Behold, the black girl and white man meet at the shopping mall

By Donald B Kipkorir

We all go to particular shopping malls, lounges and barbecue grills or market stalls, bars, nyama choma joints, depending on the class we actually belong or aspire to.

In our malls and lounges, one sees young, tall, pretty black girls hand-in-hand with white men of all stripes, ages and style. Like moths to a lantern, the black girl and the white man meet at the mall or the lounge bar, and fly to each other.

And one of them is surely the moth flying into illusory light that burns. We all dream and aspire to live in the fast lane of beautiful mansions and big cars, and be able to wear the latest fashion labels and travel the world. They say we only live once. Many dream, very few live it. Those who succeed are the ones that work hard to be atop the pyramid of life.

Few others are given lottery ticket of life by meeting a prince in shining armour. Some Kenyan girls have decided that this prince is found in our upscale malls of Yaya Centre, Village market, Sarit Centre and Galleria Mall, and in the lounges of Brew Bistro and que pasa! The dreams of the black girl wanting a short-cut to good life meets the curiosity of a white man on his discovery of Africa.

The black girl thinks that every white man is rich and wants a girl who is model-like. The girl who is 5’8” and above, slim and with long hair, even if it be horse-hair, sees her passport to nirvana of good life without working hard.

The white man on the other hand, comes to Africa to see its animals and beaches, but detours through Nairobi and goes to our Malls and lounges. The two meet.

Marilyn Monroe, who died in 1962 at the tender age of 36, set the standards that every girl dreams. By the time she died, she was at the top of her career as an actress, singer and model, and above all and across all ages, a sex symbol. President John F. Kennedy was seduced by her beauty, and so was the mafia boss Sam Giancana.

Back to our malls. The black girl at the mall has been made to believe that her physical attributes alone will allow her to marry this white man who will take her to Europe, a land flowing with milk and honey. Most of these girls don’t have even college diploma. A University graduate will rarely go flaunting her physical beauty at malls.

On the other hand, the white man may not have had such long-term intentions of exporting a black girl to Europe. But he may not have been prepared for the wily antics of our girls.

Marriage, an old institution that goes to the Garden of Eden is both a contract and a union. It is a union for those who enter it for religious or cultural reasons for sex, procreation and company.  Whatever the motives, people marry the other based on their perception of beauty and societal demands.

Marrying for the wrong reasons will make the marriage end when the reasons end or aren’t fulfilled.

The ambition of the black girl at the mall is skin deep and hair-length. Many a pretty girl without college education has actually succeeded in marrying the white man and fly to Europe, but only to be disappointed. The white man lurking in the malls is not the typical middle class white man in London, Brussels, Berlin or Vienna. The rich white man comes to Kenya on holiday and flies to Maasai Mara, Laikipia or Lamu.

The one at our malls is a cab driver or plumber or living on welfare coupons in Europe and has saved for over five years to come here. Their romance is so ephemeral that it only lasts upto their landing in Europe.

But for the short stint of their romance, we give them that advice that Parolles, that scoundrel in William Shakespeare’s play All’s Well That Ends Well gave to Helen, the beauty from lower class who dreamt of marrying the high class Prince Betram: “Get thee a good husband and use him as he uses thee.”

The writer is an Advocate of the High Court of Kenya