Original subtitles

- Maybe you know him.

I hope you know him from such excellent shows as

"United Shades of America,"

host, writer, comedian, W. Kamau Bell.

I bumped into him in the CNN "C" room recently

fondling his Emmy, and I asked him,

"Kamau, if you could go anywhere on Earth

"for, like, a mash-up episode of my show and yours,

where would that be?"

He said Kenya.

- So here we are,

"United Shades Unknown" or "Parts United."

Scratch that. That... that doesn't sound good.

"America's Shadiest Parts."

No, no, that doesn't work either.

"Unknown Shades of"...

♪ I took a walk through this ♪

♪ Beautiful world

♪ Felt the cool rain on my shoulder ♪

♪ Found something good in this ♪

♪ Beautiful world

♪ I felt the rain getting colder ♪

- ♪ La, la - ♪ Sha la, la, la, la

♪ Sha la, la, la, la

- ♪ Sha la, la, la - Sha la, la, la, la ♪

♪ Sha la, la, la, la, la

♪

- First time on this continent.

- Yes.

- I'm gonna be teasing you relentlessly about this,

- by the way. - That's fine.

Please, please, please, yeah.

As an African-American,

there's a lot of talk about going back to this thing

of the "motherland."

- And that... it... seriously radicalizing experience

for African-American comics who come here before.

- Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. - Life changing.

So we shall see.

♪

- I mean, even walking through the streets,

like, I have this feeling of, like,

when I moved from Chicago to Oakland.

You know, you hear about Oakland being this black city...

- Uh-huh. - And you get there

and it's like, I got these black people here

- but it's not like... - Uh-huh.

- This is what I imagined Oakland was gonna be like.

- This is like... this feels like this is black, you know?

♪

- Nairobi means "cool water" in Maasai.

It's the capital of Kenya with 6.5 million people

living in the metro area.

♪

It grew up around a British railroad depot

during the colonial era,

halfway between other British interests in Uganda

and the coastal port of Mombasa.

♪

- I will admit to a weird, frankly unlovely sense

of been here, done that.

It's not a good look for me, I know,

but there's a mischievous curiosity tucked away

in some poisonous part of my brain

that's dying to see how Kamau handles the heat,

the spice, the crowds,

the overwhelming rush of a whole new world,

because that's what it is first time.

This ain't Berkeley.

- Wah!

♪

- I'm already happy. - I'm pretty happy

because I've seen this scene so many times on your show.

I finally get to be in this scene of

this is gonna be good.

- I mean, you have a Kenyan name.

- Yes. My parents met in East Palo Alto, California.

You know, this is like the late '60s,

starting to be the early '70s,

so post the Civil Rights movement

but that point where black people were starting to, like,

really like want a connection to the motherland.

And in East Palo Alto, there was this push

towards naming it Nairobi,

Nairobi, California.

Back then, people were like, we need to be associated with,

like, an example of African culture that is winning.

At that point, Kenya was looked at as being winning

'cause they had just kicked out the Brits,

and there was all this sort of like, you know,

we need to start a whole new culture and a new government.

They started, like, a community college

that's in people's houses and in basements

and in storefronts.

And I was the first baby born to one of the heads of the council

apparently,

and apparently, there was, like, a whole ceremony,

lasted eight days and, you know, "Ahh."

Like, you know, I picture it like "The Lion King."

I don't know, there's no pictures.

♪

- Tilapia from Lake Naivasha

fried, then cooked with tomato and spices.

Served up right on the bone

with an ice-cold Tusker.

And yet, a proud Kenyan name.

Given your background, why so long? Why...

What took you so long, man?

- I was waiting for an invitation,

- the right invitation. - I mean, what... what...

Was there any concern you would be disappointed?

- I think as a black American, I'm still wrestling

with my African-American identity sometimes,

and I'm still wondering, am I doing right by this culture

and does this culture think I'm doing right by them?

That's why I don't want to walk around like,

"I'm home!"

I also think that, like, a lot of times blacks in America

heavily struggle with that aspect of identity.

What does it mean to be black in America?

I'm like, I fought hard to claim this identity.

It's exhausting, you know.

Am I ready to start with a new one? I don't know yet.

- Well, we'll see in a... - We'll see in a week

when you head back.

- Exactly, yeah.

- Shit runs deep here.

Meaning, best scientists can tell,

it all started for us in this neighborhood.

Tribes of hunter-gatherers,

the Bantu and Nilotic peoples,

Arab and Persian traders,

the Portuguese merchants, the Omani

all left their mark.

♪

But the British Empire's hold from 1895 to 1964

is perhaps most deeply felt.

The British system of education,

governance, justice, along with,

to a certain extent, its values

were imposed on a native people

and laid, for better and worse,

much of the foundation for modern Kenya.

It did abolish slavery, for instance.

It did build a modern infrastructure.

