Tribute to Lorna Irungu, a woman for all seasons

I never met Lorna Irungu in person, but I knew of her from way back in the early 2000s. A friend had handed me a video of a Kenyan movie – Dangerous Affair – directed by Judy Kibinge.

The movie had many technical issues and the story could have had a better flow, and the characters played – not the actors playing them – could have been more ethnically diverse, and the filmmakers more sensitive to issues of ethnic typecasting.

But the movie was a bold attempt to tell a different story from the usual one about conflict between African and Western culture. In Africa of the post-colonial period, creative production was influenced by the ideology of cultural nationalism whose goal was to validate traditional culture. Thus the theme in much of poetry, fiction writing and even films was – to a larger or lesser extent – a retelling of the battle between Lawino and Ocol.

Dangerous Affair, however, took for granted city life as the natural – not alien – playground of the protagonists. Refreshingly, the film did not preach about the morality of traditional culture and the corrupting and alienating influences of the West. It told the story of defective individuals trying to find love while negotiating the fast-paced and, often, angst-filled life in Nairobi.

The characters fail or succeed on account of their individual strengths or weaknesses, not because of whose culture they have adopted. Dangerous Affair also avoided the tired staple of Nigerian film – the tale of ancient kings, their subjects and the treacherous and lecherous intrigues of palace life or, alternatively, spirits of the ancestors seeking revenge for betrayal of African culture (sigh!).

Male chauvinists

In Dangerous Affair, Lorna Irungu channels the tough, independent career woman who does not suffer fools and male chauvinists gladly. It was almost as if she was playing herself because, in real life, she was ambitious and a woman ‘for all seasons’. At different times, she was a TV presenter and a radio host. She lent her voice to campaigns for gender equality. She climbed the corporate ladder in a communications firm.

In 2010, she was an Archbishop Desmond Tutu fellow and an Eisenhower International Fellow in 2016. She was an eloquent and progressive voice in TV debates on our culture and politics. In a TV discussion after the 2013 presidential election, Lorna said how heartbroken she was when Martha Karua, an indefatigable human rights crusader, was overtaken by a political novice.

Kanu dictatorship

Many of us immediately understood her heartache. Here was a woman - Martha Karua – who had risked life and limb to oppose the Kanu dictatorship and yet she was now trailing everyone. Her long years in the trenches had meant nothing to the Kenyan electorate!

Politicians have created a political culture in which telling the truth does not matter, and principle, personal integrity and sacrifice are considered old-fashioned. What excites the voters is appeal to tribal loyalty, and money and helicopters.

 This culture is a politician’s paradise. He or she does not need to sell policy or demonstrate high levels of performance or integrity. But this culture has led to moral decay that poses an existential threat to our nation-state.

When officials, in cahoots with politicians, steal money meant for the youth as they did in the heists at the National Youth Service, and when they steal money meant for the sick and dying as they did in the theft of Covid-19 funds, then a society has reached the nadir of moral decay. History teaches that such decay is followed by decline and disintegration.

And yet every once in a while, an individual comes along and gives us hope that all is not lost; that not everyone is a tribal sycophant; that in the midst of the multitudes wildly cheering false narratives, there are still beautiful voices of reason.

Lorna gave us hope when she should have been hopeless. She was diagnosed with Lupus in her twenties and underwent three kidney transplants. One can only imagine the physical and spiritual drain of these procedures and the recuperation process. And yet she was on radio and on TV and on stage and on film, demonstrating that even as we suffer, we can be uplifting to others.

It is a lesson this country needs to hear more about and less about what this or that politician does or says. If only the media can find space to highlight these kinds of examples of selflessness, achievement and progressive activism, it could be the beginning of the journey to re-appropriating national agenda-making from the political class and reclaiming our country. Fare thee well angel.

Book Title :

Author: Ayobami Adebayo

Reviewer: Ian Sitati