Makmende is back

It is a calm Sunday night. Everyone is asleep, except for the dogs barking from a distance. And me. It's been a long day. For me, not the dogs. Full the videos and Internet  memes. Muhammad Ali quotes. Instagram photos. I feel tired, but not sleepy. There are still a couple of things on my plate that I need to eat.

I enter youtube into my browser's address bar and wait. A few seconds later I'm home. A minute later, I am watching my first video. Ha-He, it's titled. Released in 2010 by Kenyan disco band Just A Band. One of my favorite bands I must mention. Watching it now almost feels the same as it six years ago. I laugh and cringe at the same time. And it's all because of one guy - Makmende.

Who is Makmende you ask? Well he is the star of the show. Makmende is actually a sheng word which means hero. In this video, he is represented by Kevin Maina aka K1, a Kenyan actor and DJ. He is the protagonist in an 80s inspired world, where bell bottoms and Afro were the in thing. And the result, it just hilarious.

Simply put, Ha-He is a silly song. From Just a Band with their silly lyrics (tuko works mzeiya, evacuate the air). To the fake fighting scenes, even faker than those in Indian films... okay no, theirs are on whole new level. But the non convincing fights are compensated for by the portrait that periodically appears on your screen, reminding you that Makmende is back (Makmende Amerudi!). And let's not forget the time he ties that red tie on his head to resemble a Samurai warrior. Or when he (fake) fights the bad guys to save the girl, only to reject her the second time they meet.

A combination of all this ultimately made Ha-He a hit song. Not only that, it became the first viral Kenyan internet sensation in Kenya. Just A Band set a new standard for artistes and were even featured on CNN as a result. Paving the way for future Kenyan sensations such as Sauti Sol's Sura Yako that rocked the world in 2014-5. And even the POTUS Barrack Obama. 

I think the reason why Makmende was so influential is that he was our first ever local hero.
America has Batman - now that Superman is apparently dead. We have Makmende.

By Hech - Own work, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=9813091