It was also completely and fundamentally

exploitative, often violent,

and well, racist,

favoring white settlers, land owners,

and foreign entrepreneurs in every possible way.

Kenya existed to make white people from far away

rich.

♪

But in 1963 Kenya won its independence

and elected its first president,

Jomo Kenyatta.

And since that time, has fought an uphill battle

to shake the last vestiges of colonial rule

while hanging onto what worked.

♪

Things are, by most accounts, going well.

Today's Kenya is phenomenally beautiful.

There is a growing middle class,

a highly rated educational system,

and an enthusiastic

and multilingual professional sector,

which is to say this is decidedly not a shithole.

There are poor people here

just like there's poor people anywhere else.

Kenya is as distinct and different

from other nations in Africa

as Texas is from Mars,

with its own problems and its own kinds of awesomeness.

It's dynamic, it's changing, and it's incredible.

Kenya, by Kenyans, for Kenyans.

But hurdles exist;

bizarre, almost surreal ones, in this case.

Mitumba, for instance,

also known as the clothing of dead white people.

- 70% of Africans are wearing secondhand clothes.

We can just make our own clothes

and make them cheap enough

and make the money and keep the money.

There's also the issue of dignity.

We have underwear coming in. We have...

- Underwear? - Yeah.

- Like poor people like... like living in Kibera and stuff...

They wear secondhand underwear.

- It's not cool. - Well, there's a big market

for that in Japan.

- Oh, but like for other reasons.

- Njeri Gikera is the owner of ChilliMango,

and all-Kenyan street wear company.

Melissa Mbugua is a managing director

at a creative consulting firm.

As I understand it,

there used to be 500,000 manufacturing jobs in Kenya,

textile manufacturing,

and there's now 20,000.

- Before the '80s, we had a booming textile industry...

- Right. - That could employ

500,000 people, but now in the '80s,

when the [indistinct] introduced the free trade,

we got all this... all the secondhand clothes

coming into the country.

Before that, they were actually for charity.

They were meant for the poor people.

- Here's how it works.

Your pants or your t-shirt get old or boring.

So being a good-hearted soul, rather than throw them out

you drop them in a charity box

assuming they'll go to someone who needs them.

But no.

In fact, that charity sells your pants and your t-shirt

along with a whole lot of other clothes in bulk

to a secondhand clothing exporter,

a middle man, part of a billion-dollar industry.

Exporters then sell your stuff by the container load

to places like Kenya.

Along the way,

millions of dollars are creamed off in duties.

54 million bucks a year in the port of Mombasa alone.

The old clothes are then unpacked, sorted,

and sold in markets throughout the country.

This low-cost clothing option has absolutely crushed

the domestic textile market.

Now, some countries in Africa have said, wait a minute.

This is not good for our employment situation.

We're not gonna let this stuff in anymore.

What happened then?

- So then America came and they told us that

they would have trade sanctions against us.

- If you didn't take all this.. - Yeah.

- Used clothes. - Exactly. Exactly, yeah.

'Cause of the free trade that they... yeah, exactly.

- That's extortion. - It's pretty much oppressive.

- Yeah, it's bullying.

- It's real colonialism.

- USA! USA! - Yeah.

- So you design and manufacture?

- Mm-hmm. It's a Kenyan street wear brand, basically.

So we make hoodies. We make t-shirts.

- Hoodies? - Yeah.

- For giants? - Do you make hoodies for giants?

- Yes. Everyone... - Everyone's sorted.

- In Oakland where I'm from, hoodies are kind of a big deal.

So if I was able to go back with a Kenyan made hoodie,

I'd get a whole Nairobi/Oakland connection going.

- As screwed up as the whole situation is,

people do love the availability of cheap clothes.

And Toi Market is the place to go

for what in New York City would be called vintage,

a dense labyrinth of shops neatly organized by specialty.

- Honey, I brought all the UGGs back from Kenya.

There's gotta be something in your size.

- The challenge today is gonna be finding footwear

for Kamau's decidedly non-Kenyan feet.

Not to mention mine.

Oh, I need a half size up.

- Oh, nice. - Here we go.

I had to come to the continent to find shoes that fit me.

- High five! - High ten.

- Great. - Yeah.

- These are 30-34s?

I'll take these for sure.

- Let's just be clear. Some rich, annoying American person

who bought these, wore them twice.

- Yeah, yeah. - And then was like,

- "Ew, they're out of season." - Yeah.

- Debbie Harry shirt is kind of cool.

Yeah.

I will take this for sure.

- Here we go. Come on. - Oh, nice.

- Oh, there... now we're talking.

- Black man in America wearing a King Kong shirt is not a...

- Oh, yeah, wow. - Yeah.

I don't know how it goes over here but in America...

- Turn it down. - That's a great narc shirt.

- Right. - That's a great, like,

- "Hey, kids." - Anyone wanna buy some acid?

