'Politics of Unga'
I'm not a big fan of TV but when I do happen to watch it, I can't help but notice. Two local adverts have caught my attention lately.
One of them is because, they have 'updated' it. In the first run, a man comes home to his family of a wife and two kids and the supper before them is 'ngima mūkūūrū'. Plain ugali. He wonders how plain ugali has even improved the grades of his kids. The wife lets him know that, unlike masikio, they are not where they used to be when he 'left' them.
The children then make a memorable jingle, as the family indulges on the ugali bila mboga with sheer cheer.
In the new advert, things have changed. Ni kama ule plain-ugali jamaa ali-left because the ad opens to this new mubabaz, akifinyanga sembe with enthusiasm of 'inafanyanga ile kitu' as the shot pans to the family table...where now, mapocho-pocho ya kitoweo grace the table. The woman of the house face awash with a new glow affirms that indeed, the (new) man is a champion... but is keen to re-confirm that this unga is the one true constant.
Her kids agree, with the sing-song son wanting to be as strong as...his dad. The ad closes with a broad shot of what is these days called a 'blended' family'. A grown daughter and another of whom we can assume is part of the blend.
Safi.
In a way, (staple) food can reveal a lot about us as a society.
Perhaps, another day, we could talk of the other unga-ad.
