Mufasa Kibet: How a pastor’s cadence inspired my poetry

Ken Kibet’s earliest poems were prayers. As a young boy growing up in Eldoret, he would tug along his mother to church for evening prayers.

In the church hall, the pastor would be in deep prayer; the prayers sounded distant and strange, but they were also musical. Young Kibet found the minister’s cadence deeply inviting.

“I knew I wanted to speak like him,” Kibet recalls with a laugh. “I had my small notebook and I would write down what I thought the pastor was saying.” Kibet’s mother didn’t know about the transcribed prayers, but these were the halting steps into a journey of the letters for her boy.

RAISING A SUN

A week ago at the Goethe Institute in Nairobi, Kibet, popularly known by his stage and pen name Mufasa, launched his first book of poetry, Raising a Sun. Sitting in the audience and beaming with pride was his mother.

The book launch, attended by, among other guests, former Chief Justice Willy Mutunga, was the realisation of an eventful six-year journey. Mufasa is one of the most visible spoken-word poets in the country, if not the region.

Over the years, he has generated a sizeable followership among his fans, something he attributes to hard work and consistency.

His Facebook page and YouTube channel, where he regularly publishes his work, attracted dense traffic, with fans sampling his art for inspiration, for healing, for a reason.

“I do poetry for self-expression,” he explains, adding, “to create space for people to experience themselves, to self-reflect. I like to stimulate community interest in relevant issues, be it social or political.”

THEMES

These are some of the themes tackled in the 111-page book. Organised in four chapters, the book is a potage of stories drawn from the author’s own life experiences, observations from life and current and past events that shape the continuum of human experience: love, loss, spirituality, family. In the chapter “The Unlucky Ones”, Mufasa tackles the unsettling issue of love-related murders that have been witnessed in the country the past several months.

“There is nothing wrong with unrequited love,” the poet explains. “It is OK if someone wants out, that should not be cause for harm.”

Indeed love is a major topic in Mufasa’s body of work. He writes movingly about the little joys of found love, and also the tinkle of glass when love fails. He writes: “I was a student, she was a nurse/ She was used to seeing wounds and I was about to have one.”

While he prefers not to label himself a feminist, he is passionate about championing the rights of women. “When we talk about respecting women, it must not be because (a woman) might represent one’s mother or wife or sister, but because she’s a human being. Simple,” Mufasa offers.

PROVOKE THOUGHT

His work is meant to provoke thought, action; to summon the human spirit even with all its inadequacies to engineer change, he explains. And it begins with the title of the book. “At the end of everything we are going through, we are waiting for light to come from somewhere … we have to raise it ourselves. Change won’t come when our leaders change, change doesn’t happen out of nowhere.”

If it were all to the family, Kibet would not be Mufasa. Like most people who elect to follow their inner moon, the artistic core, he had to first put his dreams on hold. He wanted to study mass communication, but he was persuaded by his family to enrol for a course in information technology at Kenya Methodist University. But after school, he knew he couldn’t quieten the forces that raged inside him anymore.

“I didn’t look for work in my field,” he says. He began scouting for avenues to perform his poetry. “I participated in SLAM poetry events, anywhere I could find a platform.”

After deferring his dream, Mufasa found his element. He dusted up some of his old poems and also turned on his faucet for new work.

He scoured the internet for spoken-word artistes, and also researched on the nuances of the art, its history and offerings. His ability to weave words soon caught the notice of a fan base searching for new wine.

PERFORMANCE

“When I write, I want to do work that someone can read, and also for performance,” he says.

Over the past few years, Mufasa has performed in Rwanda, Nepal and at the Gothenburg Book Fair in Sweden while also maintaining a thriving local presence. He has also performed at the annual Kenya Judges Conference. It is while performing in the meet that he struck up a friendship with CJ Willy Mutunga, who was won over by the young man’s approach to justice-related matters.

Spoken word — an elastic genre that fuses elements of traditional poetry with hip-hop and stand-up comedy influences — has gained popularity over the past one decade. Maligned by purists and apologists who view the art as lazy and compromising, and hailed as revolutionary and accommodating by left-leaning free spirits, the art has nonetheless encroached on the literary scene like kudzu.

And while dozens of Kenyan artistes brand themselves as spoken-word poets, few are making a living off it. Mufasa is the exception.

“I do my poetry full time,” he told Weekend. “This is my livelihood.”

ARTISTIC EXPRESSION

Spoken word, just like any other artistic expression, must find an avenue, Mufasa explains. “It is all about professionalism and commitment to the work. The more people can rely on your work, the better the prospects.”

The release of Raising a Sun is part of the process of becoming, Mufasa says. The first shipment of the self-published book has already sold out, according to Ian Gwagi, the book’s sales agent, with new copies set to be released in the coming week.

Mufasa, the third-born in a family of four children, grew up in Eldoret. While he showed an interest in books and a penchant for the stage as a child, it was while in secondary school at Terige High in Nandi County that his talent took flower.

“I loved the stage,” Mufasa says. “I took part in the annual music festival and my love grew from there.”

FEATURED PROMINENTLY

While many fans deduce his stage name to the main character in Disney’s animated film Lion King, Kibet says he actually received the name Mufasa from his high school chums.

On the Saturday that he launched his book, Mufasa stood on stage to perform for the audience. He had a few jokes to tell, some poems to sample and some of them were about his mother, who has featured prominently in Mufasa’s online poems. It was all love, though.

His mother sat in the audience, proud and the son, wearing his trademark Kangol hat worn backwards, spoke and smiled.

It was back to the old days, back when mother and son went to church, one with a Bible, the other with a notebook in which unknown words stolen from the pastor would find meaning.