- This is just weird enough and simple enough.

- That is pretty cool.

- I feel like I could, "Where did you get that shirt?"

"I got it in Kenya."

- Is there a solution here? - A mix?

I mean, clearly it's good for some people.

I mean, I don't have a lot of money

and I'd like a pretty fresh-looking pair of Nikes,

- this is a good option. - Yeah.

- I don't think this business is bad inherently.

I mean, I feel like these two things seem like

- they could exist... - Together.

- Together, yeah, you know what I'm saying?

The States, there's like, you can buy clothes that are

made in the United States and you can also go to a thrift shop

- and buy them. - Yeah, that's true.

- 'Cause I mean, I see those people who are running

those stalls who are making a living and I'm trying to, like,

I'm not trying to take their living away,

but also, yes, those clothes should be taxed,

maybe they should be a little more expensive.

- Is there a realistic hope

that the textile industry would come back?

- There is. - To me, there is.

Now we have more of the middle class buying Kenyan made stuff,

- which is... - Right.

- Like people are "woke."

They want to buy stuff that's ethically...

- Produced. - Yeah, exactly.

- Supporting... and supporting the community.

- Exactly.

You know, China and South Korea,

they didn't leave poverty or, like, stop being poor

by importing secondhand clothes.

They... they did it by building all these factories,

being able to export their... the stuff that they're producing.

So it has to happen the same way with us.

♪

♪

- ♪ Uh-huh

♪ Yeah, yeah

♪ You can be

- ♪ Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

♪ Oh, I could be something all the time ♪

♪ I could be something in the tribe ♪

♪ I could be something endlessly ♪

♪ I could be something, I could be something ♪

♪ I could see something all the time ♪

- Everybody needs a superhero.

In Kibera, Nairobi's largest neighborhood,

they make their own,

part of a project run by the Maasai Mbili Art Collective

intended to empower kids who don't otherwise have much.

- There's a Swahili saying that says...

Art is the reflection of the community.

♪

- Well, what we did is to make art...

We use it as a tool.

♪

- So many stories have been told about Kibera.

- They're negative stories. - Negative stories.

- Right. - Many organizations come here

in Kibera, they shoot videos and films

talking about AIDS, drugs, you know,

negative things about Kibera.

- So you have a lot of documentary crews

that come through here and film crews that come through here?

- They usually come here.

- So my question... I have a question. Are we assholes?

- I was waiting for that. - I feel like an asshole.

- We can talk around it. - We can talk...

I feel like a white guy right now,

you know what I mean?

- Kibera is massive.

Around 172,000 people live here.

♪

A sprawling warren of homes,

places of worship, and small businesses

competing for an edge.

It houses a great part of Nairobi's labor force.

Meaning no Kibera, the city grinds to a halt.

- So here, as a person named Kamau,

- I'm not unique. - Yeah, yeah.

- Yeah. - You're very common.

- You're common. - It's a common name here.

- I've waited all my life to be common.

- Welcome home. I'll go and tell our forefathers you are here.

- Thank you, thank you.

- Mammito Eunice is a comedienne,

Simon Okuku, a musician,

and Jeff Ochieng, once voted Kenya's funniest person,

are all using art to tell a new story

about Kibera.

- It started from the challenge that we had been facing

in this life, like me.

You know, me, I've been brought up by a single parent.

I used even to engage in criminal activities.

- Mm-hmm.

- Coming across my fellow friends

and who have been passing to church candle

for masses, we decided to come up with

our organization known as Kibera Creative Arts.

So to try to teach this our fellow young people

to make them avoid getting into these traps

that are set for us.

- Kibera is also ground zero

for what's called around here the white savior complex,

a focal point for the more than 12,000

mostly well-meaning expat aid workers

who live in Kenya.

It's a dynamic that can be counterproductive.

The salary and employment discrepancies

can cause a ripple effect of problems

for native Kenyans.

- Yeah, man.

- Many Kenyans are working on a grassroots level

to take control of their own future.

Kibera Creative Arts being an example.

Artists and performers from the neighborhood

working to support and develop local talent.

- What is it like to be a comedian in Kenya?

How does that... How does that look?

- It's so hard to make people laugh in Kenya.

Imagine these are people who have not paid their rent.

These are people who have gone without food

- for some days. - Yeah.

- So they come in angry. - Yeah.

- Angry and hungry. - Yeah, yeah, yeah.

- You should take me with this camera out when I was small.

Now that I'm grown big, let me be taken by this camera.

- Another reason why we go onstage and make people laugh

it is a flash that we would say, "Wow, man!"

♪

- I love to make more people happy

because there's always ups and downs in life

but we will always laugh.

- You know, when people see Mammito performing

and they see all the people seeing Mammito as a star.

If Mammito is just performing

and she's now a star, I don't need to go and rob somewhere

to make me a star.

