words like "snow" sprinkled through all of the songs' lyrics. This can be really confusing to the mind while in Africa - even though I'm hearing snowy vocabulary being sung in songs, I'm surrounded by tropical plants on warm and sunny days. What's more - Kenya is extremely close to the equator, which means it doesn't boast the normal four seasons you find in the west. No snow, here. And for places south of the equator, its summertime right now anyway; case in point is Australia scorching in heat while the US is piled in layers and shivering.

Therefore, of course it wouldn't feel like the holidays to someone if they're relying on wintry music to fill their holiday playlist.

In response to this, I started looking for weather-neutral music (or even tropical music) that is Christmas focused for a new playlist. I've found a few songs that are neutral to weather for the holidays, like Wham's "Last Christmas" and John Lennon's "Happy Xmas (War is Over)". The only popular non-snowy song with a tropical twist (and was written by a band in a region outside of the west, sorry Tim Mitchen) I could find was (my mom's favorite) Boney M's song "Mary's Boy Child". It's a great example of something I can happily listen to in Kenya and start feeling festive. The only problem (for our African-situated and minded folks, here) is that they're a Caribbean band. I have struggled to find African holiday music.

I did go to a holiday festival last week that helped me somewhat scratch my itch for a tropical holiday vibe. A group of popular Kenyan singers sang regular Christmas Carols and wove fun local Kenyan songs into them, which gave the songs a cheeky flair. It was wonderful and brimming with holiday joy....but I haven't found much else that gives the holidays its own local feel to it.

I hope that African artists can start creating and popularizing their own holiday songs soon - it would help improve the tropical holiday vibe and increase the diversity of songs to listen to over the holidays that aren't rehashes of old classics that we keep hearing re-sung by new people.

Last note to share: I really resent the 1980s holiday hit "Do they know it's Christmas" nowadays, while I'm at it. Though extremely catchy, its lyrics are ignorant and pretty much underline all of the foolish things western folk say about "the rest of the world". The phrases "and there won't be snow in Africa this Christmastime" infuriates me every time - of course not because it's summer, you idiot!