Paying for music is a very telling index of luxury. For the wananchi, music is as free as oxygen, blasted liberally on the airwaves and in local bars. The middle class, on the other hand, will pay for CDs, i-Tunes and( most importantly) to be seen at live gigs.
Ugandans here prove the exception. While they have always prided themselves on their pop music, for which they are the envy of the region, Ugandans have a weird intolerance to actually paying for music. Music is, after all, just a pleasant backdrop to their beer-drinking, which is the only reason to leave the house or office.
This is largely true for Tanzanians also. They are already well-fed on a homegrown diet of Bongo Flava and Diamond – why should they pay for any foreign rubbish?
Kenyans, being richer and more vulnerable to fleeting mzungu fashions, will always shell out top dollar to see the latest craze – MC Whoever from the US or DJ Whats-his-name from Germany. Knowing who’ s who in the international R & B charts can be a matter of life and death at a Kenyan private school.
The Rwandans – serious, money-wise, and possessing a rich musical tradition of their own – are cautious spenders on music entertainments. And, more than Tanzanians, they are very suspicious of foreign products in music – you never know what the abazungu are trying to sell under the guise of melody!
However, when it comes to big names, hidden francs can suddenly be found under the mattress. Ugandan singer Jose Chameleone is worshipped as a saint in Rwanda and the Stromae gig was lesser only to the Second Coming.
PROPERTY
The Holy Grail of the new rich, everywhere, is the acquisition of property. Students of European history tell us that this was indeed the way that the modern bourgeoisie took over from the aristocrats( besides chopping off their heads, which was an afterthought).
Tanzanians have an interesting legacy of Soviet-era state-sponsored public housing, whose brutal blocks sit oddly alongside the ornate Arab and Indian mansions.
The Tanzanian middle class is now making up for lost time – buying and building like crazy. Modern, glass-paneled, well-ventilated architecture rules.
Fashionable districts like Mikocheni boast a new Chinese-built palace on every corner and most are now the property of the indigenous bourgeoisie.
For Kenyans, big is beautiful and security is paramount because the richer you are, the more the thieves target you. So for all their wealth, Kenyans’ gains in property are ultimately depressing: who wants to live in a golden cage surrounded by Rottweilers? With such trends, the Nairobi middle class are fast becoming the new Johannesburgers – super rich, shamelessly unequal, paralysed by crime.
Ugandans, with their fluctuating wealth, have a great line in construction but not completing. In this way, they inadvertently do more about the housing problem than City Council, as the endless rows of partially completed houses provide luxury digs for Kampala’ s booming population of squatters.
Again, in Rwanda’ s case, caution and care dominate consumer choice. With more modest incomes, but a stable, state-supported economy, property investors are conservative, building modestly and within urban planning regulations.
BRING IT ALL TOGETHER
The form and tastes of the middle class in East Africa are a reflection of its history, economics and dreams. The Kenyan rich, with a legacy of colonialism and capital, are the biggest spenders, but also the most culturally-compromised; their lack of homegrown culture is the price they pay for lucrative internationalism.
Tanzanians, latecomers to consumer capitalism, are now making up for it in style, with Oriental influences sometimes pushing them beyond African tastes.
The Ugandan middle class, with their loose and spontaneous lifestyle, are a product of a battered but proud society that lived through twenty years of dictatorships and civil wars; they spend fast and carelessly, but are loyal to their national culture.
The Rwandans, a landlocked, patient people, who have borne the most fearful ravages with a philosophical shrug, have a more modest middle class, but one that is quietly wise, knowing its moment of ascendancy is soon to come.
OCTOBER 2016 EDITION- 19