I can use whatever I am because I think even in Kibera

we have something that we can show to the world.

♪

- By regional standards, Kenya,

Nairobi anyway, is particularly tolerant.

Kenya has become a sanctuary of sorts

for a number of diverse ethnic, political, and social groups.

♪

One such group with a steadily growing nucleus

is the LGBT community,

not too long ago, a nearly unthinkable development.

So you shall never know this pain or awkwardness,

you know, when I'm doing shows in the States.

I often found myself, "So what's it like

being black in America?"

Now you will share my pain,

what's it like being gay in Kenya?

Kawira Mwirichia, Malcolm Muga,

and Awuor Onyango are members of To Revolutionary Art Love,

a gay art collective.

Kevin Mwachiro is a writer and journalist.

- So how... how free can you be?

Like is there... Are there places in Kenya

where you can walk around holding hands with your partner?

- You could try, you know.

- Are there places you could go where it's not an experiment?

- No. I think at all points it's an experiment.

- So where's the threat from?

Where's it most dangerous?

- I think the violence is... - Is like from homophobes.

All of it is based around,

like, desire of the penis, right?

So if you see two women kiss,

it's hot because you think you can get in there.

- Yeah. - So like...

- They're just one penis short.

- I'm the one they're missing. - Yeah, you know.

Like, they need me to help them out with a dick,

but if you...

- Yeah, there's an abundance.

- And the violence, like, again is like

lesbians always comes in the part where, like,

men realize, oh, they're not attracted to me.

- I've always had this theory that a lot of the issues

and discrimination that we face

is based on our attitude towards women.

And so, you know, a straight man will then come at

a camp gay man because you're not a man.

You're a woman and we do not respect women,

and therefore, you know, why would you want to be like this.

- Yeah.

- Much of the news concerning gay rights on this continent

continues to be pretty grim.

It should be pointed out

that even being gay is still illegal here.

But in February of 2018

The Kenyan National Gay and Lesbian Rights Commission

filed suit to strike down sections of the laws.

Arguing, well, the obvious:

that they violate basic human rights.

What happens next?

Well, a lot of people are holding their breath.

- The fact that we were in court...

- Mm-hmm. - People wearing bracelets

with rainbow colors,

my gays are in court.

You know?

And I think that we queered court that day.

- We did. - We queered court.

- So if... if the law's overturned,

what are the larger implications?

- If we win this case... - Mm-hmm.

- I... I'm happy and scared at the same time.

- Yes. - Yeah.

- Why scared?

- Backlash, obviously. - Yeah.

- What'll happen, there'll be people who...

There'll be people who will be attacked.

- Yeah. - I mean,

we're moving to an extreme end of freedom and there'll be hate.

I mean, I want it to happen so bad.

- Yeah, yeah.

- Can we have pride on the streets of Nairobi?

- So when you say "pride on the streets," do you mean...

Like... like I lived in San Francisco for a long time.

- Yeah, parades and yeah.

- Every year there's a Gay Pride Parade.

And you're... and you're saying that's the...

That if you have that then you know there's been a real change.

- If it happens for us, it'll be inclusion for every other...

Every other minority in this country.

♪

♪

- Nine!

Six more!

♪

- Boxing is life.

For example, the first boxing lesson is stance,

and the importance of stance is stability.

Also in life, you need that stability.

♪

Then you have to protect yourself.

Protecting yourself,

it means protection from many things.

Peer pressure, all these things

that can weigh you down.

♪

And then there is the jab.

Jab keeps the open [indistinct]

and also opens for an opening that you can hit hard.

♪

- Analo Anjere is a rather remarkable man,

a former professional fighter who established Boxgirls

to train specifically female boxers.

♪

Is there a moment in the fight that you're pretty sure

you're gonna win?

- I told them I already won it in the gym,

so I'm just there to confirm.

- Gotta talk trash. - Gotta talk that Ali.

- The awesome Sarah Ndisi

is a professional who trains under him

and also teaches in the program.

- Our vision is create a world where our girls

can take advantage of every opportunity

and create opportunities for other girls.

♪

- And I very much like the idea of just, you know,

all small girls, young women,

women, being able to kick the fuck out of men if they have to.

Exactly, yeah.

- What was your journey? - How did you...

Why did you first start training?

Did you want to become a professional from the beginning

or did you make that decision after a while?

- Okay, my mentor knows, um, for revenge, actually.

- Revenge? - Yeah.

It was out of revenge because one day when I was...

- But she didn't tell me that was the reason.

- You would have talked to her first, yeah, yeah, yeah.

- I was waiting for work in the morning.

♪

And when I was coming back home, a man just slapped me

and ran away.

♪

That's when I started having the idea

if I had boxing skills, the defense skills,

I could have at least saw where the punch was coming from

and at least defend myself.

