Controversy Rules? – A Conversation with @Storymoja Fellows

 In the wake of Betty Njoroge’s recent viral storm (Article here), a question begs to be asked. Do socially concious writers/bloggers have a chance of being heard without some controversy surrounding their voices? (Sorry, Betty, we just had to ride on this one!)

Just in case you did not know, Betty Njoroge has been writing for years about issues on politics – sex and sexuality, governance, society. For years! She writes for local newspapers, has a blog, is vocal on Facebook and Twitter. I took note. Someone else did take note. Her circle took note. But the rest of the Kenyan Online Community probably only listened to her over the last few days.

So is that what it takes – a threat to Betty’s life… or nude pics? I posed the question to Storymoja fellows, and we discussed it at the Bloggers’ Ideagasm over the weekend. Here’s what some people had to say.

Zosi: I quite honestly didn’t not get past the first paragraph of the article. Political writing is not my thing. Politics is not my thing.My judgment of her article being political may wrong, but then again what else is new?  I judge articles by their first part and hers to be honest was rhetoric and bitter opinions or judgement. Of a situation, of a personality.I believe that controversy must reign true for a writer of controversies.  They are not mutually exclusive.  I don’t mean to say a writer of fiction must live in some ‘NeverLand’.I hope you get my drift.  A writer is but only their content therefore if they write controversy then I feel that it is only purposeful for them to also be surrounded by it.  Writers are the mirrors of what they are immersed in no?

That said the threat made on her and the rédaction of her piece in my less than humble opinion was and will also a be looked at as a silencing of strong bold voice in a nation that thumps its chest for the upholding of rights and freedoms.

I bet it won’t shut her up though.  Not by a long shot.

Juliet Maruru: In a perfect world, everyone is important, everyone is valuable, everyone has something to give to society. In that perfect world, everyone would be heard.In our world, you need money & power, but if you have none of that; bad publicity is good publicity. Betty Njoroge’s recent viral takeover is a case in point. She has been writing for a long time. She is most vocal about politics and society. And yet, no one has really been listening to her. She has just been a voice lost in the melee of madness.That was just until someone forced her publishers to take down her work because she challenged authority. Now everyone knows about her. Possibly, they know little of her work except that she speaks strongly. The same would go for just about any activist ever. When Former President Moi’s stooges pulled out Wangari Maathai’s hair at Uhuru Park, the world started listening, didn’t they?So is that what it takes?

Isn’t this the same trend that leads ‘socialites’ to believe that the way to being famous is not by being creative and hardworking, but by ‘leaking’ nude pics. Paris Hilton and Kim Kardashian have built empires on the controversy surrounding nude photos. No wonder local wanna-bes think it is a trend worth emulating. But is it?

Ian Arunga: I was early this time… For our monthly office meeting that is… I am often late… Which is not the best thing… But Dear God please grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can;and wisdom to know the difference.

That said, today’s topic is: Does one have to be surrounded by controversy or scandal to be heard?

I really do not know what I feel about this… So I will just go wild!

I am a blogger, Dear Doris, 15,000 views everyday, yes I am famous… When I write, a good number of people read… When I started Dear Doris (Diary of a Sketch at the time) I had a viewership of 70 on average… This was up until my cousin Esther Arunga’s story blew up… Mara she was in a cult… Mara she wanted to be vice president… mara she wthis mara she that… And this famous blogger called Robert Alai followed this up and shockingly got to me… I am an artist, I draw as well… Most of my art is of nude women… some, at the time were of skulls and demons… I was young. My art was on my FB page. Robert Alai found them and decided I was Free Mason… Which is the stupidest thing I have ever heard… I am too broke to be freemason… So he deduced that my whole family is into devil worship… An email was sent to major media houses saying I was freemason…

The next post I wrote on Dear Doris after this had 114,000 views… I have never beaten that record!

So, controversy helps… Not mandatory though…

Lucie Sedlackova: If you want your voice to be really heard, and heard by a lot of people, you have to put something extraordinary into your thoughts. However not all writers or bloggers are capable of writing a remarkable piece.

So the easiest way I guess is, ‘take your clothes off’ – make fool of yourself, do something crazy and attract people’s eyes (money, wallet, power …).

If you want to save elephants, you should do something people will admire or hate but never get bored of. An extraordinary Kenyan Jim Nyamu decided to do use his extraordinary willpower and passion and start to walk – walk for a very long distance indeed – thousands of kilometres. But walking is not enough – he and his team have been writing and speaking about that whenever they can.

So I could hear him saying I will continue to walk until the situation improves. You feel tears in your eyes and his actions empowers you to do something, even if smaller, but something…

If he would just write and write (as thousands of environmentalists, writers or just nature lovers do), I guess – and it is sad – just a few people will listen, and I am not sure if they would act. His extraordinary approach and concrete action attract even people from government and a lot of journalists, students and other people as me.

So what do you think?