Watoto Kaeni Chini; Village Movies

Just what happened to the Kenya Film Commission sponsored big screen village movies?Kenya Film Commission may not be aware but those movies exposed some of us to a hitherto unknown night world.

In my hometown the film would pitch tent on 8th of every month. That day was therefore set aside by all male youths as the day of 'film'. That meant that any other activities that were scheduled for the evening of the 8^th of the month were differed to another time.

Since the movie kicked off at 7pm to 9pm preparations would start early in the day. If it was a school day we would hurry up home and get the rabbits enough weeds in time. One would then check if there was enough firewood and finally take a shower.

Since a complete shower involving the whole body would be undertaken on Saturdays with warm water in a karai much ado was not wasted on that day in washing the face and the legs. By washing the legs I mean from the knees downwards. That was our version of a weekday shower.

After being ready, you had to perform a disappearing act at about 6.30pm.

The reason for vanishing from the homestead without informing the parents was to ward off any attempts by our mothers from sending you on mundane errands like to go and check the price of salt in the village kiosk before coming for money. Such activities wasted time.

Upon arrival at town gardens we would then hang around and wait for the free movie to begin.The movie would start at about 7pm with a national anthem belted out of the loudspeakers. Since it was projector movie, the pictures were visible from afar.

The sitting arrangement would look haphazard for a visitor. It was not.

Youths from Various villages sat apart from each other. Such arrangement gave us a false sense of security.

False or otherwise security was of paramount importance since various villages had bad blood between them. You just never knew who was your enemy.But that did not deter young boys of less than ten years going near the screen and being ordered, frequently, by narrator to sit down, hence 'watoto kaeni chini'

The movie was always about American soldier's ordeals in Vietnam. Funny thing the Americans always won in the movie despite history showing that the Americans were badly defeated in Vietnam.

The most funny thing about those movies was that there was a narrator who made do in kiswahili, what the actors were saying. He could predict a scene and guide the attentive audience through the motions , plot and subplots of the movie. It was refreshing to listen to the man.

You could hear things like “hapa mwenya sinema ama ukitaka starring anatega mitego ambayo itaangamiza wakora wengi sana. Ndugu zanguni usisahau starring angali anangojewa na kidosho chake tulipowawacha!”.

After the free movie the real thrill of entertainment would be vanished by the events that would follow.

The assembled crowd which numbered in hundreds would then move to disperse each group to the road leading to its village.At that moment strange things would happen. There is no explanation why bad blood existed between various villages.

That not notwithstanding stones, rotten eggs would be thrown from one side to the other immediately the narrator announced the movie was over.

Woe unto you if a rotten egg landed you.