♪

- Sarah fought Russian boxer, Marina Popova,

in 2015, winning the UBO

Inter-Continental Lightweight division title.

Kenya's first international boxing title.

She took time off to have children

and is now back in training for a return to the ring.

♪

- Did you ever get your revenge?

- I never get my revenge because I come to realize

that a boxer should have discipline most of the time.

Most of the time.

♪

- Swahili culture is a deep part of Kenyan cuisine

born of Indian, Arabic, and Persian influences,

traders on the Indian Ocean side of the continent.

This meal is a clear example of that mix.

♪

Mahamri is a bread made with cardamom.

Mchicha is an East African spinach,

a staple green across Swahili speaking Africa

from Tanzania to Mozambique.

Beans with onions and coconut milk,

chicken biryani with masala, ginger, turmeric,

and eggs.

Fantastic. Beautiful.

- Not a problem.

- Man, honestly, this looks really good.

- How does it work at your gym?

Do people pay to train?

Or like, you know, do they... Is there a monthly fee?

Or how do they...

- I train them for free.

- Really? - Mm-hmm.

- Just 'cause you want to...

help.

- Yeah.

There is... there is nothing to charge

because there is nothing they can give.

So we give what we have.

- Mm-hmm.

- And... and because they have the skills

and we are there, what do we do?

We just train them.

Through the training some get employment,

some become professional fighters.

They find their ways.

♪

- Whatever bus you're taking, it ain't like this.

Crosstown traffic just got a little bit wilder

and more fun

if you're riding the friendly skies

of a matatu.

♪

Matatus are privately owned and operated bus lines

running regular routes,

fiercely competitive to the point

that owners started making modifications

in an ever-changing range of themes

designed to attract the fickle commuter...

♪

Oh, yeah.

What up, what up, what up, what up, what up?

- It's not subtle. - All right, let's do it, man.

Culminating in buses like this,

Mad Max, a rolling, postapocalyptic,

seizure-inducing party bus.

Just the thing you need after a hard day's work.

- ♪ Everyone go amok and groovy ♪

- ♪ Move it, move it, move it, move it ♪

- ♪ Everyone go amok and groovy ♪

- ♪ Move it, move it, move it, move it ♪

- I'm not trying to dance!

It's making me dance!

I don't actually want to dance!

- ♪ Move it

- ♪ Everyone go amok and groovy ♪

- So what do people want on their matatu?

What... what do they have to have?

- First of all, you need to have good music.

The exterior arch is to be pumping.

♪

- Wide-screen TVs?

- Yeah, TVs, Wi-Fi, air fresheners.

- ♪ You'll be waiting all night ♪

- ♪ Everyone go amok and groovy ♪

- ♪ Move it, move it, move it, move it ♪

- Oh!

♪

- Beers and goat's head soup, a global classic.

Slow cooked, well, goat's head.

My companion, Mr. Bell,

unaccustomed as he is to the ways of Africa,

is new to this dish.

But I don't want to sound all Colonel Mustard,

but I eat this shit for breakfast by now,

you know what I mean?

- I hear the words goat head soup

and I think, oh, it'll be meat from the goat's head in a soup.

- Oh, goat head.

- That... that explains why I actually see...

a full-on head of a goat.

- Brian Wanyama Odhiambo is a blogger, photographer,

and chronicler of the matatu phenomena.

Lucia Alessandra Murotto is a legendary conductor.

Katherine Camboon is the owner of Mad Max.

Honored guest.

- Honored guest. - Is this eye...

Is this eye I'm eating right here?

- Soft.

I generously reserve the best and most tender bits

for my friend, as one does.

♪

I fear, however, that he was less than enthusiastic,

initially anyway.

Wait till he tries the brain. He's gonna love it.

♪

- That's my first eye.

- Yeah? All right. - Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I knew... I knew I'd end up doing something like that with you.

- Get it over with then.

Yes.

- So you own the business. - Yeah.

- And how long have you been in the business?

- Like, five years.

- We want to get into the matatu business

- in New York. - Yes.

- I think it would add some improvements.

- Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

- We need a hot tub.

- Yeah, we need a hot... hot tub.

- What's your theme? - I already picked mine out.

- See, I'm all about counterprogramming.

I would do like the Reese Witherspoon matatu,

a tribute to all of the movies of Reese Witherspoon.

I'm all about...

I'm all about thinking outside the box.

- I'm thinking the Wolf Blitz... - "The Situation Room."

- "The Situation Room" matatu.

This could reinvigorate public transportation as we know it.

- Especially in New York or L.A. - where people don't like the bus.

And what does it mean to be conductor?

They don't just let anybody be the conductor.

- In this job you need to have a lot of patience.

Just somebody who's had a bad day,

they just don't want to pay.

If you don't have patience, you just find yourself

on top of the moon.

So when you carry people, you need to...

You need to show them that it's... it's full of energy.

- They need to know how to get the people inside their matatu.

- So the whistle just gets everybody...

- Yeah. - Jumped up and excited.

- Yeah.

- Like I said, this is a competitive business.

The matatu can cost up to 60,000 bucks

to buy and build out.

Rides are only 60 cents,

so to make the money back, you better get the customers in

and out and coming back

for 100,000 rides before you break even.

- So can you tell me, what's it like

growing up as an Italian Kenyan?

- Um...

- I was trying not to say white.

In America, white people get upset when you call them white.

So I was trying to...

- The challenges I had as a kid was my hair.

Everyone wanted to touch my hair.

One thing I love about this job is that

I meet all types of people,

and I don't look down on them and they don't look down on me.

That's the best part of it.

- ♪ Everyone go amok and groovy ♪

- ♪ Move it, move it, move it, move it ♪

- Just wait until New York City sees

Kamau and my joint venture,

the Wolf Blitzer.

- ♪ Move it

- ♪ Everyone go amok and groovy ♪

- ♪ Move it, move it, move it, move it ♪

- ♪ Everyone go amok and groovy ♪

- ♪ Move it, move it, move it, yeah ♪

- ♪ Everyone go amok and groovy ♪

- ♪ Move it, move it, move it, move it ♪

- ♪ Everyone go amok and groovy ♪

- ♪ Move it, move it, move it, yeah ♪

- ♪ Everyone go amok and groovy ♪

- ♪ Move it, move it, move it, move it ♪

♪

♪

- A few hours' drive from Nairobi,

it's another world.

♪

The Africa of dreams, of films,

the natural world,

but a world under constant threat.

♪

Lewa Wildlife Conservancy seeks to address

the problem of keeping all this alive and safe

without excluding or marginalizing the people

who've lived here for centuries.

That is a delicate balance.

Man and nature,

how to responsibly care for one

without negatively impacting the other

in a world of ever-decreasing resources.

♪

- This is Dave, guys. - Look at this guy here.

This is Dave the Giraffe. He's a residential giraffe.

- Hi, Dave.

- Our guide is Karmu Shukiama.

He grew up in a village near here

and has a deep knowledge of the wildlife of Lewa.

- Are those termite mounds? - Termite mounds, yeah.

- So that's filled with termites.

- That's filled with termites. - That's horrible.

- A little useless trivia, in a firefight,

you hide behind one of those it will provide useful cover.

- It's my first safari, it's a very specific safari

with an expert and with you with useless information.

- Yes. - I paid extra for this.

♪

This is significantly better than the zoo.

I guess that goes without saying.

- Yeah.

- For some reason, I don't know if it's just me,

but I had a negative connotation of safaris.

I mean, I feel like...

- They used to shoot animals on the safari.

There's our kind of safari

and then there's the, you know, Trump Jr. safari.

- Yeah, I think that... I think I was afraid every time I said

the word that people just, what are you doing, like...

- No, this is... this is a good kind of safari.

- Okay, okay, good. - Good for the world.

- It's 100% good for the world. - Good for the world.

- So good for all the communities.

- We need another word or something.

♪

Are there elephants out here right now?

- So we have elephants, yeah.

- Have you ever ridden on top of an elephant?

- No. - I have done that,

and you know what's another interesting little factoid?

- Here we go.

- When you're sitting on top of an elephant,

the sensation, the tactile quality,

it's like you're sitting on top of a giant scrotum.

- Oh, wow. Well, you're really selling it.

Tony's useless safari facts.

♪

- See an elephant?

Right there.

- Oh!

- Oh, yeah.

♪

Even if you see them in a zoo closer, they're behind bars.

It just doesn't feel connected,

but I feel like we're right here.

- Yeah, he's actually going someplace.

- Yeah, he's... he's not just walking in a circle.

He's actually got a... He's got stuff to do.

♪

- The fact of the matter is these magnificent animals

would most likely be gone

without the intervention of man.

♪

People pay a lot of money to come see these animals.

Without that money, the overwhelming likelihood

is that they would have been wiped out long ago.

Particularly this one.

Whoa. What... what... what...

That's a...

- That's a rhino. - That's our first rhino.

- Wow!

♪

- The conservancy was set up specifically

to protect these guys.

Initially a cattle ranch owned and operated

by the Craig family, the Kenyan government,

after finally acknowledging that the rhinoceros

was on the verge of extinction, asked the family

to set aside some of their property

to bring all surviving rhinos here to recover

and hopefully restore their numbers.

From only 15 animals a few years back,

there are over 150 of them today.

♪

Poaching is, of course, an ever-present danger

to both the animals at Lewa

and the people who look after them.

♪

Particularly the rhinoceros whose horn is believed

by wealthy Chinese buyers to be a strong medicine

with virility enhancing powers.

The reality that the substance that makes up a rhino horn

is the same as the human fingernail

does not deter a market

that will pay tens of thousands of dollars

for a single horn.

♪

With 62,000 acres to cover,

Lewa's anti-poaching program is necessarily aggressive,

inclusive, and cutting-edge.

Relying on local trackers,

advanced tracking technologies,

and perhaps most importantly, good community outreach

and intelligence gathering.

If the local people are not on your side,

you are at a serious disadvantage.

♪

- So that's a white rhino.

- It's a white rhino?

- That is a white rhino. - How do you...

- It has nothing to do with the coloration.

- Okay.

- White was an Afrikaans name "wijd"...

- Ah. - Which means wide mouth.

And whoever came to write about them

[indistinct] and then they became white.

- You said "white rhino," and I was like, ah.

- It's not white.

- I think his dad might be black.

♪

- Does it look like you wanted it to look?

- Or expected it to look?

- I mean... no.

I mean, I guess I don't know.

I mean, I grew up as a kid, you know,

my first images of Africa were Tarzan, you know.

- Mm-hmm. - So I don't think I knew

what Kenya, Africa was, you know?

I mean, I think the expanse of it is not something...

- Yeah. - I could be prepared for.

Like, it takes over the entire horizon.

- What a shithole, right?

What a shithole.

I mean, the other thing I'm aware of too is,

you know, on this trip is that...

Still that thing about like not wanting to feel like

I have come home, you know.

- Mm-hmm. - And yet there is a sense

that there is this diasporic connection

even though it... I did not come from Kenya, you know.

It's nice to have that connection,

even if the frame that the connection was built through

was colonialism, you know,

even though that's not, you know...

But it's... it's the good part of colonialism.

It brings people together.

- I don't know, we should kind of be compulsive reviewing for...

- Yeah. - Like, if you ever run

for president, you should... you should be compulsive reviewing.

- At the very least, I do think that

a lot of perspectives will be opened up,

a lot of minds will be changed.

You know, this is on a very personal note,

like, the idea that I'm sitting here with you

doing this now

knowing where my life and career have come,

it's pretty cool.

- That's about as meta as it gets, right.

- Yeah, no, it's just like every now and again

I have this, like, whose life is this?

- I will tell you,

I've got 17 fucking years, okay...

- Yeah. - And I would...

I... as soon as the cameras turn off,

and, like, the crew will be... we'll be sitting around,

we're having a cocktail,

I fucking pinch myself,

'cause I cannot fucking believe that I live to do this...

- I mean, like... - Or see this ever

or that I ever would,

because 44 years old dunking fries,

I knew with absolute certainty

- that I would never... - Yeah.

- Ever, ever see Rome, much less this.

- Yeah.

♪

♪

- ♪ Hey

- Looking at some of our cultures,

we know from where we come from.

Traditionally, you know,

we've had some sort of conservation culture.

It sort of got eroded.

It's been with us, it's been with our forefathers.

We just lost it somewhere recently,

and we're trying to get it back.

♪

- When you have traditional pastoral communities

under intense and immediate pressure,

trying to convince them that wildlife

which can, as in the case of one rhino or elephant,

bring in life-changing amounts of money,

it's a hard thing to convince them

that it is in their long-term interests to let them live.

Particularly when it was often wealthy white outsiders

doing the asking.

- If you were very successful in managing this ex-cattle ranch

as a conservancy, but wildlife across Kenya as a whole

had no future, then to all intents and purposes

you just established a zoo, a large zoo.

And so what Lewa's ethos has always been

is to show Kenyans that actually wildlife can have value

and benefit.

- Mike Watson is the CEO of the Lewa Conservancy.

Tom Lalampaa leads the Northern Rangelands Trust

Faith Riunga is the head of education at Lewa.

And Wanjiku Kinuthia is the head of communication.

♪

You're responsible for a larger picture

involving a huge challenge, first, the immediate needs

of a lot of people,

but also potential conflicts with

the traditional way of life.

How have you been able to do what you've been able to do?

- I was brought up in a very strong pastoral background

who really aren't anything about conservation,

really aren't, because one, we had the perception

that this is a government thing, this is about grabbing our land.

- And it probably doesn't also help

that a lot of that land is owned by white people, right?

Somebody else is owning our land.

- Initially. - Okay.

- That was our perception that conservation was being driven

by the white, and so it's not about the communities.

It's not about us, it's about them.

But you know, gradually, we came to realize that

the approach that was being introduced

was a community approach.

- Going back the ten years back, there was one girl

who made it to high school.

And she's speaking English, she's dressing up,

and the other girls are like, you know what?

I'd like to be her.

And the more and more and more they've seen

go through high school, graduate, slowly by slowly,

they get to see the value themselves.

Education works very well.

- Are there efforts for the people in the community

who couldn't afford to come in here

to sort of see what's going on in here

so they can have a further buy-in?

- Yeah. We have a conservation education program here

where over 3,500 schoolchildren can come onto Lewa

free of charge, go around, get to see wildlife.

'Cause you know, unless you can afford to go to national parks

- or... or to places like Lewa... - Yeah, yeah.

- Then you definitely wouldn't have the opportunity

to interact with wildlife.

♪

- So we're headed towards the lions,

is that what we're doing right now?

♪

- So now you can see at the peak, you can just see

something sticking there. That's a lion sitting.

- Oh, yeah, I see, right next to the little tree.

- Wow.

Whoa.

♪

- Wow, there's a bunch of them.

- If we're lucky, they might come down the hill.

- That's lucky?

We define luck in different ways.

♪

- They seem to be having their eyes on something.

♪

- Oh! Look, look.

- He's gonna go left, so we have...

- Oh, jeez, oh!

Hi, how you doing, lion?

♪

So the lion is about...

like 30 feet from us or so.

♪

- Look, look, look, look.

♪

- My family, I love you.

That's just in case.

♪

♪

- Just outside the borders of Lewa Conservancy

is a Maasai village known as the Il Ngwesi Community Range.

They're working with Lewa

to not only embrace conservation

but also to maintain their way of life.

- In a very Maasai traditional way

we've got our diet, which is meat, blood, and milk.

At least once in a while they do blood tapping.

♪

- To the Maasai, the cow is a sacred animal,

giver of all things.

Unlike the West, meat is not the primary interest.

Here, cattle are sustainable,

a long-term asset,

for milk, for cheese, and on special occasions,

blood

straight from the tap.

Okay, here we go.

♪

- Whoa! - Oh.

- All right, well done.

- Well done.

- Annoying as hell for the cow, no doubt,

but decidedly not fatal.

It might, however, prove fatal for my colleague Kamau

who, unlike me, has never experienced

this local beverage.

A warm jet of arterial blood into the gourd.

Add some thick, clotting milk, also from cow,

shake, and down the hatch.

- Would you like to have a sip?

- Yes. Sure. - Perfect.

- Just straight from here? - Yeah.

- All right, here we go.

- I can take the next.

- Are you gonna try?

- Kamau, you're gonna like it. - It's good.

It's so delicious.

And keep in mind, the whole village is watching

and you're on TV.

- I'm home. - Yeah.

♪

- Makes you strong.

- Yeah.

- Well done. - Thank you.

Thank you.

♪

- Working with the local Maasai community

is both an absolute necessity

and the right thing to do.

To displace and forever disrupt the people

who've lived here forever

in favor of animals that wealthy white people

want to take pictures of

would be hideous and unconscionable.

- [speaking native language] together: Hey.

- [spekaing native language] together: Hey.

- This is happening elsewhere on the continent

but the people at Lewa and Il Ngwesi

are working very hard to find a better path.

- [speaking native language] together: Hey.

- [speaking native language] together: Hey.

- [speaking native language] together: Hey.

- [speaking native language] together: Hey.

♪

- He's saying the meaning of the word Il Ngwesi

is the people who survived, you know,

by hunting of the government.

- And hunting wasn't what we understand of hunting today.

It was hunting for survival, for food,

not for business, not for selling...

- Trophies. - Trophies and stuff.

- Jonathan Kip is a Maassai chief.

Lela Kenyaha is a Maasai elder here

at Il Ngwesi.

Was this an easy or a difficult transition

or was it imposed from outside?

- The transition first is when the poachers

or the sport hunting was happening.

We... we think it was a Western idea...

- Yeah. - Or Eastern or whatever.

And we were not benefited a bit

until when an idea came from Lewa

and said, well, we can... we can

here in wildlife conservation for the future of this land,

conserve land, for the future... Future generations.

I think they did what we said, you know,

teach a person how to fish instead of providing a fish.

So they taught us how to fish,

introduced us into wildlife conservation.

And from there, we are not being driven by Lewa anymore

or any white person or any NGO.

Lewa is still a great, great neighbor.

- Right. - So we need each other,

but we don't need to... We're not really dependent

of each other anymore.

We... we value the game, we value the animals,

and we know where we're heading to.

Together: [chanting]

- And just like that, after months of drought

throughout Kenya, rain.

- I was told since I'm Kamau from America,

- I brought the rain. - Right.

- Yeah. - Well done.

- The bringer of rain. - Thank you.

- If there was a Maasai... - A Maasai paper,

today would be... The headline would be...

- Rain. - Rain.

- Yeah.

Together: [chanting]

- Whoo!

♪

- Who gets to tell the stories?

This is a question asked often.

The answer in this case, for better or for worse,

is I do, at least this time out.

♪

I do my best.

I look, I listen,

but in the end, I know it's my story.

Not Kamau's, not Kenya's,

or Kenyans'.

Those stories are yet to be heard.

♪